Parr Thanksgiving 2010

Bethel Brownies... And More...

Click to enjoy these newly-uploaded photos, compliments of Lynda Vaughn.

If you know additional names, leave a comment.

Pat Shaw's Photos from Merom

[Thanks to Pat Shaw for these recent photos from Merom... Bring back memories anyone? Leave a comment.]

Estil Carter's WW-II Stories

Just announced at the recent Parr Thanksgiving gathering, Mike Halcomb has now written and published a book of Estil Carter's World-War-II stories. You can read them online, from the 'CARTER' page in the Bethel wiki-collection of photos, stories & videos. Enjoy.

How about YOUR families' special items? Need help, contact me (Neil).

Thanksgiving 2008

Here are at least SOME of the photos taken as 65 of the Parr family (Vaughn, Halcomb, Carter & Cox... etal) gathered for Thanksgiving Day in Danville. If you have recent Bethel-related Thanksgiving photos at Flickr.com, tag them as 'JOLLYNEIGHBORS' and 'THANKSGIVING'... and they'll automatically appear in this set. [Here's a quick primer re how to do that. Or questions may be directed to me (Neil)... Always glad to help us gather Bethel items from the 4 winds.]



And if you can help add NAMES, etc.... please do. [After you start viewing the photos above, click the SEARCH RESULTS link and it will take you to the Flickr site where you can leave comments, etc.]

Also... Stay tuned... I'll hope to upload some sound-bytes of Mike telling a few family stories. So be sure to come back and check it out... to protect yourself, if nothing else. LOL

WWPD? What Would Pauline Do?

[This was just tooooo funny when I saw it. It was like my grandma Cox was still right here with us... *smile*... Can you see this as a JollyNeighbors skit, Circa 2009?]

Hey check out the new 'Bethel Wiki'...

A 'wiki'... (has nothing to do with 'wiccan'... ok?)... It's the Hawaiin word for 'quick'.

The Bethel Wiki is a free & easy way for us all to compile all sorts of stories, photos, family-trees, and even videos... past & present. Wouldn't that be cool... to be able to know what everyone else knows about Bethel Church, its history, its families and many many of those infamous stories?

Well now's your chance to start compiling them. [Or editing anything bad that anyone says about me. LOL]

I'll send all of you the password via our BethelChurch email egroup, ok? So watch your email. And if you need to call me for the password, you know I'd be glad to field your call....

Neil Cox
317-490-1255 (cell me)

We've Moved....

Well, perhaps we didn't EXACTLY move... at least not like this. But we did just move our website to a team-blog format here... making it easier for various ones to contribute their thoughts, memories and pictures here.

Enjoy.

All Our Pictures?

Click the picture to go to our Flickr.com collection of Bethel-related pictures, memorabilia, etc.

How can you participate too, you ask? Easy.

• Get a (free) Yahoo/Flickr.com ID .
• As you upload any Bethel-related pictures you'd like to have included among our collection... just tag them with the word 'jollyneighbors'.
• Be patient. Minutes later... La Voila! Your pics will automatically show up among the rest of our pix there.

And you wonder why we are the way we are?

Here's a fun email from Lynda Kay Vaughn, from a few years ago... along with this picture with an interesting history.



"I do not know if you have ever been told about the double relation on Marquis and Pearl's family side. I am attaching a picture of Charles and Myrtle (Sissy) Parr Gee. (Original was borrowed from Bernadine Parr Carter.)

According to a reliable source… Charles was a brother to Pearl Gee Parr and Myrtle was a sister to Marquis Parr Charles and Myrtle had one child....Mary Ann Gee Shay who married Alan Shay.

Mom and Aunt Bernadine figured out that the Parr girls and Mary Ann were actually the same as sisters because of this double relationship.

So that makes my grandpa also my uncle, and his brother-in-law (my dad) my nephew… which makes Uncle John really my son, and makes me… my brother’s keeper. I think.

Well, at the very least it may explain why the person in the mirror looks so much like me."

**************************

[Thanks for the accurate portion of the info, Lynda... and for the laughes ! It does explain a lot about us all, doesn't it?]

Detailed Professional Drawing of Bethel Church

This is just the cover. Click to open the much more professional and complete picture of life at Bethel Church.

Copyright Pending.

Bethel Community at Wikimapia.org

If you're not yet familiar with WikiMapia.org, you're in for a treat. Go there and surf the world geographically. Click on places you know, or would like to know more about. Or mark some places that you know about. For instance, here I've marked Bethel Church... and the Moore Farm (where I grew up).

Btw, while you're there, notice that you can (and should, please) 'vote' for these locations... to help validate the correctness of the info. You''re also welcome to ADD info there.

Enjoy. [Sorry the satellite view can't zoom in any closer, out here in the country. Perhaps someday it'll be as close as the view of our home in Indianapolis.]

Icing on the cake...

Remember this, from our anniversary event back in 2002?

Now here at this new website, we'll be able to have a number of team-members contribute pictures, etc... and hopefully digitally recreate a lot of the memorabilia... not to mention, valuable advice for churches TODAY.

Bethel Church egroup

Wish you could regularly stay in touch with other friends of Bethel Church, via an email group?

You can. Click here to go JOIN the Bethel Church egroup.

[Note: After submitting your request to 'join' the egroup, you might also want to specially email me via separate email... and identify yourself... Mention your involvement (past or present) in Bethel Church (Farmer City, Illinois).... so we can tell you apart from ficticious internet weirdos. LOL. Seriously, you have no idea how many requests we get, to join. But we absolutely want to make sure we don't accidentally overlook or reject the good requests. So drop me a line (coach at goal-partners.com... and add the words 'Bethel Church' to your email's subject-line).]

About JollyNeighbors.com

We desire for JollyNeighbors.com to...

• Facilitate Bethel families (past & present) to re-gather, at least in cyberspace.
• Facilitate easy email communication between us all. Maybe even CHAT at times.
• Keep up on the latest news from Bethel... and its impact across the world.
• Encourage & support the current congregation with new e-capabilities, as desired.
• Continue sharing Good News -- now via cyberspace.

Leave comments, with your thoughts, memories, ideas... or great links to related sites.

Or Email us your ideas & your pix.
[And it's ok to send complaints too -- but include some money for remedies! LOL]

And for those of you who would be interested in being authorized to POST here on the blog-team, I'll help get you authorized. Writing & posting is as easy as email -- just write something and hit the SEND button. It couldn't be easier. Add pictures if you want to, even. And we're here to help you... so drop me a line and let me know you'd like to be authorized.