Rabbit Box Blog

When I first put Mom’s memories of Alexis Baptist Church on Facebook, several people (me included) doubted her account of the men and women sitting on opposite sides of the church. I assumed it was a trick of her 93-year-old memory.

While she does have occasional lapses of memory, this seemed to be the most extreme. She usually is at least close to what I can verify, and often she remembers more than I do. But memory can be unpredictable and uneven, so I thought no more about it.

Until yesterday, when Joyce was looking through our copy of the history of Stanley, NC, Echoes and Shadows of Two Centuries, 1750 to 1950. On page 343, she found “Memories of the Little White Church,” written by Ruby Morris Markland about Bruington Baptist Church in Stanley, just a few miles away from Alexis. Unless my memory has failed me, this is Uncle David Morris’s sister, so of the same generation as Mom. Bruington is now known as First Baptist Church, and it also gave birth to Hickory Grove Baptist Church. Maybe cousin Judi Morton, who is a member of First Baptist, or others can offer additional insights.

The third bullet item from the list:

“Two front doors. The ladies entered the right and sat on the right side. The men sat on the left. Children had the center.”