by Forest F. Harvey

Retirement has a different meaning during different times in our lives. Because of government programs such as Social Security, pensions and saving accounts, better health, Medicare insurance and people living longer, all of our lives have changed.

When I was about 10 years of age, I was visiting my Grandpa Abston at his Shoe and Harness Shop located on the Courthouse Square in Albany. He let me take a walk around the Courthouse (that was quite a distance then). When I came back I asked him “Who are all of those men sitting on those benches around the Courthouse?” He told me that they were “The sons of rest.”

Years later, I left Albany and Clinton County to attend Trevecca Nazarene University and started pursuit of a career in Pastoral Ministry in the Church of the Nazarene. My first church was in Cave City Kentucky.

The church was small and did pay enough to support a pastor so I found a part time job working with the Cave City Water Company reading water meters.

After I read the meters of the houses along the road to Mammoth Cave National Park, small two bedroom and a path houses, the people became concerned if the bills were over $6.00. They would talk to me about it. Of course, I did not know.

I ask my boss, Bill Profit, if the people who lived in those houses were retirees. He said “NO! they just got tired and quit working.” They sat on the front porches in a swing or chairs. Tired, Sleepy, bleary-eyed, drowsy, exhausted, burned out, worn out, tuckered out and run down.

After two years in Cave City, I got tired myself and moved on to Jamestown, Kentucky to pastor for three years.

Then on to West Virginia, etc. That led me to 38 years of service in seven states and Canada. Now the rest is history.

After 80 years of growing up, hard work at pastoring full time and various part time jobs, I have joined the “Sons of Rest”.

Someday I will join the Brother Bobbys… Hoots, Madison, Carter, Roper and perhaps others of Highway.

Forest F. Harvey