Take A Galvanized Tub, Add Water And Prayer – II

So one night out in a little country church in a little country town (the town used to be a bigger town when the railroad stopped there to change crews, it had a YMCA that catered to railroad men, gave ‘em a place to stay and decent food, and the “Y” received funds from the RR for operations – a sweet deal all the way around), one night good old Linwood – the preacher – got to think’n ‘bout that old boy in John Chapter 5 and the mov’n of the warter (no, that’s not a typo, I did say “warter” – same as I say “Warshington”) and then he got to think’n ‘bout what that must have been like – an angel coming down and stirring up that water.

And then I guess old Linwood got to think'n ‘bout his people in that thar church and how they were need’n stir’n up – and then he set to think’n ‘bout how to stir ‘em up.

Well now, eventually his mind set on an old galvanized tub out in his tool shed – that’s the way I envision it anyhow – and even though before he got religion he’d used that old tub for making the recipe, and even though since he got religion he’d used it to dip his old hounds – well – he got to think’n that maybe he could use it to stir folks up – maybe he could have a pool of Bethesda service.

So that night – it was a Thursday as I recall – he carried that old tub in the church and put it right up front, in front of the pulpit, in front of the old altar rail – and then he filled it with water. My what must have been going through Linwood’s mind as he filled that thar tub – what had once been filled with the recipe, what had once been filled with flea and tick dip, was now being filled with water for a pool of Bethesda service.

Now let me hasten to add that Linwood filled that tub with good old country water – none of that fancy flavored water that I know some of y’all drink, none of that bottled type water that Food Lion sells (rumor is that they draw it from the tap in the back of the store), no sir, no ma’am, nothing but good old country water from a good old country well went into that galvanized tub for good old country people.

Of course I didn’t know noth’n ‘bout what Linwood was fix’n to do when I thought I’d drop in and pay him and his church a visit – I didn’t know a thing about that tub, a thing about that water, and I had never seen nor heard of such a thing as a pool of Bethesda service.

Years ago my Daddy managed a Safeway store in Bethesda, Maryland. And my Aunt Virginia lived right down the street from that store, it was on Old Georgetown Road. My Aunt Virginia was married for a short piece to Uncle Cleve, one of Daddy’s brothers – that’s what made him my uncle - not the fact that Aunt Virginia married him, but the fact that he was one of my Daddy's brothers.

Once when we were all at Uncle Caskie’s, out in Loudoun County, Virginia when Loudoun County was still country and you could get country water from a country well – once Uncle Cleve was sitting on a cinder block and drinking and talking with his brothers – and me and my cousins…well…truth be told…we came up behind our Uncle Cleve and lit a firecracker inside the cinder block – you see the cinder block was set in such a way as the hollow part was facing outward – and so you could strategically place a firecracker right inside the cinder block – ah, let me tell you, it was indeed a thing of beauty. I believe the observation was that the family had never seen one of the Withers brothers sober up so quickly.

Anyway, as I was saying, my Aunt Virginia lived down the street from my Daddy’s Safeway store – oh my…it’s getting late…I guess we’ll have to continue this.