I became a member of the Presbyterian Church 35 or 40 years ago when I was baptized as an adult. I was not baptized as a child. So I grew up, and it was not important in my family.

My parents thought that it wasn’t necessary to go to church. We didn’t spend Sundays in church because that was a waste of time when you could be doing your yard work or anything else. Our evening meals were at night.

Often on Sunday afternoons, I would be plucking chickens. Someday she bought day-old chicks and put them next to the furnace and the whole house would smell. For a good twenty years, she raised chickens. When the roosters croaked we had friars. And it was my job to go out with a hatchet, cut their head off, and drain them over the fence, tie their legs together, pluck the feathers out. I hated that.
My brother was six years older than I was. When we were old enough to be self-sustaining, my mother went back and became a substitute teacher. That was what rocked the boat for her.

My mother was an atheist, my father was an agnostic. My brother is an atheist. I don’t know what I am. I go to church only once or twice a year.

I acted in the youth group of the local church when I was younger. I think the reason was because there were some girls there.

Another thing I might add, when I was in high school I played in the band and dance bands. I was in the marching band at Oregon State. Nancy could not be in the Marching band because she was a woman. Music was a big part of my youth. In the evening, we had no TV so we listened to classical music. I went to my room and listened to rock and roll and my parents said it was horrible stuff.