Flavious Josephus, The Pyramids in Egypt and Their Purpose

It never ceases to amaze me the things that I find concerning Bible History. It has always been a mystery to scientist and archaeologist of who built the pyramids in Egypt and what was its purpose and how they built them.
Flavious Josephus was a Jewish historian who lived 2000 years ago and was of the sect of the Pharisees. He wrote much about the history of the Jewish people. He wrote about the time of the beginning starting with Adam and Eve. I would feel safer to believe his writings than to believe some scientist or archaeologist from the twentieth century because he lived closer to the time that they were built and had a clearer vision of why they were there. In his writings in the Antiquities of the Jews in Book One and the second chapter he writes,
"They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, (10) the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad(Egypt) to this day."
We can

see from his writings, who built the pyramids, why they were built, and where they were built.
We can see that the ancient fathers had the knowledge of the planets and stars and how they moved through space and that they built these pillars of stone and rock to survive the deluge, the great flood as a testimony throughout all time until the earth will be destroyed by fire.
Josephus said that they were still in the land of Egypt during his day and time and we know that they are still there today. What a witness in stone for those that can hear and see the truth.

Pizza, A Life Without Pizza by Keith Hall

When I was a young boy growing up in Yadkin County North Carolina Pizza was just not a part of our diet. Can people today even think about going through a life without pizza? A large majority of the restaurants today are centered on pizza.
We had a good neighbor George and Barbara Holmes that had a daughter, she was an only child. We would always go to their house and play. It seems like they had every board game that was offered at that period of time. They took us under their wing and fed us as one of their own children for many years. We even started a garage band and their daughter Jennie played the keyboard with us.
One evening they invited us to go and eat pizza. This would have been the first pizza that we had ever eaten. It was in the late 60’s that we went to Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Winston Salem NC. The theme at Shakey’s pizza was centered on ragtime music. They also had one of those player pianos which played the rolls with the holes punched in them. This was really fun and looking back brings back wonderful memories. There was another place that they took us to eat pizza and that was the Village Inn pizza restaurant in Statesville NC. Village Inn has stood the test of time and the restaurant is still there. When the 70’s came around we had a place in Elkin NC called Demarko’s Pizza on North Bridge Street where Basin Creek Restaurant has just recently closed. The next pizza place I can remember is The Pizza Den which Jerry Moses owned. He and his wife were always friendly. I can remember it being where the Food Lion store is on North Bridge Street and later at the intersection of Oakland Drive and North Bridge Street it was on the same spot as the CVS Pharmacy.
Now we have Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, and many others too numerous to mention. It seems like in this economy pizza restaurants are the only ones making a profit. Restaurants like Subway have even added a personal pizza to their menus which have been selling real well for them. People can’t wait to get their hands on a sweet pizza like chocolate chip, brown sugar and cinnamon, and apple. There is even chicken alfredo and also a Texas Pete hot and spicy pizza. Frozen pizza sales in the grocery stores are a big part of their profits. Whenever our company has a meeting with a working lunch they always serve us pizza. Churches have youth parties and even at Bible School the food they bring in for the kids is pizza. This makes pizza available with a lot of different varieties. There are vegetarian pizzas, meat pizzas and sweet pizzas. Schools have even made it part of their everyday lunch menus. Growing up without pizza and then having pizza, I never thought it would come to this. Pizza I believe is the most popular food that there is. I just thought I would give you this to make you think. What would life be like without pizza?

Book of Gratitude, Air Conditioning

When I was born in 1955 in Elkin NC at the Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, I was born premature. I weighed 4lbs and 5 oz. My mother was able to return home while I was left at the hospital to stay in an incubator until I was big enough to come home. My mother and father said that when they pulled up in the parking lot of the hospital they could hear me crying outside of the hospital. I never thought about it until I had grown up that the hospital didn’t have air conditioning and that the windows were raised to keep cool in the middle of July. We grew up in Jonesville NC without air conditioning and I didn’t think a thing about it being so hot. All of our cars didn’t come with air conditioning either. We just rode around with the windows down. We used an oscillating fan and that was all that we had in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I can remember when my grandfather built his new house in Hamptonville NC that he put in an attic fan. When the fan was on it would suck the outside air in and the curtains would stand straight out. Later on dad had one installed in his house too. A few years later dad bought a 50,000 btu window unit to go in our den and he had to have it specially wired for 220 volts. This was probably in the mid 1970’s. After I graduated and moved out and got married he had central air installed in his house. Today it is a common thing to have central air conditioning in every new house and also the older apartments now have a window unit. All the automobiles now come with air too. I am gracious for air conditioning everywhere that I go now. You just couldn’t imagine going into a restaurant or a store shopping that didn’t have air conditioning. If people had to go without air conditioning for just a few days they would have a hard time making it in today’s society. The schools in our community in Yadkin County would dismiss early when the summer heat was above a certain temperature because some of the rooms were not air conditioned. Just think of all of the animals that live and sleep outside in the summertime. Some of them do not even have any shade. The first thing that we look for while we stay outside is a good old shade tree to keep us cool. I must say again that I am grateful for air conditioning, fans and also shade trees to keep us cool in the summertime.

Elkin and Alleghany Railroad, Elkin NC, Ticket Station, 1911-1931

This is a photo of the Elkin Ticket Station for the Elkin and Alleghany Railroad. It was also one of Elkin's first libraries and also was the offices for the Elkin Manufacturing Company. It was built around 1870. This is one of the only things left standing after one hundred years have gone by.
There were nine stations or stops along the Elkin & Alleghany Railroad. Here is a list of them along with the mileage that they were from Elkin according to the report of the corporate commission in 1914.
Elkin 0 miles, Adsit 1 mile, Klondike 5 miles, State Road 7 miles, Currans 8 miles, Parks 10 miles, Thurmond 12 miles, Doughton 14 miles, Veneer 15 miles.

Elkin and Alleghany Railroad, Elkin NC, 1911-1931

One hundred years ago the early Pioneers of Elkin NC had a vision. Their intention was to build a railroad that would connect Elkin with Marion, Va. Another purpose was to connect two major railroads together and intersect in Elkin. The Richmond and Danville Railroad would connect with the Norfolk and Western line at Jefferson NC some sixty miles away. The construction of the railroad began in 1907 but the railroad was dedicated and celebrated its anniversary on July 4, 1911. The railroad was very useful and prosperous for about ten years until US highway 21 was built and then it was totally abandoned in 1931. Now only an empty roadbed can be seen through the woods from Elkin and beside US 21 all the way to the foot of the mountain. Only sixteen to eighteen miles were ever completed of the railroad.
Here is a listing of the officers and directors for the Elkin & Alleghany Railroad.
Officers:
J.A. Mills, President and general manager
F.T. Ricks from Raleigh NC was the assistant to the President
Hugh G Chatham from Winston Salem NC, Vice President
Alexander Chatham jr.,Secretary and Treasurer
C.B. Penny, general manager
P.P. Gwyn, general agent

Directors:
R.A. Doughton, Sparta NC, AH Eller, GW Hinshaw, Hugh G Chatham, Gilvin T Roth, J.S. Atkinson, A.M. Smith, R.M. Chatham, A.G. Click, J.F. Hendren, E.F. McNeer, J.W. Ring, J.A. Mills, C.W. Smith Laurel Branch, J.C. Smoot, N Wilkesboro, NC.
All of these men were well known business owners even before the railroad was constructed. They saw the railroad as a good investment and important to grow the business in and around the Elkin community. They would bring in experienced men such as Mr Mills and Mr Ricks who were already in the railroad business to oversee the company.
Photo credit given to Elkin Historical Collection