Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Little Ron in a sailor hat. One day he would be the self-appointed commodore of his own private navy.
introduce me? Don't I matter?' Lafe had the grace to apologize, but Marnie could see by his broad
grin that he was not in the least repentant.
As well as being favoured so shamelessly, Ron could always count on the support of his many
aunts in any family dispute. While he was learning to talk, he would frequently drive his mother to
distraction by running round the house repeating the same, usually meaningless, word over and
over again. One afternoon at the Waterbury home, the word was 'eskobiddle'. May, at the end of her
patience, finally shouted at him: 'If you say that once more I'm going to go and wash your mouth out
with soap.'
Ron looked coolly at her and smiled slowly. 'Eskobiddle!' he yelled at the top of his voice. May
immediately dragged him off and carried out her threat. A few minutes later, Ida heard shrieks
coming from the back yard and discovered Midgie and Louise holding May down and washing her
mouth with soap to avenge their precious nephew.
Less than twelve months after the Waterburys arrived in Kalispell, May broke the news that she and
Hub were going to move on; Hub was having problems with his job on the newspaper and had
been offered a position as resident manager of the Family Theater in the state capital, Helena. Ida
and Lafe were naturally upset but, as May said, Helena was only two hundred miles away and it
was also on the Great Northern Railroad, so they would be able to visit each other frequently.
Nevertheless, it would not be the same, both doting grandparents gloomily concluded, as having
little Ronald in and out of the house almost every day.
Helena in 1913 was a pleasant city of Victorian brick and stone buildings encircled by the Rocky
Mountains, whose snow-dusted peaks stippled with pines provided a scenic backdrop in every
direction. The Capital Building, with its massive copper dome and fluted doric columns, eloquently
proclaimed its status as the first city of Montana, as did the construction of the neo-Gothic StHelena
Cathedral, which was nearing completion on Warren Street. Electric streetcars clanked along the
brick-paved main street, once a twisting mountain defile known as Last Chance Gulch in
commemoration of the four prospectors who had unexpectedly struck gold there in 1864 and