It was a summer day in 1948 and the location was Blue Springs, with a little less fluff than you see today at Blue Springs. The Blue Springs then was much simpler, with no buildings including no snack bar or showers.
Mrs. Eldis Basford Pope who proudly says she will turn 90 years young in July remembers the day the above picture was made vividly. The picture shown is the baptismal of Mrs. Eldis Pope’s brother, Lester Basford who was 12 years old at the time Eldis Basford (Pope) and Spurgeon Bundrick. Lester Basford recently turned 87. Wildwood Baptist Church Pastor Musslewhite baptized all three on the day the picture was made. Mrs. Pope’s memory is as clear as Waterford crystal as she tells of the more simplistic time, “He (Musslewhite) lived in Georgia and he came down to pastor the church here once a month.” She remembers the church down from Wildwood Baptist Church was called Happy Day at that time but is now is an Assembly Church.
Mrs. Pope says this was surely in the summertime because baptisms were held outside then and churches did not baptize in the cooler weather. She said, “It was always in the summertime when we could use the open water. You notice all the women have on hats and that was the only one they had. If you notice, my momma is standing over in front kind of on the edge and she doesn’t have on a hat. She didn’t own a hat. That was mine and Lester’s momma.” Eldis and Lester were the children of Lorenzo, known as Renzie or LD and Suzy Daniels Basford.
She was quick to point out others in the picture as if it had been made days before rather than 75 years ago, “The real tall man there in the middle that you can see half of him, that was Glen Nobles’ daddy. Walter Basford’s father-in-law was Mr. Shug and he’s there in the picture. The person closest with his back to the picture was our daddy, Renzie and the man and woman in front of him that both have on hats, that is our grandma Jesse and grandpa Martin. Their last name was Basford because that’s where the Basford came from.” Mrs. Pope went on to say that the woman on the right side of the woman with a white hat and the one beside her was her momma and grandma on the other side of her family.
Mrs. Pope said, “I went to school in Dellwood and I married a soldier. When I came back here, I worked at Grand Ridge School. I’ve been here all my life except for the 20 years I spent traveling like to Germany and other places that I saw that I never would have gotten to do if I hadn’t married a soldier. I retired from Grand Ridge School. I married right out of school and never got any more education, so I did whatever there was to do. I managed the food service program the last part of the time I worked there.” She said she enjoyed working with the kids and mixing in with them and enjoyed being there as much as the kids liked coming in for lunch.
She ended our visit with a tale of her first time trying a new beverage, “Woody (Hatcher) and I, we all worked in the fields together and his mom, she mixed coke and tea together and we never had had that so we got to try that. We thought that was something else you know.”
