The Big Blue Bus

by Nancy Nasrallah

Our earliest bus was an old and much used over-the-road bus, like a Greyhound bus. Murray Smoot named it Old Sixty-Six. It was blue and Murray, Shearman Dance and Phil Hastings drove it for Young Life events, but it was always breaking down.

The next bus was a sports bus built by International, which we bought from McDonogh school. Shearman Dance and Bruce Stuart modified it to seat 45 by removing the single seats and welding in double seats. At about the same time we purchased a 20 passenger school bus which we used in picking up college students for church services and activities. Many, many road breakdowns occurred with the buses those days.

Five men of the church pulled together in the 1970s to raise the money and buy a brand-new bus, still going strong after 20-some years. The garage for this bus was built in 1974.

The garage was torn down in 1998 to make way for new parking areas for the new building. Building the new garage is scheduled to begin as part of our Jubilee activities.

Current Members Who were Children at Central

Holly McLean Narowanskie
Sherry Ball Moorshead
Jan Smoot Turnbaugh
Patti Lovell Richardson
Julie Ellingson Sharun
Steve and Sandy McElroy
Diane McElroy Tucker
Doug DeSmit
Laura Edwards Harris
Melanie Reese
Mary Beauchamp McKenzie
Dave and Frank Meeder
John Harp
Caroline Harp Wilkinson
Carol Poehlman Pallante

Testimony

by Robin Stocksdale

I lived in Stoneleigh, one block away, raised by parents who gave me a wonderful ethical foundation, but not a spiritual foundation. I came to Central because I heard it had a "really cool youth group". Somewhere in the middle of playing sardines in the Wiedefeld Mansion, hay rides, swimming at the Steigerwalds, Youth for Christ rallies, Sons of Thunder concerts, God became real to me. I accepted Jesus Christ into my life, and my life has never been the same. During those years there was a great outreach to youth, evangelism through the Tuesday morning prayer breakfast before we were off to Towson High, hearing from baseball great Brooks Robinson about his faith. But the most important thing I learned was about the body of Christ, sacrificial adults who invested time in us very obnoxious teenagers. The Pattons, the Pages, the Staffas, the Stuarts, the Balls, the Smoots, the Steigerwalds, the Geyers -- GOD KNOWS the role you played in our lives. So I celebrate our Jubilee, trying to avoid the pitfalls of saying "Isn't Central wonderful" but instead reveling in "Isn't God amazing?!"

Contributors

As we were going over a rough draft and comparing differing accounts of the same incidents we wondered:
"Which half of the stuff we've written is true?"

The Centinel staff wishes to thank all those who contributed stories and confirmed facts. We would especially like to thank our contributing writers:

Murray Smoot, Ron Scates, Jerry Cooper, Pat Hartsock, Bruce & Jean Stuart, Scott & Carol Corey, Mike Henderson and Doug Turner, Charles Bailey and Mark Vaselkiv, Eileen Pohlhaus, Ellen Wallace, Robin Stocksdale and Kevin Hula

The Centinel Staff
Nancy Nasrallah Mary Burkey, Phyllis DeSmit, Olga Gerkens, Bob Hale, Susan Hula, Karen McCaffrey, Denise Simms, Carol Wilson