[Nelle Reagan] While living in Tampico, Nelle would weekly encourage people to attend Sunday school. She would vary her appeals using poetry, passion, and humor. The following is an example of her appeals:

We wish we could give you a flying machine,
To travel about as you wished a la Wright.
We're sure you'd come sailing right over this way,
And at the door of the class room would light.
But since we're unable to hear of the place
Where free aeroplanes have been put,
Please make the journey the old-fashioned way,
And come next Sunday on foot.

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[Nelle Reagan] Nelle, who friends say hated liquor, wrote a temperance play for the church while in Dixon. One line of the play became a running joke in the family of the girl who played the drunkard's daughter: "I love you, Daddy, except when you have that old bottle."

The aversion to alcohol, a central pillar of the Disciples religion, as expressed by Nelle no doubt affected Dutch (also a Disciple), whose father and brother (affiliated with the Catholic Church and attended Knights of Columbus affairs) both drank alcohol. When Neil decided, enthusiastically, to go to Eureka College, Dutch said he was amazed: "I could see him at some large university," he said, "where a speakeasy wasn't out of reach".

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