The Blue Chip Bible

Occasionally throughout my younger years, one of my friends would ask if I could go to church with them. Whenever I would ask my dad for permission he would always say, “As long as it’s not Jewish, Catholic, or Mormon.” The first time I heard this, I asked him, “Why not?” and we then had another one of our talks about religion. “They’re not Christian,” he replied. “They don’t believe in Jesus.”

He then went on to explain that there were many kinds of churches called denominations. There were Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Catholics, Jewish, Mormons, Presbyterians, and many others. “What are we?” I asked, my curiosity growing. “We’re Protestant,” he answered. Knowing full well what my next question would be, he continued, “It’s not a specific church, just a combination of all the different churches except for those who don’t believe in Jesus’ teachings.”

I then asked if we (meaning my sisters and I) were ever baptized, to which he answered no, and then added, “When you girls get married you can get baptized into whatever church your husbands go to.” He went on, “We really should go to church sometime though. It would be a good thing for you girls, but I’m too busy working all the time.” Which was true … ever since I could remember, my dad always worked at least two jobs to make ends meet and to provide us with an occasional vacation together. Sometimes he even worked three jobs.

Now back in those days they had something called redemption stamps. I think they were the greatest things ever, but the closest thing they have to them today are online websites or credit card companies where you can redeem things for points you collect. Back then, it was nice to have everything in a physical store though—where you could actually see the items and check them out before making the decision to get them.

There were two major redemption companies that I remember—one was called Blue Chip Stamps and the other was S&H Green Stamps. My mom collected both. Every time you paid cash for your purchases at places like grocery stores, gas stations, etcetera, you would get a certain amount of redemption stamps. These would get pasted into little booklets, and when these booklets were full you could take them to the redemption store and trade them for merchandise. There were home catalogs that had everything in them from toys for the kids, to furniture, appliances, tools … you name it, they had it.

Redemption Stamps

Redemption stamp catalog

It was there in the Blue Chip catalog that I saw a beautiful, black, leather-bound Bible that had a zipper with a little gold cross on it. In order to redeem it, it would take nine and a half books of stamps. I asked my mom if I could save some stamps for it and she consented. It took awhile to save up that many stamps, but I licked each and every one of them until I finally had enough books. I didn’t realize until years later that my mom probably sacrificed something she may have wanted so that I could get that Bible. I know now, that my mom and dad sacrificed a lot of things so that my sisters and I could have what they never had.

I’ll never forget the day my dad took us all to the redemption store. I was about twelve years old by this time. The lady behind the counter asked me what I wanted to get with all of the books I had saved. I suppose she was expecting me to pick out some type of toy or some girlie thing like jewelry or something. She seemed a little surprised when I told her that I wanted the Bible with the gold cross on the zipper. She went back and got it for me, and it was even more beautiful than it was in the catalog! I remember the smell of new leather as I opened up the box to look at it. It had colored maps and illustrations, and in the New Testament, all of the words that Jesus spoke were written in red! I was so excited! As soon as we got back home I disappeared to my room and started reading!

Gold cross now missing

Christ’s words in red

I don’t think that any of my friends at that time, or even my sisters for that matter, knew how interested I was in the scriptures and Jesus Christ because when I was with them, we were always doing other things. I did continue to go to church occasionally with various friends from the neighborhood or school … and sometimes, someone in the neighborhood would have a Backyard Vacation Bible School that my sisters and I would attend. This was about the extent of our religious upbringing.

Even though my dad was born and raised as a Southern Baptist, I suppose he considered himself a Protestant so as not to commit to any certain church. I can’t ever recall a time that we ever went to church as a family. As I mentioned before, he was always working at least two jobs (sometimes three) just to make ends meet, and I suppose he just wanted to relax on the weekends. However, he was a very hard worker and did a lot around the house as well, even on the weekends. My sisters and I used to take our red Radio Flyer wagon down to the canyon and collect large rocks and haul them back to the house. We all pitched in and helped in the building of the rock wall that surrounded our house. I loved working on projects with my dad and learned a lot of my handyman skills from him. He would sometimes take me on rounds with him for some of his side jobs, and let me help him with his work.

I wish I could say that we were always close and that things were always great, but things have a way of changing when a child becomes a teenager. This is true of any generation in any time period. Teenagers have always struggled for independence, trying to find themselves, and where and how they fit in society—all while battling with over-active hormones.