Devshirme

I often refer on this blog to certain clergy as mentors, and today I was thinking of a mentor whom I knew only fleetingly but who made a tremendous impression on me in my Virginia days and I think of him from time to time.  I knew him as Pastor Johnson, a preacher who had been a client of the law firm I worked at for many years before my seminary days.  Pastor Johnson (who has been deceased now for some years) was a client of the firm back in the day when blacks and whites lived separately in Charlottesville, and few attorneys would represent blacks.  I remember meeting him and he asked me my interests.  I mentioned theology and said something about how it was not a real science or something like that; he responded “it is the _only _ exact science.” He was diminutive in stature but everything he said was a supreme profundity – I remember another great quote – “I study hermeneutics, the study of that which is not there”, as he put it – a very intriguing definition!

When I told him I was Greek Orthodox, Pastor Johnson told me a fascinating story.  Back in the day a black couple (parishioners of Pastor J.)  had gone to a Greek-owned restaurant for a meal.  The proprietor told them that he was sorry but he couldn’t serve them because he would get in trouble with the law.  As the pastor told it, he emphasized that the restauranteur was nice and apologetic – he was not some demented racist – he just didn’t want to get in trouble.  Pastor Johnson went to visit the Greek priest and told him what had happened.  The priest at the time – I think this was the early to mid sixties – told him to tell the couple to return to the restaurant tomorrow at the same time.  They did, and received service with a smile.  And so integration in Charlottesville, it seems, got its start with a heart-to-heart between two good Christian men, Pastor Johnson and his colleague at the Greek church.

There is a bit more to the history here.  While blacks were discriminated against by whites in Charlottesville back in the day, so were Greeks.  Greeks were not allowed to own property and had other limits put on them – perhaps this commonality also played a part in this drama.  God bless the memory of Pastor Johnson.

This is a very cool article by Lee Habeeb (UVa grad!) on A Charlie Brown Christmas and how this beloved program almost never happened.  It is an interesting story, but the most surprising thing for me was that the (I imagine) typically square and unadventurous TV execs and sponsors were scared that Linus’s recitation of a passage from the gospel of Luke was going to be controversial and a disaster.  I first saw the show in the late ’70s as a little kid, and I recognized even then that there was something old-fashioned about Snoopy and the gang, and that the program was very different than much of the other kids fare on TV.  I always figured the Christian message was something from the past – who would have thought that it was controversial in 1965? I understand things were changing at that point but I would have thought the networks would not be swept up in the cultural change until well after that.

One of the reasons that I think Mad Men (which I thoroughly enjoy watching) gets so much buzz is because it depicts a 1960s that has largely been forgotten.  The ’60s in popular mythology conjure up Woodstock, hippies, protests, colorful art and music, and other such things.  Mad Men captures the early and mid-60s and indeed what much of mainstream America was like in the late ’60s.  Woodstock was one thing, but take a look at baseball cards from 1970 (which feature photos from the year before).  Not an afro or long hairdo in sight.

Guest blogger Nia:

I guess when it’s all said and done, it’s a good thing it happened.
Because for upwards of 8 years now (we’ve reached the point in the story when the author dates herself), my class ring has been accompanied by the standard disclaimer: “they got it wrong! It’s an MT, Master’s in Teaching, NOT MS!!! I don’t have an ‘MS’!”

and I guess it’s also a testimony to what happens when you and your spouse are too busy attempting to continue a meaningless and overly noisy conversation 3 blocks past the bar, when you should be noticing the quiet, pure white snow gently fluttering above you and around you.

But no, the pressing preoccuppation with the pointless and inflammatory motivates you to fill the dense winter air with your noisy voices.

And in a passionate conversationally oriented gesture, you throw your hand into that night…and down goes….your precious…class ring. Athena/Minerva graces its face, which flies forward into the snow. Goddesses aren’t used to such low temperatures.

You are distraught. This is mildly ameliorated by the fact that your husband orders a $60 metal detector the next day, as the snow continues to fall, and the the snow plows responsibly shove the snow, and everything that rests beneath…up against the sidewalk.

Eventually you and your husband venture out to track down that precious gold circle. As he peers over the snow through his new electrified contraption, you cry, “I found it!!!” and hold up the crushed, mutilated, once-glorious golden rendition of Wisdom’s deity, which you have found on the clean snowless pavement.

You needed a new one anyway. The old one was wrong. You don’t have an MS. What IS an MS anyway??

A dear mentor of mine, “The Colonel”, as we always called him, has passed away.  He was responsible for getting me involved in AHEPA and was always one of my favorite people to see at church in Charlottesville.  He was the best…his obituary is below.  May his memory be eternal…

Lt. Col. (Ret.) James L. Christopulos, 93, a native of Cheyenne, Wyoming, a resident of Charlottesville, Virginia, died December 31, 2010. In addition to his many professional achievements, he was a man who always placed family first, a loving husband, father and grandfather.

Jim was the son of the late Louis and Helen Christopulos of Cheyenne, Wyoming. He was a civil engineer and a career military officer. He attended the College of Engineering at the University of Wyoming, the Engineering School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and the Graduate School of Engineering at Harvard University. He studied atomic weaponry and radiation at Air University (USAF). Jim served in Europe as a combat engineer with VIII Corps and with the 28th Infantry Division when it was overrun by the Germans during the “Battle of the Bulge” in December 1944. He also served with the 24th Corps in Okinawa and Korea.

Upon returning to Cheyenne, Wyoming from service in Europe and the Pacific after World War II, he met N. Beth Wilson, who was on the staff of the Wyoming State Adjutant General. They were married in Cheyenne on May 23, 1947.

Christopulos transferred his Army Engineer Commission to the Air Force in 1949. During his tenure with the Air Force, he served in various capacities. He was Chief of Engineer Planning at 12th Air Force Headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany from July 1950 to July 1953, where he directed the planning and design of seven new air bases in West Germany. He served in a similar capacity with Air Defense Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado from July 1953 to July 1956, where he was responsible for the establishment of the Command’s “Radar Umbrella” in the continental United States and Canada, up to the Arctic Circle.

From 1956 until 1961, Jim was the Chief of the Strategic Missile Branch at Air Force Headquarters in the Pentagon, establishing the sitting of the ICBM arsenal, which included the Atlas, Titan and Minuteman ICBM launch complexes. From July 1961 to July 1964, he served as the Director of Engineering Projects Division at Pacific Air Force Headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii. From July 1964 until his retirement in July 1966, he was director of the Facilities Maintenance Division at Strategic Air Command (SAC) Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska.

Following his retirement from the Air Force, Jim received an appointment as Chief Engineer and Senior Environmental Engineer Advisor on Environmental Hazards at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He served in this capacity until he retired, for the second time, in 1986. During his service with HUD, he developed explosion and thermal radiation safety standards which were used in determining the safe siting of the HUD projects near operations handling chemicals and petrochemicals of an explosive or fire-prone nature. He developed departmental construction standards for locating HUD projects in the vicinity of toxic wastes and radioactive materials such as radon; and he represented HUD on the White House Radiation Science Panel under the administrations of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Amongst Jim’s military decorations are the Combat Infantry Badge, Air Force Missile Badge, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, European Ribbon with 4 combat stars, Army Commendation Medal, and Air Force Commendation Medal.

Following Jim’s retirement from HUD, he received 8 awards, including a letter of commendation from President Reagan. He is listed in Who’s Who in Government.

Jim was a member and an officer of the AHEPA, a National Greek American organization; the American Legion, the Retired Officers Association, the National Association of Retired Federal Employees, and an active alumnus of his college fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE).

Survivors include his beloved wife, Beth, of Charlottesville, his daughter, Dr. Diana K. Christopulos, of Salem, Virginia; his daughter, Joyce Christopulos Almarode, and her husband, Mel, of Orange, Virginia; his son, L. Michael Christopulos, of Orlando, Florida; his granddaughter, Malaika Almarode Rogers, and her husband, David, of Madison, Virginia; his grandsons, Shaun Michael and Jonathan James Christopulos, of Florida; his great-granddaughter, Alexandra Nicole Rogers, of Madison, Virginia; his great-grandson, Shaun Michael Christopulos, Jr., and his great-granddaughter, Kaitlen Christopulos, both of Florida. He is also survived by his brother, Tony Christopulos, and his wife Ann, of Waukegan, Illinois; his brother, Mike Christopulos, and his wife Jan, of Brown Deer, Wisconsin; his sister, Iris Christopulos Pilafas, of Atlanta, Georgia, and his brother-in-law, Jack C. Wilson, and his wife, Mary, of Largo, Florida. He was predeceased by his sister, Kaye Christopulos Kachavos, and his brothers, Nick Christy, George Christopulos and Bob Christopulos. He is also survived by numerous beloved nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends at the Trisagion Service to be held at Hill and Wood Funeral Home, in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday, January 7, 2011, at 7:00 p.m.

Funeral services will be held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 119 Caroline Street, Orange, Virginia, on Saturday, January 8, 2011, at 1:00 p.m., with the Reverend Lin Hutton and Father Louis J. Christopulos officiating.

Interment will follow at Riverview Cemetery, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The family has suggested that memorial contributions may be made to St. Catherine’s Greek Orthodox Church, 5555 S. Yosemite Street, Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111 or St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 119 Caroline Street, Orange, Virginia 22960.

John Miller has some spectacular photos on his blog of the snow that has hit the Middle Atlantic region.   Of special note is the collapsed roof of the ice rink where his children play hockey.  As a transplant from New England living in Virginia I was always shocked when we would have a snow storm looming and school would be cancelled for a week, premptively.  I soon realized that people who lived out in the country would not get plowed out for days – it is a very different universe there.  We up here have so far been spared snow from this storm but it looks like Wednesday that may change…