JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: How I Helped Daddy Get a Job

By Jim “Pappy” Moore

Jump in the way-back machine with me to fall of 1954. October to be exact. I was five years old and some would say I was hyperactive. There were five of us in the family. My Dad, my Mama, my older sister Judy, who was seven, and my younger sister Debra, who was a toddler of one and a half.
Daddy was a preacher. He was preaching in a small town not far from Lubbock. He needed to find a job with a bigger church, one which could afford a preacher in his late twenties who was stable, had a family, and was ready to take on a larger church.

Daddy had two tryouts in the general area, since staying in that region was preferable for the family. We had relatives nearby, and still do. Unfortunately, the two tryouts did not go as well as planned.

At one of them, where the church had tall columns up to the ceiling, somewhere during Daddy’s sermon the whole church got an eyeful of me shimmying up one of the columns until I was a good nine feet off the floor. Apparently, that did not go over so well.

At the other tryout, I got into fight with the son of one of the elders, and for some reason that seemed to prevent Daddy from getting that offer.
Faced with two results which seemed to have a common problem, my Dad looked outside the area. He got word through an old friend of a church in Lufkin which was looking for a new preacher. After he and my mother conferred, they both agreed: let’s leave Jim at home this time!

That was fine by me. I got to stay with my youngest uncle – Uncle Fred – and his beautiful new wife, Aunt Shirley. They were twenty and nineteen, just barely. They had a little one room apartment in a little old lady’s house in Lubbock. Uncle Fred worked at a laundry, making deliveries all over town. Aunt Shirley was my first real girlfriend. She was so pretty and so nice!

Leaving me behind proved wise. I found ways to get into trouble while back in Lubbock. One day I decided wouldn’t it be great if I went with Uncle Fred on his deliveries. Even at age five I knew I probably should not ask permission. No, when he stopped by the apartment, I crawled in the back of the delivery van and hid among the clothes being delivered. I waited until I thought the time was right and we had gotten across town to announce my presence.

Well, I did get to start that adventure, but it didn’t last long. Uncle Fred took me back home pretty quickly once he discovered me in there.
Aunt Shirley bought me the first ten cent treat I ever had. It was two of those Snowballs that Hostess made. One was pink. One was white. I was smitten by Aunt Shirley. FYI I just talked to them this past week for Uncle Fred’s 90th birthday. Aunt Shirley is 89, and they’re both going strong. Truly amazing.

Once my family returned with the good news of the new job in Lufkin, we were reunited and soon on the road to Lufkin. About halfway or more in the journey, we went through the town of Gatesville, where there were young boys in Reform School in white prison uniforms on the side of the road working. My mother pointed them out and said “that’s where they send little boys who don’t behave.” Why she was telling me, I still do not know.
Soon I would take a nap and awakened to entering Lufkin at dusk. My Dad woke me up. I was entranced by the tall, tall pines trees everywhere. I knew I was going to like this place! We stayed the first night with Hollis and Martha Capps, two kind, wonderful people I would come to love. I slept on a pallet on the floor, staring up at their ceiling, which was made of pine tiles.

The next day we would drive down the road about a mile to visit William Iris Capps, his wife Faye Bridges Capps, their son Mike, and their daughter Ileene. We would become fast friends and remain so today, seventy years later.
I told Mike this story recently and he said “you gotta write that one and publish it.”

Copyright 2024, Jim “Pappy” Moore. All rights reserved.