Cottagemates reunited at TBCH Reunion after 40 years

Posted: 9/29/06

Cottagemates reunited at
TBCH Reunion after 40 years

By Miranda Bradley

Children At Heart Foundation

ROUND ROCK—Clutching an old black-and-white photograph securely tucked in a plastic zipper bag, Neal Green got out of his car and set foot on the Texas Baptist Children’s Home grounds for the first time in more than 40 years.

It didn’t take Green long to find exactly what he wanted. And when he did, he burst into tears.

He saw Butch Duty and other former cottagemates from his days at the children’s home for the first time since they lived on campus together. This year’s alumni reunion brought together the two childhood friends, along with two other cottagemates. As boys, they had been inseparable.

Green, who had been removed from an abusive home, cried most nights, remembering his previous experiences. The boys in his cottage, he said, reassured him, comforting him until he was peaceful enough to sleep. “When I met Butch, all of these guys, it was like finding the other part of me,” Green said. “These guys put sunshine into my life.”

As residents, the boys lived in one of many cottages that still stand on the children’s home grounds. Not much has changed since their stay in the 1960s. Even the children, they noted, are basically the same. Each cottage provides a structured environment for children, just as it did back then. Children still adhere to a curfew, and there still are consequences for disobeying campus rules.

“I can remember buffing those hardwood floors” in the cottage as punishment for rule-breaking, said former resident Dan Kinney. “I was so little, I could walk under the handle of the buffer. I certainly don’t think I did a very good job; I bumped into every door in the place.”

Green, Duty and their cottagemates had their share of chores, especially after some of their shenanigans. Duty recalled sinking a bus—accidentally, of course—during a cottage camping trip.

“We were all just goofing around while the bus was parked, you know, pretending we were driving, when we noticed someone heading our way,” he said. “In my rush to get out of the bus, I guess I flipped off the emergency brake, and down the hill it went. Just the taillights were sticking up out of the lake.”

That incident went unpunished because no one would confess to the crime. Four years and two alumni reunions ago, Duty finally came clean. “I figured they couldn’t do much to me now,” he joked.

Another time, the boys accidentally destroyed a hay barn on campus land that had been leased to a cattle-owner. “We had to work for that farmer an entire summer to make up for that one,” Kinney said.

Eventually, the boys went their separate ways, but they never forgot their friends at Texas Baptist Children’s Home.

“We were like family,” Duty said. “It was like having a bunch of brothers. We fought like brothers and loved like brothers.”

Green agreed, saying: “Coming to the home was my first introduction to God. I saw the same parents show up every day, dependable people to rely on, and they helped me set guidelines for myself that I wanted to give to my children. I have been so very blessed, so very blessed.”