Campmeeting 2010

For Susan :)

This year was the 157th year of Balls Creek Campmeeting. For those of you that don't know about it, it is held 2 weeks every year in August, and it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Families have "tents", which are like wooden shacks, most are 2 stories with a downstairs and upstairs. The tents are all connected to each other, side by side. These tents have power, water (most do not have bathrooms though) and furniture like chairs, beds, etc, this is up to the family. Our tent has beds, a big kitchen table, refrigerator, and stove. The tents are arranged in a 2 large circles (probably 1/3 mile around)...The distance in between the 2 circles of tents creates a walkway of probably 15 feet across, and this is the pathway that you walk around to visit people at other tents. In the middle of the whole place is the arbor, which is a large outdoor church. Church services are held every day and then at night. There are a couple of different sets of bathrooms that are located around the perimeter of the whole place...Toilets and a sink only, no showers.

Basically the campground is a HUGE social event! You go to the campground and hang out with your family, walk around and see others at their tents, go to church services, and most importantly, go to the shack. The shack is a big building that sells food, ice cream, snow cones, and all kinds of junky toys that kids LOVE! We do not go the campground every single night simply because it was just too hot! We go a few nights during the week and always go on Friday and Saturday nights, these are the most crowded. At 11:00 at night, a big bell is rang out in the arbor, this means it is time to go home or at least get into your tent and quiet down. Policemen walk around after this making sure eveyrone is being quiet. They also ring the bell to announce the church services. Besides at night, we also go on both Sundays to church, which I love. They always sing old-fashioned songs that it seems like we never to get to sing at our church (ex: When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, This is My Story, Bringing in the Sheaves, etc.) After church, we have a huge family lunch at our tent, then we hang out well into the afternoon. Here is a picture of our tent:



This is the arbor, when I was little I wanted to get married here (many people have done this):



This pic shows you the walkway that people "walk around", this was the 1st Sunday and it poured down rain after church. All the kiddies built a dam out in the middle of the walkway and just had a blast!



My dad's family has owned a tent here for all of my life and all of his life, I don't know how we got the tent though. Occasionally someone will put one up for sale, but it is mostly families that have been here FOREVER that own tents. There is a board of trustees, these people look after things at the campground (my Uncle David is on this board). Many people spend the night out at the campground (we did not this year but I have a feeling we will next year b/c Gabriel is dying to). When I was little we would spend the night some and my Mamaw Lib would stay too, then she would get up and cook us breakfast in the morning (country ham and rice, YUM!). When my dad was a kid, the whole family would go out and stay for the entire 2 weeks, hardly going home at all. It was a vacation for many people in the commnunity.

Really people of all ages enjoy the campground. Older folks enjoy the church services and visiting with others at "tents". Teens love to "walk around". Kids love to play out there, Gabriel has a ball just playing with his dumptruck out in the walkway. The shack sells all kinds of junky toys and kids just love to go to the shack to get something. On the last day (which was Sunday), the shack sells "grab bags", which is a big brown bag full of toys. They were $7 this year, i think they were $3 or $4 when I was a kid. Whoopie cushions, paddle balls, glow sticks, toy guns and swords are in the grab bags. Campmeeting is a very fun event, but people who are not from around here usually think it is crazy (Cedric included)...Most people who have grown up always going to campmeeting love it. Here are some more pictures from this year's campmeeting: