Long Ago

I remember when I was a kid. I remember a plaza across from a hospital and between the farmer's market. My dad would load the family in his car and hook up a little trailer and load a little pump organ on it. He had an amplifier tht he would attach to the car battery and he would put big speakers on high tripods.

Once set up, one of my sisters would play the organ and the rest of the family would sing till a crowd would gather. Then my dad would preach and try to convert souls. Everyone in the family had to sing. I guess we were a musical family. Even our sewing machine was a Singer.

I remember also sitting in the car while the rest of the family went into the jail where they would sing and then my father would preach. One of my sister fainted once while in the jail. She said the heat and smell got to her and I don't know if she had to go again. I was to young to go into the jail, which is why I waited in the car.

It seems as if it was all a dream but now and then when the family gets together our converstation retreats to those days, when life was simpler and a soda pop and chips could be had for a dime. When our street were not paved but were made of clay, if you were lucky, or just dirt that would cause your car to bog down when it rained. There it stayed till the ground dried or your friends came and help pull you out.

Somehow I don't believe it was the place that was "somewhere over the rainbow"