Memorable Moments by Lora Cain - June 23, 2010

Baptist Homecoming

Every year on the second Sunday in June, my family church home holds Homecoming. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the tradition, it is a time for all the family members who grew up in a certain church to return home to fellowship with family, friends and new church members.

I grew up in a community near Many known as Shuteye. My parents bought my father’s old family home across from the Mt. Olive Church in the early 1970’s, renovated it and we lived there until after I graduated from high school in 1978.

It was hard growing up in the Shuteye community as I was the only child in the area. However, out of the 20 or so houses on the road, I was kin to about 15 of them. My paternal grandmother, Ida McCollister Sibley had 12 siblings. Some of her brothers and sister, along with their families, lived in the community, along with several cousins.

This past weekend, we enjoyed Homecoming which, for our family church, entails good preaching, singing and fellowship with “dinner on the ground.” I’m not sure where the phrase “dinner on the ground” came from, but as I was growing up, for our church, it meant spreading out all the wonderful food cooked by the women on the 10-foot-long “table” that was and still is next to the church to this day.

Back when I was growing up, all the ladies of the church spent several days prior to the official start of Homecoming cooking their specialties in anticipation of that day. There was ham, fried chicken, dressing, chicken and dumplings, purple hull peas, green beans, yams, cakes and pies. Everyone went down one side and up the other on the long table, filling their paper plates to capacity.

After lunch, the mothers put the kids down for naps on blankets spread under the shade trees and the men talked politics and about the Word of God. Around two o’clock, we would head back into the church for singing. And let me tell you our members could sing. Quartets, trios, duets and solos filled the air. The women watching over the kids on their pallets fanned themselves with funeral home fans and tapped their feet to the beat of the piano.

Around 3 or 4 o’clock, everyone would gather up the leftovers and children and head home to rest so they would be recharged and ready for the next six days of evening services.

After the weeklong festivities, we left fulfilled with the Word of God, the friendship and family unity, ready to go out in the world and spread the word of God and talk about our little church in the woods.