Quilt Pieces Shirley Noe Swiesz If I talked about the old days and did not include religion, I would certainly be remiss for it was an important part of our lives. It is safe to say that any child born in the thirties, forties, or fifties, in the Appalachian region or perhaps any place in the US, for that matter, had someone in their family, either their parents, grandparents or all close relatives who were churchgoers. I don’t mean to say that they merely went to church…they were totally devoted to their religion. It was certainly like that in our little community. My Pap and granny were good hardworking Christians and so was my Mama. Daddy didn’t go to church but he would take Mama and sit outside. He wasn’t the only man who did that however. The church yard would be full of men, young and old who either brought someone or were waiting for someone, or just hoping to get lucky enough to walk some pretty girl home. Back in the days when I was young, we went to the church that was closest to where we live. It didn’t matter what the religion…well, there was a bit of prejudice about Catholics. I really don’t know why, other than we didn’t know much about the Catholic religion. The Kellamen’s who lived in Hiram, were Catholics and they drove to Cumberland to church. They Lynch hospital was run by Catholic nuns and when my dad’s appendix ruptured they sent me coloring books and things since I was too young to see him. I had good feelings about the Catholics and years later when I worked in a Catholic hospital and later in a Catholic nursing home I was very impressed with them. However, I never knew much about the religion itself, but the elderly women in the nursing home spent long hours praying. I can tell you about the Pentecostal religion or at least how it was in the old days. It might have changed some since I was small, but not much. Back in the days we had a lot of revivals and someone hooked up a loud speaker and it sounded all over the neighborhood. I can imagine how that would be in today’s world. They would arrest the preacher for being too noisy, but I remember lying in bed listening to it if I did not go to church. We went to the little church on the hill next to Fred Cornett’s house. You all probably know Pee Wee Cornett…Fred was his dad and my Uncle. Uncle Fred was a coal miner and he could not read or write but he educated all his kids. Pee Wee became a college professor and all his and Lyna Jo’s kids went to college and Elsie who still lives up the river raised a good bunch of kids too. I haven’t kept touch with the others, but I know Fred and Ethel were proud of them all. Anyway Fred and Ethel were church goers as well and a good thing too since they lived practically in the church backyard. The revivals were just that…they were supposed to revive old time religion and they did in a big way. The preacher would preach until he was breathless and then he would preach some more. There was a lot of singing and music. I remember Beulah Hall playing the piano and singing. She had a lovely voice. I think all her kids learned to play the piano on that old instrument in the church. If you heard peels of boogie coming from the church it was one of the Hall boys who was supposed to be cleaning the church. That boogie music, probably it was rock and roll, which was becoming popular at that time, always got a smile from whoever heard it for the boys were very talented and the urge to break loose was a bit much for teen agers. That little church was the center of the community. The Johnson’s, the Dixons, the Rays, the Halls, the Smiths, the Coxes, the Boggs, the Sellers, the Worleys, and the Cornett’s were just a few who went to church there. When I went to their family reunion the girls all sang the old church songs and for a minute one could go back in time and be right there in the little church, or so it seemed. There was always alter call at the church and you would go to the alter if you wanted to get saved, healed, or forgiven just to pray with everyone else. The women wore long dresses with long sleeves and they had long hair and did not wear makeup. I think now they wear modest dresses, and not necessarily long sleeved ones. They still do not wear makeup and do not cut their hair. The women are very much a part of the scene and they work for the church often behind the scenes, but there are sometimes women who preach in the Pentecostal as well. They were once called ‘holy rollers’ a slang term brought on because they dance and shout and speak in tongues, while in the Spirit. I attended a Pentecostal Church meeting yesterday, the one where my Mama went. It is the Trinity Pentecostal Church in Hiram and it was their homecoming. Frank and Sally Sergeant were there and they are a fixture in the church. I think the church was started about 45 years ago. It was sort of a break away from the little white one on the hill that I attended as a child. Garland Sergeant was the preacher there for many years. Garland graduated with me. It was much like the services of my childhood. They had had a revival all week and then had the homecoming. Back when I was a kid we had an ‘all day meeting with dinner on the ground’ but I am here to tell you, although they only had one preacher and the dinner was inside, there was plenty of food that made one think of the old days. As a former Episcopalian who lived in SC, I can tell you that we ate a lot down there in the southern churches…but these mountain people sure had a lot of good food and it was delicious! Fried chicken, ham, fall beans, potato salad being just a drop in the bucket, not to mention homemade rolls and an entire table full of nothing but desserts! Rev. Billy Conn is the pastor now. I talked with several people whom I once knew, including Frank and Sally’s son, Ricky (they probably call him Rick now, but he is Ricky to me…he used to climb the tree in my brother’s yard and spend hours up there watching the world go by and occasionally scaring some passerby…)Frank’s brother Perry’s son, Jamie was there and Leonard Davis’s daughter in law sat by me and is going to give me the recipe for the wonderful dessert she made. Perry Sergeant died pretty young. My mother thought the world of all three of them, Frank, Perry, and Garland. The church is built where Frank’s store was…the newer one. His old store was the one that Dorabelle Kellamen ran and it was right near Claude Blair’s store…the old one. My mother lived in the house near there that the Cook’s once owned and he had a store there. I think at one time there was a beer Jint (joint) in the cook house. I think my Aunt Dora Lewis ran it. My aunt Dora was a survivor. Her husband went to prison for killing a man and she finished raising her daughter by bootlegging. (Selling illegal moonshine). Well, perhaps it is fitting that the church is built there! I think a man was killed right in the area as well. There were a lot of people at the church Sunday and they were very friendly. I was invited to go by my good friend of childhood days, Barb Dixon Lewis. Dorothy Ison Belcher’s granddaughter Ashley, and two cute little great grandchildren go there as well. Nancy Hall, who was my granny’s sister was married to Elijah Hall and he went to the Pentecostal church on the hill as long as he was able and Aunt Nancy went as well. Aunt Nance was a shouter and she would ‘shout the house down’. I plan to do a book on the churches in the mountains and in the next few months I plan on visiting many churches to get a feel of what they are like today. If you know of any old churches that are torn down or no longer stand for whatever reason, please let me know and I would love to have a picture. If you contact me and let me know the time of your church meeting I will appreciate it. Regardless of what religion you prefer I will treat it with respect and honesty in my book and when I visit. The Church does not have to be in Harlan County, just in the mountains. In the old days, a lot of times the preachers would go to the house of one who was sick and they would have prayer meeting or church. Jim McKnight, who was a Pentecostal preacher had meetings at my Granny’s house. I remember one time a woman who preached came to Granny’s and Pap told her, “I don’t hold with womern preachers, but ye is welcome!” Granny didn’t’ care who preached, she just liked to hear the word and the singing. Two things Granny and Pap held dear and that was religion and voting. Neither of them could read or write, but they held staunchly to their beliefs. They were both Republican and voted straight down the ticket. Pap would walk all the way to the little school house in Chad to vote. Daddy or a neighbor or someone working in the election would offer to take him but he refused. I don’t think he ever rode in a car. He wore old brogans and he fixed them if they broke. He had an old last that he used regularly. I was thirteen when Granny died and fourteen when Pap died. I don’t remember either of them ever buying shoes or a stitch to wear. Religion was carried from church on Sunday to school on Monday and throughout the week. There was always a devotional first thing in the morning. When I went to Totz the devotional was prepared by two of the students in the class and each morning it was a different one. We would sing or lead the singing, read from the Bible or something religious and pray and do the pledge. I think at Chad that it was done by the teachers since we were pretty small. I do know that we always had a play at Christmas at the Chad school and it was religious based. In Cumberland the devotional was done over the loud speaker each morning. No matter what sort of home we came from back in those days we had religion taught to us, either from Sunday school/church or the school. We went to church with our grandparents or our parents or by ourselves. Some families said the blessing before a meal, but if we did not then we were taught to be respectful of those who did. We were baptized in the river by two preachers…one to dunk us and one to hold onto us so that we didn’t float away or drown! I was baptized up at Cloverlick by a Primitive Baptist Church pastor from the Sandhill church. To sum it up I attended the nearest church which was a Pentecostal, was baptized into a Primitive Baptist Church, spent many years in SC in the Episcopal church, go to a Church of Christ now and live in a Christian Church…don’t get much better than that! The churches played a big part in our lives at Christmas as well. We learned a lot back then from Sunday school and the plays put on at Christmas time both at school and church. We always had a play where children would recite parts and forget them about equally. There would be a tree put up and gifts exchanged. Our teachers would usually give us a bag of goodies and some sort of learning gift and at church we would receive a big bag full of fruit, nuts, and candy. We always put on the play about the birth of Jesus. It was exciting for us kids…one cannot imagine today how very exciting it was for often that was the only gift a child received. And yet…we were so appreciative! Once I received a puzzle at church and I could have done that puzzle with my eyes closed, I did it so many times. The only terrible thing to me about not getting anything for Christmas was having to get up in front of class and tell what you had received for Christmas. But being full of words I am sure that I came up with a simple solution…not lying just working around the truth a bit! I was always good at that! One time I went to the little two room (or was it 3) at Gordon where my Aunt Faye taught. I went with my friend Ruth Cornett and her brother Vernon. They lived at Gordon and their younger sister was in the play. We were in high school. Aunt Faye’s friend Roxie taught there for years. Like all the other little schools, they used sheets to rig up a curtain for the play. The big heating stove was putting out lots of heat and the chill outside made one glad for it. I remember that time as very special. Ruth Ann and Vernon’s parents were so nice to me. I remember that Aunt Faye and Uncle Cecil and Keith were at the play, of course, and all the parents crowded into the two small rooms to see their children. The school is torn down now, but I am sure that many remember it, along with my aunt Fay and her friend Roxie. They taught there for many years. Those years were so special and the little two room schools and little churches were a blessing to us. We were poor but we survived with our faith intact for the most part. When we went to church no one asked what religion we were or what church we went to…church was church…some things were different, but the important part was that we went to church and although many of us strayed, we didn’t stray far. The churches, like the schools, were a big part of our lives… never again will there be anything like it was back then…we prayed together and cried together. We married in the church and made the final trips there with many loved ones. It was ‘church’ plain and simple…didn’t matter if we were of a different denomination…we simply went to church…to pray, to offer ourselves to God. The simplicity of it is gone now and we are left with only memories…like the days in the little two room schools…we get our water from bottles not dippers and the days of going to the nearest church is gone forever…but like drinking out of an old gourd, perhaps the mountain flavor remains the same in our minds and that makes it alright. Blessings to you and remember to smile at someone today. Please remember that Saturday is the Totz Reunion at the Benham Park. I hope to see your there!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 21:25:43 +0000
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