11. There were two churches in our community—the Baptist and
the Holiness. But whichever one you attended you experienced the summer revival
meeting and the river baptism. Revivals and baptisms were ingrained in the
psyche of everyone. The ‘getting saved’
and ‘being baptized’ was a duty not of
children, but of those who had reached the age of ‘responsibility’. Children experienced it vicariously, by
watching or by playing.
The hot August day was welcomed by us kids, since it gave us
non-working time through the heat of the day. Mommie and Daddy were settled on the front
porch relishing the occasional breeze.
We kids, stopped from activity in such heat only if we had to work, were ready
for play. That day we were playing church or more accurately Baptism. Arville
whose big baby body had grown into a tall gangly grasshopper type was the
preacher. Ivy and I were the congregants, Diane the new convert ready for
baptism.
In the lush grass part of the lawn, a suitable body of pretend water, we gathered. We
sang incomplete, scrambled verses of
‘Shall We Gather At The River’. Then Arville with the serious demeanor baptisms required said, “Sister Diane come
forward.”
Diane stepped forward. Arville put one hand on her back, the
other on her chest. He leaned her back, dropped her. She jumped up, fire
blazing from her eyes, hands waving. “You trying to drown me, you dummy?”
The baptism show was over. Mommie and Daddy watching from
the porch smiled indulgently at their children.
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