Trip to Gettysburg

I had to go to Washington DC for work and flew into Philadelphia first. My mother had the wonderful idea that I should take a couple of days and visit an old family friend in Gettysburg. Mike Cooper-White was the Associate Pastor at Angelica Lutheran Church in Los Angeles from 1976-1981. He confirmed me in the church, put up with my anti-religion diatribes, took me on church youth trips, cleaned up my vomit (on one of those trips) and as I got older I babysat his two boys Aaron and Adam.

This is a picture of me and David on one of those confirmation trips in the church van.

Mike is currently the President of Gettysburg Theological Seminary. Which seems to be a pretty good gig. He lives in the President's House on campus. The house way too big for one man living solo for most of the time even if he does do his "presidential" entertaining there. His wife is an Episcopal Priest and is a faculty member at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. So, they do the commuter marriage thing.

I hadn't seen Mike in quite a few years, but he was the most gracious of hosts. I had rented a car in PA. Thank god for those little driving devices that speak the directions to you or I would never have made it! I got to his "house" aka mansion a little before he was ready to knock off work and I was able to wander around the campus a bit on my own. Mike also introduced me to his wonderful colleagues at the seminary. Of course, I did have to tell them a story involving Mike that even he didn't know. My first kiss happened in his office at Angelica. It involved a boring Sunday morning and a game of truth or dare. I lost and I was dared to kiss Vijay Velu... no tongue though. I saved that for David a couple years later.

After sharing that story I think Mike wanted to hustle me out of the office quickly. We headed over to the campus chapel. The chapel (church) has a beautiful Andover Tracker Organ and while we were there Felix Hell, a German organ virtuoso, came in a treated us to an impromptu mini concert! He was there practicing for a real concert that he was giving later on in the week. I was tortured as a child by have to attend MANY organ concerts. But, this one was perfect! It was good and only about 5 minutes long.

We went back to Mike's place and he cooked a fantastic dinner of grilled salmon and asparagus with Pam's homemade Hollandaise sauce.

We drank wine (I won't say how much) and talked for hours. It was one of the best visits I've had with anyone in a long time. Probably, since Carole and I vacationed together in the summer. Mike and I discussed church politics, relationships, kids, colleges, and more. It was wonderful to reconnect.