THE "OLD-TIME RELIGION" TREE

Old timers...

      read "real-old timers..."

are not really certain about how

    the old Hamilton piano

got left out in the woods,

      forgotten...

Well, I am told---there was 

    along in the twenties

when people believed in God---

      out in those woods 

among the farms and near the

   little town---

A BIG BRUSH ARBOR "REVIVAL

               MEETING"

People came from all over

    and camped out, some with their 

cows and chickens since 

there was a crick nearby...

And they got some young guys 

    to haul that heavy piano 

out there and out of four---

    two got hernias.

Those who recall those simpler times

     say:

"O you should've been there, 

      anywhere around, for:

-----at a hundred yards the singing 

           was beautiful

-----at a half mile it was grand

                    and

-----at a mile it was magnificent !!!!"

It lasted three weeks, day and night,

    and when it was over

everyone was "revivaled-out."

The four young piano movers  were

    nowhere to be found, 

and after the chairs were hauled away

     and the place cleaned up---

THERE THE OLD PIANO SAT...

Some said "We'll get it before fall..."

    but the years went on, 

and others said "we'll build a little shed,"

     and some widows sprayed 

it with Hailey's Guaranteed Waterproofing...

And over time it became a picnic place,

     a courting place, and young 

couples would go and a girl would play

    and they'd sing together, 

old-timey songs like "Lorena" and "Evalina"

    and "Loch Lomond..."

Time was, with the wet felts and all, it 

     went-out-of -tune

but somehow the piano became a 

     place of memories and 

even malicious vandals bothered

    not the old instrument.

Then a little tree sprouted and grew 

    right up thru it, anchoring it

          forever onto the ground,

just as it was already anchored 

    in the hearts of the people...

It is said that on occasional spring or

    summer nights, pensive piano

tunes, as if from old revival 

    times---can be heard, kind of

"ghost-like" on the gentle 

      winds-of-the woods---

like  "Tell Me The Old Old Story

    of Jesus and His Love,"

              or

"Jesus Paid It All, All To Him  I Owe..."

and one dear old lady says,

     "My sins fell away from my 

soul, not twenty feet from that

         blessed old piano."

-------------

BY MIL

7 MAY 2018