Friday, June 23, 2006

Ain't parsonage livin' grand?

Where does all the crap go?

Well, when you flush the toilet at our house, it goes to the septic tank in the back yard--which today decided that it had had enough!

A flooding toilet led to the septic tank having to be pumped -- and then the inside pipes needed cleared (by separate contactors!)

As best we have been able to determine from church members, it has NEVER been pumped--in 40 years!! The guys that opened it up said that it was "as bad as it gets"!

Parsonage living does have wonderful blessings, but sometimes there are disadvantages. For Methodists this can be complicated by a history of "short appointments." For us, this meant that in the past ten years, four families have lived in the home in which we now reside! No one has lived here long enough to have a memory of what has been done and not done!

Most of the parsonages in which I have lived (this is the fifth) have had a couple of common denominators--there is one place where parsonage families "store" things that they don't like, but aren't willing to put out in the trash or give to goodwill. And the other is a drawer where all the paperwork for all appliances, etc is kept. This house has the former, but not the later!

Our first parsonage was a beautiful home that had been built in 1910 with magnificent walnut moldings and pocket doors and built-in cabinets in the dining room as well as a fireplace and 12 foot ceilings. However, it was not air-conditioned and had not been treated well. BUT, it did have that all important drawer of information and the attic was filled with every light fixture ever removed and replaced as well as several old pieces of furniture.

Each of the homes in which we have lived has been newer and more modern. Each as had the obliglatory drawer of handbooks as well as a space (either garage or attic) filled with "stored" junk. I heard a story from a pastor's wife from one of the previous pastors at one of our churches. She said that when they replaced carpeting in the house, the chair of the parsonage committee requested that the worn out carpeting be stored in the basement in case a future parsonage family would prefer the green shag to the new neutral burber carpet.

Well, there's plenty of "crap" stored in the basement at this parsonage as well. But today, it was the real stuff that was the problem....

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This should go into some hall of fame of posting, maybe on the Wesley Blog if he ever gets to posting again or nominated for the revgal wed. festival. What a hoot. I know from whence you post, and whence you live. Yuck 40 years of not being cleaned out, that poor sceptic tank and house. Must have been pretty bad.
And as for the drawer with said info, we have that, but some items are missing. And we have an attic with interesting items in it.
LOL This was priceles.