PUBLISHED May 2022

     CELEBRATING OUR HISTORY:

      I have such good memories…… by Rev. Dr. Mark Stamm

 I have so many good memories of West Side UMC and the neighborhood around it. I can hardly separate the two, and there’s little reason to do that, since so many of the folks in the church lived in the neighborhood. I walked through the neighborhood on the way to Middle School (the “old” building and the “new”) and knew who lived in many of the houses that I passed on the way. And, until my senior year at Clearfield High School, the high school was about the same distance in the other direction, across the Driving Park. Indeed, so much of my life was, as it were, situated in those my front and back yards—the Driving Park where we went for football games on Friday nights, where I worked during the fair, and where we had our track and field meets in the spring. We played basketball on the church parking lot, sometimes past dark … My brother and I hired out to shovel walks and mow lawns for folks in the neighborhood, some of them members of the church, and Gerry Bickford, my choir director and friend, lived right next door and often fed us when my folks were out of town at a meeting. Living in the parsonage, I didn’t even have to go outside or up a stairway in order to go to choir practice, or to church, for that matter. 

The West Side neighborhood was a great place to grow up, and I have many strong and positive memories, and as I think about it, just a little bit more of them emerge. Of course, my parents, Rev. John W. Stamm (of blessed memory) and my mother Joanne Stamm were deeply influential. I still talk to my mom often and like many sons my age, wish that I could still phone my dad and talk to him. From them (and living close to the church) I received an insider’s view of church and parsonage life that was both positive and realistic. In my bones, I learned that the church was a place where God’s grace abounds, yet also the proverbial hospital for sinners. Learning both of those dynamics has been invaluable and I learned them first from my parents. 

But, after all, when I was at West Side, I was a kid in Middle School and High School and while I both admired and loved my parents and was proud of them, a young person at that age needs other influencers and exemplars and West Side had so many of them. I could look out from the choir loft on Sunday morning and see several of my teachers and coaches … Jack and Gloria Gaylor, Lester Schickling, Harold Short, Pat Watson and others … I sang in both the Chancel (youth) and Senior Choir and put my budding baritone voice beside more mature voices like those of Pete Taylor and Essington Sankey. But it was an equal delight to sing with so many of my friends in the youth group, and I won’t even begin try to name them all. But, Geraldine Bickford (Gerry to us) brought forth such music from us, from pieces from Handel to cantatas, to “Just a Little Talk with Jesus” to Lloyd Pfautsch’s “Go and Tell John.” Pfautsch, I discovered when I arrived in Texas in 2000, had taught at Perkins/SMU and was a major force in developing several important traditions within Perkins School of Theology. In a musical sense, “I knew him when,” introduced by Gerry. She was the first Boston University graduate whom I knew well, and I can trace the seeds of my going there for my doctoral work to her. If it was good enough for Gerry, it had to be more than good enough for me.

And there were so many more influencers … During the 1970s, the West Side Youth Program was unique in that so many of the parents and others in the church were involved, from Don and Hallie Beauseigneur to Mae Kyler to Pat Williams and more, including my parents, but not only them. And that was good. So many of the people I’ve named watched over me and encouraged me, but they also let me be my middle school, high school and emerging young adult self. And, when I named my call to ordained ministry and later further focused that in the teaching of pastors and church leaders, it seemed like the best and most natural thing I could do.  I am deeply grateful.

Dr. Mark W. Stamm, professor of Christian Worship

Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

 Rev. Stamm actually preached at West Side three times over the years, in June of 1981 on the Sunday following his deacon’s ordination, at a homecoming service in April, 1990

and on Heritage Sunday in April, 1998.

PAGES FROM THE PAST:    Published February 2021 

 OVER 100 YEARS OF ORGANISTS AT WEST SIDE ...

Miss Media Shaw – first pianist of West Side

The earliest pianist was Miss media Shaw, later Mrs. Frank Suthers, of Cincinnati, Ohio. She started c1913 and continued until 1918. At that time the old church had only a piano and an old pump organ.

Next, we had Mrs. Myra Shaw MacBlain who also began in the old church with the piano and pump organ. She served through our temporary locations and later the new church and the electronic Orgatron organ. She served for 35 years. 

From Feb. 10, 1952 to May 31, 1953, Mr. Otis M. Fulton filled in as organist. 

Then Miss R. Geraldine “Gerry” Bickford (1926-2003) became our longest serving organist starting June 1, 1953, and served faithfully until her retirement on September 24, 2002. (Gerry also started our Bell Choir.)

After her retirement we had some short-term organists beginning with Daphne Shaffer, summer organist, and Tom Owens, organist from 2003 to 2005. And then Greg Herrold in 2006 served as interim music director and organist/pianist before we found our current musician Gary Wilsoncroft.

Gary started serving West Side in 2006 as music director and organist / pianist. And do we ever appreciate his talents! Gary is doing a phenomenal job, along with our choir members, providing music for our church services, and during this time of closure the preparation for doing everything virtually is much more time intensive. We are so blessed by Gary’s many talents. Glory to God!

Pages from the Past...Published April 2022

This month we read the memories of organist, Myra L MacBlain (1899-1999). Yes, she lived to be 100! Myra started out playing the piano as a teenager for the silent movies at the former Pie Opera House (burned in 1917), Lyric Theatre, Globe Theatre and Driggs Theatre, all of Clearfield.

In 1918 she replaced Miss Media Shaw at the piano and pump organ at the old church. She played at all of the worship locations including the old church, tabernacle, driving park and the new church for a total of 35 years. At the old church, she played the piano which was near the pulpit at the head of the Sanctuary and accompanied the choir during the Sunday anthem with the pump organ in the choir loft (at the choir’s insistence.)

She served with the following choir directors until she assumed the duties of both organist and choir director. They include Ralph Nightingale, Mrs. John Taylor, Mrs. Lingenfelter, Mrs. Emma Boyce and Mrs. Sarah Helsel.

Myra was the daughter of Ira and Ida (Wetzel) Shaw and married Neil MacBlain in 1923.

Story from the Choir Loft

By Mrs. Myra MacBlain

One night during revival services in the old church while the congregation was singing the hymn “Just As I am Without One Plea” to the accompaniment of the piano, the Choir Director, Ralph S. Nightingale, noticed that the pianist was vigorously repeating and not continuing with the music as it should have been. He tried signaling to her and although she saw him, the signals were not answered, the confused music continued. After the service she made this explanation: she felt something on her foot and when she looked down, she saw a mouse perched there. Resisting the universal feminine impulse to scream, she vented her fears by way of the keyboard. The mouse did not prove to be as mischievous as she feared but shortly crossed over her foot and scampered away. This incident reached the newspaper, but the identity of the person and the church was not revealed. It is easy to understand how it got into print because Mr. Nightingale was the advertising manager of The Progress.

Thank you to Twila (Wynn) Williams (1920-2007), church historian, for recording these early memories in 1993.