Puritans

[Connie Sadler <csadler72@computermail.net>]

I'm having the best time reading this Quarterman book!  The section on Puritans, page 20, is especially interesting, as it shows aspects of Puritan life still passed down in some form or other from our ancestors.

When I was little, we had family devotions as a group, just like the Puritans.  My mom (daughter of Mary Ethel Quarterman) inadvertently taught us to recite our living relatives as we would pray for each one, night after night.  Not only was it nice to pray, it was a very valuable tool in this age of spread-out extended familes.  We can still recite the names of relatives we've never met (or maybe met once or twice in our lives).

Another interesting aspect of Puritan life that we retain is hymn singing in the home.  In 1996, the summer after my dad passed away, we took my mom to visit Aunt Fleta and Uncle Chris in their summer home in North Carolina.  We opened a watermelon Uncle Chris had grown back home in Flemington.  He swears the melons you can grow in Liberty County are the sweetest anywhere, and I'd say from what we had that day he's absolutely right.  Before we left that day, Aunt Fleta passed around some hymn books and we all enjoyed several hymns, sung without instruments, but with rich family harmonies.  It was sweet to hear such a natural blend of voices, and I decided it's not a bad idea to have some hymn books on hand for family and friends to enjoy.
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