Don’t Drown Them Please
I was very small when both of my parent’s joined church. I’m going to say I was 3 or 4. At any rate, the church going was fine, but the baptism part was more than I could take.ÂÂ
I had never seen a baptism before, or not at least that I could remember. I remember going over a bank to the creek across the way from Old Pleasant Missionary Church on Mill Creek Road, outside of Fort Gay, WV. At that point all of these people were singing and very emotional as both of my parents stepped into the creek with two other men. I was terrified. I couldn’t go with them. I had to stay on the bank where Glen Thompson’s granddaughter was given the specific duty of looking after me. I can remember being scared to death. She was telling me that everything was going to be just fine and it was okay. I guess it was okay for her since her parents weren’t being disposed of, but all I saw was a man speaking in a very loud voice and my parents being dunked under the water at the same time. Then of course there was all of this crying and praising and towling off and people seemed to be happy, but I was terrified. I just knew that none of us would make it out alive.
November 9th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
That is a great story, I also remember those creek side baptisings, all of my family went to church, and I was raised in a little country church where Claude Ely was the pastor. Him and my dad played music and sang a lot of good ole gospel songs. They recorded some of them in August of 1954 in the Letcher County Court Room. I was a young boy but was there and watching and listening.