Hide the Hodag & Pass the Pentecost!

I am reminded of a story that a parishioner once told about a man who died in a community where no one knew him. After the initial confusion and fuss, it was discovered that he was indeed Orthodox and wished to buried by the Church. The time for the funeral was set and the priest, who’d never met the man, stood at the podium and said: “He was a good man; a loyal son, who hoped that he would one day make it to heaven …

Now I want to tell you of my recent trip to France.”

What brings that story to mind is this – I want to tell you about the Great Feast of Pentecost, but first I need to tell you about the Summer of 1980, selling books door-to-door … and the mysterious creature known as the Hodag.

The summer after my first year of college, I sold books door-to-door for the Southwestern Book Company, based out of Nashville, Tennessee –

They are the “original door-to-door sales company” selling Bibles door to door from the time of the US Civil War.

My first year with them was in 1980 … and in those days the Southwestern Book Company recruited college kids from all over the country … got ‘em all pepped up … sent them to sales school for a week in Nasheville … and then, on the very eve of heading off to your sales territory for the summer … they informed you of where, exactly, you were going to be living and working for the next 12 weeks.

That year, on the last night of sales school, the group from North Carolina was informed that we were headed to … Wisconsin.

Wisconsin??

(Our next chore was to find a map, honest to goodness, and find Wisconsin!)

We’d learned a lot of the tricks of the trade while in Sales School.

First of all – there was …

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

For more on today’s Southwestern Company, go H E R E.

Image & story source.