In the fellowship hall of Hickory Baptist Church, the Hickory Reading Club meeting theme of March 9 could easily have been “Spring Has Sprung!” Hostesses Mary Ann Bond and Stacey Cook used bright tableware, jellybeans, Easter eggs, and pots of colorful plants to set the tone for their “full meal deal” entrees, salads, and desserts.
Bertie Lindley’s meditation referred to the S&H Green Stamps rewards plan to make the point that people cannot trade in good works for salvation or forgiveness and “Service with a Smile” service stations before self-serve to remind members to “fill up” with God.
As this month’s program, Jane Brand reviewed Jennie Rooney’s book Red Joan, the fact-based story of Melita Norwood, the KGB’s longest-serving World War II spy. Rooney’s narrative traces the progression of Norwood/Joan Stanley/Red Joan as a Cambridge University student, Soviet supporter, wartime worker in atomic research, and recruited spy finally arrested by MI5 in 1999, at age 87.
