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7:18:00 PM EST
Feeling Chillin'
Hearing "Wildwood Flower" - Iris Dement
Tent meeting
This picture is long before my time; my mom looks to be a very young teenager here (follow the arrow that says "me").
But the words "tent meeting" conjure up a couple of fond memories.
When we moved back to my mom's old home town in north Missouri, there was no Church of Christ in town. Now, you need to realize that if you are Church of Christ, you can't attend any denomination, because you are a member of the true Church.
So a few families started meeting in the home of a widow lady with a crippled son who worked on watches for a living. There were enough of us, I believe, to fill up the lady's living room.
Then an evangelist came to town, and a sort of tent was set up on an empty lot in town. It wasn't really a tent, because it didn't have a top. There were just four canvas walls around us.
There was a drought that year, so perhaps the brethren figured a roof wasn't needed on the tent. But on about the third night of our Gospel meeting, we heard thunder getting ever closer, much to the joy of my parents. We got rained out, and our garden was saved.
That night is one of my fondest memories: me, standing on the front porch watching the downpour, and Mama sitting at the switchboard on the other side of the screen door, singing, "There Shall Be Showers Of Blessing" after we'd been forced to leave the meeting.
Fast forward about five years: We lived in Kansas City. Sometimes our Church services were a little dry and boring. So when we wanted to hear a really rousing sermon, Mother and Daddy and I would go to the "colored" Church of Christ and hear some REAL preaching. One year they held a tent meeting, and we attended that, down in the heart of Kansas City's poor side. We were the only white folks there, as we always were when we visited their services; except when they held the "first Sunday singings". Then there were lots of us. Boy, they could sing.
I've heard the stories of old brush arbor meetings, but these times I've related are the only tent meeting experiences I've had.
Written by mocephas57 Blog about this entry |
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Enjoying your stories about tent meetings and outhouses and the one true Church of Christ - I can so relate, as you know.
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I just love those old pictures!
I've never been to a tent meeting, but often wondered what it would be like..
Jackie
http://journals.aol.com/siennastarr/Waitingtoexhale/ -
What a wonderful picture! Not only your mom but your Grandfather and Grandmother too.
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In the 40's and 50's there would be a tent meeting come to our town about once a year. Everyone called them Holy Rollers. My daddy use to take a walk by it to see what was going on. Paula
2/11/06 8:01 AM