'From the iPhones of my friends Cynthia Linn Spratt and Elizabeth Paton Childs. Beth writes from Florida: 'Memories of Plymouth: to think of Plymouth is to recall some of the best days of my childhood. Stopping at the African violet gardening store was a ritual when I travelled there with my mother, Virginia Paton. But actually, the ritual started by Saturday morning house cleaning. Right after lunch, Mother and I would head out to Plymouth from Whitman, Massachusetts, to do errands. In reality there were few errands, but lots of adventure! Stare at the rock, go through the Pilgrim House at the waterfront (yet again), sit at the top of the hill, walk through Smith's, and always ending with an ice cream cone at Currier's! All the while my mother would be telling me and my best friend Cynthia stories of Plymouth, the Pilgrims, and the family cranberry bog in Carver. The Pilgrims were very real to me. Their struggles were easy to understand. The miracle of their survival and their determination to worship God in their own fashion became entrenched in my heart and helped form the woman I became. As the hymn says, 'Precious memories, how they linger,' and how I love each one of them! I submitted this for my friend, Elizabeth Paton Childs.'
