I have always been a person that could easily reminisce about my past life. I have had a wonderful life and wonderful people to be associated. Being married to Evie and having a fantastic daughter in Carrie and now her husband, Marc (with a C) has given me a second layer of frosting on my cake of life!!!!!
Then earlier this week my past came knocking on the door! I received an e-mail from a girl the class I would have graduated from in Jefferson, IA. In the middle of my 8th grade year, my father accepted a new assignment with a church in Clinton, IA. After having lived in Jefferson (town much like Mayberry) for 9 1/2 I moved with my family to the eastern edge of Iowa on the GREAT Mississippi!
While it was a shock to my system going from a school in Jefferson with 150 kids in my class to a school with almost 600 kids in my class! I missed Jefferson and my friends I had gone to school with from Kindergarten through 8th grade, but knew I needed to move on.
So this week out of the blue I received an e-mail asking if I was the Mark Patterson who had attended school in Jefferson, IA. That several classmates had asked about where the Patterson twins were and wanted to reunite with us. So this week I have written more e-mails back and forth to this woman and another member of the class. It has been fun to write about things we remember and the people who affected our lives.
Tonight as I had reflected on my past, I wrote the following to Marilyn in my e-mail:
" Marilyn, I have REALLY appreciated hearing from you and Sue. Tonight as I was e-mailing Sue some things I had remembered about school in Jeff, my wife commented how much I was enjoying this contact with my past. Marilyn, I LOVED Jefferson. It was a larger version of Mayberry to say the least. People sat on their porches, made homemade ice cream and went visiting with neighbors and stuff. We actually went on picnics with other families."
"In the Baptist denomination ministers aren't assigned to a parish, they are called by individual churches. So after serving the Jefferson church for 9 1/2 years, my dad was called to the First Baptist Church in Clinton. Clinton a town of about 30,000 was huge compared to Jeff. One day I was attending Jefferson/Cooper with 150 in our class and three days later I was enrolled in a middle school of 900 kids with girl gangs and all! I liked Clinton but have always felt the door on my life in Jefferson was not just closed but slammed! Once a pastor leaves a church in our denomination, it is the general rule they and their family leave emotionally as well. So we never went back to visit and had little contact with anyone. Debbie Patterson (my first cousin) and her family moved from Jefferson after we moved so we lost that contact as well. So I have always felt cheated. "
" I have realized many times how my life was touched by the 150 kids in my class. We swam together, went to church and school together, rode our bikes together, built forts together, and played on the same baseball teams each summer! Moving away meant I lost those relationships. So I look forward to renewing ties with you, Sue and others. Once we get to be our age, we aren't interested in impressing one another with degrees and successes. We realize that true success comes from within to know that one has touched the lives of others and has made a difference. I have had a wonderful life and have been married to my wife and best friend for 30 years! Life couldn't be any better! But my wife didn't come from Jefferson and didn't share those years with me. She has enjoyed hearing about my experiences because she went to a school about half the size of Jefferson."
"Thanks for understanding my situation and including Tim and me in this project and the class. I have wondered about the class many times and now it gives me new meaning to say I once lived in Jefferson IA."
Markus
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