Lily of the Valley, July 24, 2018

In the past century often the center of social life in a farming community was the church or the school.  I attended elementary school in the same clapboard 6 room school as my mom and two older sisters.  There was a small field between the school and the church building.  A road, Thompson Lane, ran in front of the school.  That dusty lane ended in a T with the road that ran in front of the church.  In the northwest corner of that intersection sat Trab and Mrs. Emma Burton's country store.  Turn left and you would pass the church, the cemetery that held my mom's ancestors, a cotton gin and a couple of houses.  Social life in the Chambersville community sort of centered in this small area.

Our particular church was one of 3 in a 'circuit rider' tradition.  The pastor was a student in Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  He, and it was always a he, would serve the three churches.  The pastor preached 2 Sundays a month at the Chambersville church, one Sunday at Cottage Hill and one at the Weston Church.  The parsonage was located in Weston, which was a small village.  My dad wired the parsonage for electricity when the Rural Electrification Administration brought electricity to rural United States.

Summers were busy time for the farmers and their families.   Crops were to be planted, tilled, hoed, 'tended' and eventually harvested.  School was out for the summer but the church activity would pickup during that time.  There would be Vacation Bible School.  It was great fun for the kids.  Time together with friends and relatives and learning that required no tests.  Each day had treats like sweet Kool Aid, cookies or popsicles.  Of course we learned about Jesus.  We sang about Zacchaeus the wee little man.  There may have even been an ice cream supper the evening of the last day of VBS.

But the ice cream supper could have been at the end of the other big church summer event, the two week revival.  Revivals were big for the Methodist Church as well as other denominations.  Sometimes the revivals were held in open air areas with rustic arbors built to support freshly cut limbs.  These were called brush arbor meetings.  If you are not from a tradition that is familiar with the revival tradition it was basically a time to renew one's faith.  A time to reflect on life changes one needed to make.  A time to 'win new souls for the Lord'. 

For our little church, the revival would be held in the church.  The local funeral homes would provide handheld fans with their services listed.  I wonder if that was to get us to thinking about the after life and soften us up for the alter calls?   Reba Jane and I joined the church when we were ten.  She was baptized at Mrs. Rachel's farm tank/pond.  I had to be sprinkled as I had an ear infection at the time.

Any way songs such as "Just As I Am", "Others", "Amazing Grace" would be sung.  Often the revival preacher would keep having songs sung till someone came to the alter to either profess faith or rededicate one's soul.  I did rededicate myself one year after joining.  I knew I was still a sinner and needed to live better.  Wow, was that the wrong thing to do.  Mom scolded when we were back home.  "You just made a spectical of yourself doing that.  That Charlie Peoples does that every year and never lives any differently."  I did not ever do that again publicly.

Lily of the valley was a prompt on one the the blogs I will follow.  On July 24 the phrase brought back to mind summer life in rural north Texas.  You see, another of the  songs that would be sung was "Lily of the Valley".  Hope you enjoyed my sharing some of those memories.