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(Click
on this picture to see a scene from one of these 4th Sundays
in June)
It was
also about people. Aunts, uncles, cousins, parents and
grandparents. Grownups, old folks, children. Those who
came every month and those who only attended Bethany once a
year or even once every two or three years. It was a day
to visit, to catch up on family news, to see who cousins had
married and which children were the most adorable - or the
biggest brats! The church service was not of great
importance, even if it served to bring people together. What
mattered was family and family gossip.
At the homestead of John Franklin Colquitt, the week before
was always hectic. In certain years, it became even more so,
when word came from Florida that Uncle Charlie or Uncle
Raymond (and occasionally both) would arrive on the early
Saturday morning train from St. Augustine. Sometimes
Aunt Jessie and Aunt Nanny came, too. The train had to
be met in Barnesville and a visit with the Hudgins and McKoys
before leaving there. Later the visitors would have to
be driven around the county to see the changes that had taken
place and to visit briefly with friends from childhood. Tales
of the days that they all walked to Oak Grove School and
memories of the years spent at Berry were part of the Saturday
conversation. They stayed through Sunday and then caught
the evening train back to Florida to be at work on Monday
morning. Good thing they both worked for the railroad
because that meant free passes to ride the train!
Besides food and people, the other big component of 4th
Sundays in June was music. During church, with Blanche
McDaniel on the piano, there would be at least one special bit
of harmonizing with Aunt Pattie and Aunt Tonie being joined,
when she was there by Aunt Nanny. Others would sometimes
offer their best tunes but the afternoon was all music! The
afternoon was "The Singing"! An
afternoon of gospel music with one of the Upson County
families of gospel singers in charge. That old building
would rock with the sounds that came forth!
By now the children were barefooted and in their play clothes
and they could run and play and enjoy the music outside or
slip in to a pew to cool off when they needed to get away from
the cousins who might be playing too rough. The food
that remained was there for the hungry to pick up another
piece of pie, to grab another slice of watermelon, or to plead
for one more glass of lemonade or iced tea. The elders
could sit and fan inside the church, listen to the music or
slip out for their own extra dessert or cool refreshment.
And there was always one last visit to the cemetery to say a
word to Mama and Papa or to recall days past with one of the
others resting there. Perhaps a tear as a memory came to
mind of other 4th Sundays in June.
This was Homecoming at Bethany in a time that will never
happen again but that lives on in our memories. By:
Anne Howell Jones
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