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THE SANDS OF TIME
Pete McCommons will take some time off from writing Pub
Notes this summer and will occasionally reprint some columns.
This one was originally published June 16, 2004.
Daily Vacation Bible School was, in my experience, one of
those tortures devised by adults to teach delayed gratification to
children. It invariably happened the week after school let out for
the summer. There we were: we had already been going barefoot
and wearing short pants since Confederate Memorial Day, when
that blessed last day of school rolled around, ah, the sweet
release! Three whole months of summer stretched unblemished
to the horizon of our minds; three months was a sweet eternity
outside the classroom, lolling about in the sunshiny days (which
weren't so hot, since we didn't have air conditioning).
Except. Except the ladies
of the church always picked
that first week of our sum
mer vacation to schedule
Daily Vacation Bible School.
Which meant that just as we
were ready for the release,
we had to hold off.
Another agonizing week
indoors. Actually, the ses
sions were only half a day,
but they meant that we had
to get up instead of sleeping
late. We had to go to church
and endure three hours of
instruction inside.
We did get a break at
mid-morning, where we got
one of those little cardboard cups of vanilla ice cream and a
little wooden spoon to eat it. The spoon was made out of the”
same slick wood as the popsicle sticks that were a staple of the
art we were making inside. We ate our ice cream and had time
for a little bit of chasing or seeing who could go the farthest
around the brick wall of the church on the narrow granite ledge
before falling off into the big fig bush. Then it was back inside
to make Biblical things out of popsicle sticks and listen while
Mrs. Ellie Beckam or Mrs. Bunny Irby or one of the other ladies
told us about the lands of the Bible. ■
Somehow, everything we did during Daily Vacation Bible
School was aimed at the pageant that we would present during
the assembly on the final day, which of course was attended
by our parents. I can't imagine that my father left work to
attend this event, but he may have come to keep an eye on his
bathrobe. The pageant always involved lots of bathrobes and
towels. We were, after all, studying the Holy Land, attempting
to understand the area so important to our daily Bible studies
in a way that accorded with the pale pictures in our Bibles, so
that we could represent it in our pageant. After all those sum
mers of Daily Vacation Bible School the only thing I learned
about the Holy Land is that they wore bathrobes and towels
and did something with popsicle sticks.
I remember during that period being absolutely shocked
when I saw something in a newsreel at the movies about the
Middle East showing that they still wore robes! My mind reeled.
Our pageants were about Biblical times; now I had come to
find out that people still lived over there in the desert just like
we had depicted them.
No doubt, what I was seeing in the newsreels went back
to the very foundations of modern Israel, but we got nothing
of that from Daily Vacation Bible School. History was forming
behind our backs, but for us the Holy Land was way back in the
deep past somewhere with Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego,
whom we left in the fiery furnace as soon as the final bell
sounded, and we were through with Bible School and finally
free to do nothing supervised by an adult except eat supper.
Surely I can't hold the Methodist Church responsible for
my lack of understanding about the lands and peoples of the
Middle East, so important now to my world. I've had plenty
of time and opportunity as an adult to try to understand that
region, but have remained willfully unknowing. Now, that his
tory has caught up with me. The Middle East impinges violently
upon my world while I wander around like most Americans,
robed in ignorance. ;
Pete McCommons editor@flagpole.com
THIS WEEK’S ISSUE:
[MEWS <§2 FEATURES
City Dope
Athens News and Views
It’s qualifying week through Friday, and there’s a political debate on the 30th. Fun!
Athens Rising
What’s Up in New Development
What to do when the housing market goes down? Start thinking about retirees.
EVE1MT
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Movie Pick 21
The Return of Mike Myers
The Love Guru may not be his best work, but it at least earns a passing mark.
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| The Flagpole Athens Music Awards 19
! Now with Extra Tigers and Confetti
A first-hand account of the night's winners, performers and surprises.
AthFest 2008 Scrapbook 22
The Weekend in Pictures
A photographic recap of this year’s festival.
Maserati 24
The Evolution of Ambiance
Even with members scattered across the nation, these wunderkmds continue to advance.
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17
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VOLUME 22
ISSUE NUMBER 25
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