Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

I so enjoyed the movie, Oh, Brother Where Art Thou and was discussing it with a friend who also thinks it’s a wonderful movie. I told him of my desire to own the soundtrack to the movie and it wasn’t but a day or so until I was enjoying this CD soundtrack from this heart-warming movie.

My favorite song form this soundtrack is Down to the River to Pray by Alison Krauss. This song touches my heart and I will tell you why.

Oh Fathers lets go down to the river to pray,
Lets go down, lets go down, Come on down,
Oh, Father s lets go down in the river to pray.

In approximately 1949 at the little green house full of love across the swinging bridge at Maxine, WV in the deep summertime I found myself at the age of five sitting on the front porch on humid summer days. It was so hot that I only had on a sun suit with a bib and straps that crossed in the back. The less a person had on the better, but not my grandfather Lummie. He always wore a white shirt and gray dress pants every Sunday. Church was a big part of his life. Hot afternoons found him in the bentwood swing on the front porch waiting for a cooling breeze reading his Bible. I have been told by others in the family that Grandpa often went inside the church at Brush Creek, WV on weekdays to pray all by himself.

My grandpa was born the son of Charles Fitch Walker on Brush Creek, WV. I never heard my Grandpa use a curse word and though we were very poor he was always fair in his dealings. I am sure he was taught this by his grandfather Craig Walker Jr., who built the Walker Baptist Church, which still stands on Brush Creek, in a terrible state of ruins. This place called Ridgeview, WV is a few miles away over the mountain from Maxine. Many of my ancestors were preachers and most all the rest of them were deeply religious. Mountain people aren’t afraid to fall on their knees and say, “Praise the Lord.”

On certain Sundays as I sat with other members of my family on the front porch, somewhere towards the end of church time at the little Baptist church, a few doors down from our little green house, I could hear and see them coming. The entire congregation came, some one by one, some in small groups, all in their white shirts and cool summer dresses not walking in the furrow of the path. They walked up past the wooden well where we got all our water and on past through our front yard and down to the river to baptize all those who wished to be saved from the sin of the world. “Do you believe?” was the question of the preacher as the person was laid back to be baptized under the water of Big Coal River. Out of the water with his white shirt clinging to his body walked the newborn Christian surely headed for the glory land free from sin.

Oh, Mothers lets go down,
Come on down, don’t you wanna go down,
Come on Mothers lets go down in the river to pray.

I admit that by not completely understanding this as a child I was scared by this sight on the riverbank. To this day fifty-two years later I still haven’t matured in my Christianity enough o look at this scene without being frightened. Maybe it’s the total aloneness that I feel as I put my head under water or maybe its because I never learned to swim and the river’s water rushing and pulling my body alone with it’s strength has always made me hurry back to the safety of its banks. But never the less I feel deep in my heart that total emersion is the right thing to do. Being baptized by sprinkling at twelve years old in the Presbyterian church at the mouth of Joe’s Creek was what I wanted at that age, even though all the rest of my family had been baptized in the river. As I think about those people giving their heart to the Lord in that cool river water of Big Coal River I admire them. I feel they and all who are baptized in this manner are superior to me and share a special closeness to the Lord for they have both experienced the joy of river baptism. Sometimes on hot Sunday summer days in spirit and not in body, I go back and walk that old over grown path and follow the saints in the white shirts down to the river and into the water and say, “I believe. Lord, I believe and I know I am truly blessed by you.”

OH, sinners lets go down, Lets go down come on down
Oh, Sinners, lets go down down in the river to pray.

As I went down to the river to pray studying about the good ole ways
And Who shall wear the starry crown, Good Lord, show me the way. Alison Krauss

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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