Bob and Carrol Falberg

Bob and Carrol Falberg Presented at Sunday worship services on August 25, 2002

Bob's Presentation:

Good morning! We are Bob and Carrol Falberg and we are long-time residents of Birmingham and members of this church. In trying to remember my youth and teenage years in the "old church," I could only come up with two memories. The first is that, as a small boy, I loved to play "Hide and Seek" with friends in the many hidden areas of the "Boiler Room."

The second memory is of the shape of the pews in the sanctuary. They were curved to match the semi-circular shape of the communion rail in the front of the church. My fascination was: How were these hardwood curved pews made? I never found out. Boiler Room and curved pews! Those are pretty exciting memories!

Shortly after I entered college, Pearl Harbor was attacked. For the next seven and a half years, I was away from Birmingham in the service and then college. Occasionally I would return either from furlough or on holidays. When attending church on those occasions, I noticed an ever-increasing membership that was vibrant and full of activities. My parents explained this was due to a new minister, Arnold Runkel, and his program to build a new church.

After I graduated from college, I returned to Birmingham, lived with my parents, and got a job with GM. I immediately volunteered to do what I could on the new church program. I also realized that after being gone so long, I knew very few people my age (read: girls). At Christmastime that year, my mother casually mentioned that there were several young people from the church having a toboggan party and it might be a nice way to meet people. It didn't sound too exciting, but I finally decided to go.

Meanwhile, across town at the Maynard household, Carrol was home for the holidays from Boston where she was doing post-graduate studies. She had been away from Birmingham for four years and didn't know too many young people (read: boys). Her mother casually mentioned that several young people from the church were having a toboggan party and it might be a nice way to meet people. Carrol wasn't too excited, but finally decided to go.

We met at the party and, as the old saying goes, "the rest is history." We were married in the old church a little over a year later. Aren't mothers wonderful? They should all be saints. Incidentally, we have pictures in Fellowship Hall of our wedding, taken from the balcony of the old church. If you can get past looking at the beautiful bride, you can see the semi-circular communion rail and the curved pews.

About a year after we were married, it was announced that there would be a groundbreaking ceremony for the new church at Pleasant and Maple at Christmastime. The congregation was invited to attend. On the day of the ceremony, it was extremely cold and windy and the ground was frozen. After the speeches and prayers, a man poured gasoline on the ground and set it on fire. When the flames died, a shovel was used to lift about one-half inch of sod from the melted ground. It don't know if this was the shortest groundbreaking ceremony in history, but I'm sure it was the coldest.

About seven months later, it was announced that a special meeting was to take place to introduce our first full-time Minister of Music, and everybody was invited to attend. His name was Rodney Petersen and he came highly recommended, having graduated from the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. Rodney spoke in very strong and positive words about his ambitious program, and I was very impressed. I attended several of his rehearsals and finally joined the choir, and I'm still in it. Incidentally, in Fellowship Hall there is a picture of Rodney and the Chancel Choir taken sometime around 1954-55.

Carrol will now tell of her memories during the transition time.

Carrol's Presentation:

Like Bob, my memory of my early years in the old church are very dim. I do remember the curved pews, but I never knew there was such a place as a "Boiler Room."

While in the old church, my parents realized they would become grandparents in the new church, so they donated the baptismal font to be used in the new church. Almost as if it were planned, my oldest son, Bob, and his cousin, John Maynard, were the first two babies to be baptized from the font. Because this was the era of the Baby Boom, the font was heavily used in the '50s, prompting someone to say: "We almost wore it out."

With my children in Sunday school, I became a Sunday school teacher. My fondest memory was taking my sixth grade class to the Birmingham Theater to see The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston as Moses. Many of the parents were so impressed, they suggested this should be an annual event. Sadly, it never happened again.

After my children left the nest for good, I joined the usher team. Today I am head usher at the 8:15 service in September, December, March and June. Please come at 8:15 and let me greet you. And you might see Bob in the choir.