“Way Back When”, I spent my college years at a fundamentalist school some funny things sometimes happened. Here’s one. In the summers the college sometimes rented out its extremely beautiful campus to various church groups for their regular summer conferences and the like. One summer they rented the campus to a group from the Hollywood Presbyterian Church, not knowing that the featured speaker would be the British theologian J.B. Phillips.
Now, perhaps many if not most of my readers will not have heard of J. B. Phillips. He had recently authored the now very well-known and popular fresh translation of the New Testament letters entitled Letters to Young Churches. Since Rev. Phillips was bye then world-renowned even we rather benighted narrow-minded fundamentalist Christians were excited about sitting in on the conference. This om the King James translation outdated Scofield Reference Bible of 1811, a fundamentalist version of the King James translation.
Well, to begin with, during the week Reverend Philips was frequently seen strolling around the campus smoking a cigar. This set a good many folks on edge because smoking was not allowed at our school. Fortunately, no hubbub resulted from this awkward situation. Secondly, however, it soon became known that the Philips translation of Paul’s letters not only differed from the standard King James version, but actually disagreed with it at certain crucial junctures. This presented a more formidable difficulty for those on the college faculty.
Actually, partly because of the growing popularity of the Philips translation Rev. Philips soon produced his translation of the Gospels, making it possible to publish the full Philips translation of the entire New Testament. Indeed, the Philips translation pretty much held sway in many churches until the arrival of the new Revised Standard Version and The New English Bible in 1976. Since those days, of course, numerous translations of the Bible have appeared, some obviously more valuable than others.
Well, once the conference got under way we college folks all learned a great deal from Rev. Phillips daily talks and from meeting people of different, broader views about the meaning of the Christian Faith. We learned that the perspective of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church was not actually so very different from our own, except for certain issues concerning how one becomes a Christian and heaven and hell, and all that. Later on I was to find out that this particular group of Presbyterians were far more conservative than regular Presbyterians, but that’s a horse of a different color.
At the close of the conference Rev. Phillips talked to us more informally about his life, his ministry, and his actual translation work. He shared that as he worked with the original Greek texts the New Testament “came alive” for him in a new and fresh way. They seemed to be more vibrant than when he had read them in the King James version. Then he shared a letter he had received from an American lady admirer in which she thanked Rev. Phillips for “burning out” for God there in England.
After a solemn pause, Rev. Phillips related to us how he had replied to the lady. He said something to this effect: “My dear madame, I thank you for your encouraging remarks, but I wish to assure you that I am not “Burning out for God”. I am simply trying to do the very best I can for as long as I can.” Since we in the audience were used to hearing people speak about “burning out for God, we were rather stunned by Rev. Phillips reply. Over the years, however, I have come more and more to appreciate his candor and insight. I can easily resonate with his desire to “Burn as brightly and as long as I can”.

My Mom has been gone for over fifty years but I wanted to honor her on this day because I feel I failed to do so while she was alive. I grew up in a three-time busted home. My Mom worked at the restaurant business six days a week for thirty years and died at the age of 55. Actually, she was a huge success in this line of work. Meanwhile I was pretty much on my own, not doing well in school and just barely avoiding becoming a juvenile delinquent. I saw my Mom every morning and evening after work shift; aside from that we did not see much of each other.
Except, Mom sometimes took special time off to do something special with me. What I remember most clearly are the birthday parties she threw for me during my Junior High years. She would rent a place with a large space for dancing and employ a disc-jockey. It was usually at a local hotel and all my classmates were invited. We even played “Spin the Bottle” at one of these events. I told my classmates to tell their parents my uncle Dale would be the chaperone. Actually, Dale was just two years older than the rest of us !
Also, Mom often took me with her on her shopping trips in Seattle. We made the 100 mile trip in the club car of the passenger train, which was always very special, and stayed overnight in the huge fantastic Olympic Hotel. I got to choose a toy at Frederick and Nelson’s department store, and we usually spent an evening at the theater watching comedians Olson and Johnson do their thing in “Hell’s A Poppin’! Often we went to the Ice Follies to see Frick and Frack do their impossible tricks. Or to Barnum and Baily’s indoor circus.
Several times we went to the race track at Longacres and watch the horses run. Mom would even place a bet on the horse of my own choosing! The really biggest special event I remember was when we went to the University of Washington football stadium to see my favorite All-American player Herman Wedemeyer play against the Huskies. His St. Mary’s team lost but Herman made a great run for a touchdown. We always ate in a fancy restaurant and I had my usual cheeseburger!
These regular trips to Seattle with my Mom were the highpoints of my childhood. As I mentioned above, I did not do well in school and twice my teachers threatened to require that I repeat a grade before moving on. Both times my Mom found an alternative school which took me “as I was” and thus I avoided failing. One of these schools was directed by the local Teachers College and the other was a swell-known preparatory high school in Seattle. In both cases I did well enough to be passed along. I did not return to the prep school but learned a lot that stood me in good stead all down the line.
Actually, sports of all kinds were the love of my life and I hardly ever got home before dark because I was playing some sport or another. Here, too, my Mom was my number one supporter. She not only came to several of my unofficial football games that I had organized with another local Junior High, but she often came to my high school track meets to watch me participate. When I was in high school and failed to make the basketball team Mom actually sponsored a City league basketball team named after her restaurant, “Virginia’s Café”, so I could play basketball.
After high school I went on to college, supported of course by my Mom. She paid the bills for four years, and even took care of many more things while I was in graduate school. One of my graduate schools was in NYC and this gave Mom a chance to visit the Big Apple “on the cheap” since she could stay with me and my family. Naturally, Mom took the three of us out to the movies and dinner at swank restaurants, and even ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza. Unfortunately I never felt that I had fully expressed my gratitude to Mom for all she had meant to and done for me over those years.
Nevertheless, perhaps some of the above will help to “cover the bases” in sharing my love for Virginia Isabell McGinnis, my Mom!