As I mentioned earlier, our family vacations were paired a lot with Daddy's work. They were either at Ridgecrest, Glorieta, or at Southern Baptist Convention meetings. I wanted to talk about three of them.
One was in Houston, TX in 1968. I remember it, because we heard about Bobby Kennedy getting shot in Los Angeles, while we were in Houston. It was the headline on a newspaper we saw in a box on the street. Daddy and Mother worked in Houston at a church long before I was born. The pastor of that church was Dr. Westmoreland, and he had box seats for the Houston Astros baseball team. We got to go to the Astrodome and watch a game. That was pretty cool. Daddy had a free day, and he asked me if I would rather go to San Antonio to see the Alamo, or to go to Astroworld and ride rides. I opted for the park. During that trip, we stopped in Selma, AL for dinner. I heard there that Otis Redding had been killed in a plane crash. Funny how you remember where you were.
In 1969, the SBC was in New Orleans. It was the first time (and the only time) I had been back to my hometown. My Mother and I went to the Lowe's Theatre to see the movie "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium". It was a funny movie, and kind of ironic, because 4 years later, I would experience that movie first-hand. The Theatre was the swankiest I had ever seen. I also experienced the seamy side of New Orleans with the strip bars of the French Quarter. I couldn't go inside, but the doormen would open the doors to show me what was inside. I also experienced men trying to pick me up. I didn't know at the time what that was about. I did fall in love with pecan pralines.
One other trip we made to a convention was Philadelphia. We saw all of the historical stuff there, and I ran from downtown to the art museum and climbed the steps to stop at the top. I did this before Rocky did it, so maybe he got the idea from me. I was in really good shape.
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