Growing up in a small East Texas town leaves me with many fond memories, and of course not all were pleasant, but it made me who I am today. Buna, Texas is located 30 plus miles north of Beaumont (a city) I have often used for reference when describing to someone where I grew up, a gauge to whether they would have even heard of my hometown. There was a blinking light at the major intersection for most of my growing up years. That simply means that 90% of the traffic was going through town headed somewhere else.

My parents were members of First Baptist Church, so my sisters and I were members almost by default at birth. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night services were not options in our house. In fact, nearly every event period was not really treated with an opt-out option. I am not going to say that we had reserved seating, just saying that during the years my Mom played piano, the Martins sat on the front row on the left side of the sanctuary, and the Clarks sat on the front row on the right side of the sanctuary since their Mom played the organ.