As Carol indicated in "Whither", a visit from the Bishop's wife may have been a factor in our leaving Hanford, although at the time the visit turned out to be a smashing success. The Han ford WSCS (Women's Society for Christian Service) had invited Mrs. Tippett to speak at their meeting, and because she and the Bishop did not drive, she arrived by train.

She was met by Dorothy Jensen, then president of the WSCS, who broke the news that Mrs. Tippett was to stay overnight at the parsonage, where she would be entertained by Carol and our FIVE sons. As Mrs. Tippett told the story later, she was terrified at the prospect of having to deal with that many boys.

I was away at a meeting, and missed the whole encounter. At the time my absence as an authority figure with the children probably made her all the more apprehensive. But the boys rose gallantly to the occasion, helping with the meal, showing loving concern for Paul, discussing politics and other subjects with great aplomb, and generally charming the distinguished guest. Her story was relayed back to us from several sources, and it certainly boosted our reputation as a family.

This may have influenced the Cabinet's decision to offer us First Church, Hayward in the Spring of 1963. The pastor there, Dick Fitch, had become involved romantically with a parishioner and so had the youth director, whose innocent wife was the church secretary. The Cabinet obviously wanted to replace the pastor with someone who projected a more positive image.

In any case, we were appointed to the Hayward church.

During the week we were packing up, we arranged to have "Roger" Wilke go off to a youth camp, thinking we were doing him a favor in sparing him the commotion. But in the middle of the week he came home, explaining that he felt a duty as a member of the family to help, and feeling that he was being left out of this important family experience.

The moving van left Hanford with our furniture in the middle of the afternoon. We cleaned up the empty house, stopped at the local root beer stand for a last cool drink there, and went on to the Griswold ranch for a final swim in their deliciously chilly back yard pool. As we pulled into the Griswold driveway, Paul (not yet three years old) heaved a big sigh of relief at least one familiar landmark had not been uprooted.

The parsonage at Hayward was much newer and much different in many ways from the Hanford houses. It had a split level floor plan and an attractively landscaped but small back yard. The boys tried to use the back yard as a baseball diamond during the first week, and broke the same window twice when pitches or foul balls went astray. I replaced it both times, feeling a little foolish when I went in for the second sheet of glass.

Shortly after we arrived, Carol and I took off for New York by train with Roger, David and Paul, to return Roger to Germany and to pick up Charles. On the train, Roger happened to sit by himself in the seat behind Carol and me. A man sat beside him and soon revealed himself as a fervent racist. Roger had come to Hanford with some strong opinions about American treatment of blacks, but he had discovered during the year that the problem was not as easily solved as he had assumed from reading about it in Germany. Carol and I were amused and impressed with Roger's polite but positive responses to the racist's diatribe.

Roger's departing flight was delayed, so we had some anxious moments to kill before we finally said goodbye. As we parted, we hoped we could keep in touch but could not have anticipated then how lasting our ties with him would be.

When he went home, he resumed his friendship with a girl he had met through his church youth group named Sibylle, despite his parents' efforts to discourage them. We never understood the basis for their antagonism, but when he and Sibylle became estranged from his family by getting married, we became more important to them as a substitute family. Mechi went on to get a law degree, and as of this writing, he has an important position with the government of Lower Saxony. Sibylle is an elementary school principal, and they have three fine children.

A few days after leaving Mechi, we picked up Charles, who was of course coming back from Germany. When we first met, Charles was obviously still thinking in German and speaking English with the British flavor which is standard English in Europe.

The train schedule allowed us a couple of hours in Chicago, on a Sunday morning. As we came out onto the street from the station, we asked a man walking in the same direction how we could get a bus to the Field Museum. He looked at us, and especially at two and a half year old Paul, and offered to drive us there himself.

On the way, he discovered that I was a Methodist minister, and laughed. He said he had just taken his mother to the train after attending Mass. It seemed incongruous to him that a good Catholic would be rendering service to a Methodist family on a Sunday morning. But we were certainly grateful, and he seemed to enjoy doing it.

After we had spent some time in the museum, we walked along the lake front (it was an unusually pleasant summer day for Chicago) to the Art Museum. We took a bus back to the station, and got aboard the train. It was a most refreshing interlude, thanks to the kindness of a stranger.

One of the first concerns we faced after getting back to Hayward was to help Charles get into a college or university.

Under the guidance of his German "mother", Charles was exposed to some valuable linguistic and cultural opportunities which had a strong influence on his later career.

However, when he tried to register at U. C. Berkeley after coming home, he found that his high school diploma was held up because he had not taken a required course in American government because of being overseas during his senior year. When he tried to register at Cal State Hayward, he was given a very frosty reception by the registrar, who was trying to establish this fledging institution as a very prestigious school. It was a double satisfaction when U. C. decided to accept Charles without the civics course, and we were able to report this to Cal State Hayward. (Their registrar didn't last very long, fortunately). As a result of this red tape, Charles has the distinction of having earned a Ph. D. without ever getting a high school diploma.

As we settled into the routine of the new church situation, we discovered that the congregation was still strongly divided over the Cabinet's removal of the previous pastor.

Some saw him as the victim of a narrow minded hierarchy. Others thought he should have been treated much more harshly than he was. The fact that he had gone to work as an insurance sales man with an office directly across the street from the church, and was visiting those families who were sympathetic with him, did not help to calm the situation.

Actually, the Cabinet was in the awkward position of having to expose his immorality at the risk of damage in several directions, or to allow him to protest his innocence and keep the pot boiling.

Finally, at my urging, the District Supt., Arthur Thurman, called a special congregational meeting in which everyone was allowed to speak or to ask questions. Although not many details of my predecessor's personal behavior were revealed, the meeting helped to clear the air, and things went better after that.

In terms of institutional growth or change, our four years in Hayward did not make much of a difference. As a downtown church, it was hard to reach out for new members, although we did welcome some fine new people into the congregation.

Real estate in Hayward was still controlled by forces who tried to keep the non white citizens out of the more "desirable" areas. But there was a neighborhood in the hilly area just outside the city limits where middle class black families could buy homes. Several of them became valuable members of the church.

We also had to deal with a few families who became sold on the right wing political propaganda of the John Birch Society and their ideological bedfellows. Fortunately, these families transferred their allegiance to other more compatible organizations without seriously disrupting the church.

In terms of our family's future, the most significant development during our Hayward years was that Tim and Bill met their future spouses in the Hayward Church.

The former church secretary was the wife of the youth director. He had been involved in a marital tangle related indirectly to the one which led to the departure of my predecessor. The youth director's wife was a victim of this mess and not a participant, but she left when he did.

To fill the vacant secretary's position, church member Muriel Combes volunteered to step in until a permanent replacement was found. That replacement was made only recently, after Muriel had served a succession of pastors with dignity and faithfulness.

Paul and Muriel's daughter Judi became Tim's wife a few years later, and our first grandchildren were Emily and Leah.

Our son Bill met Kathy Shepler through Hayward church youth group as well as through the high school, and they kept in touch with each other through the years until they were married in 1978.