02 ~ Church and Home Life in East Tyler, Texas
My first memory of church was sitting in the lap of my father in the First Baptist Church of Tyler watching the golden glow of the electric fans on the wall and playing with the golden watch chain that drooped from my father’s pocket. Spiritual things contributed to my life even at an early age when my parents sent me to kindergarten. My teacher was Mrs. T. K. Hale, who had attended the wedding of my father and mother, later the wedding of my brother, and then my wedding. She was a godly teacher who had her pupils memorize the Twenty-third Psalm and The Lord’s Prayer. How I enjoyed kindergarten! During recess time I used to climb the fig tree near her home and open the little sack of sandwiches and tidbits my mother had prepared to make me feel I was really going to school, carrying my lunch just like my brothers carried theirs.
~ In those days we had a pot-bellied stove. One of my assigned duties was to bring in the kindling to start the fire. We had no telephone; as I recall it was late in my youth when we had electric lights. I remember the day when natural gas was piped into our home. What a celebration and joy it was to sit before the asbestos stove and dream as the green and blue and gold flames danced. Our neighbor next door was the first in our neighborhood to have a bath tub. Would you believe I used to go over to Troy’s house, and the two of us had a great time splashing and sliding down the side of the tub? This was something to me—to have a bathroom and bath fixture like the old fashioned tub. We soon got lights in our home, then a telephone, and soon after that our own bath tub and a toilet inside the house. Our entertainment was the old Edison phonograph with thick records. I enjoyed winding it up and listening to the wonderful music. Radio was in a primitive state. In fact, the year I was born, the first commercial radio broadcast was made by KDKA, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, station that originated the world’s first scheduled radio broadcasts. It was a November 2 report on Republican Warren G. Harding’s election as president over the Democrat James M. Cox. That same year the first broadcast of a Texas A & M College football game was carried on the radio. In a few years we got our own Atwater Kent radio. It had a battery to drive the power and an old fashioned radio horn speaker on top. It was quite a contrast with the first radio I had experience with, when I used to sit for hours with a crystal set that I and my neighbors built. Using the crystal set and earphones and a needle placed in the crystal, I could pick up strange noises, voices and music on the radio from far-away places. Now we had a battery-operated Atwater Kent. My dad was the first to have such a radio in our neighborhood. People came from all over the hill to our house on Saturday nights to hear the Grand Ole Opry.
~ In 1927 my father was a deacon at First Baptist Church. He took his family to east Tyler and became a part of East Tyler Baptist Church where he served again as deacon, Sunday School teacher, and superintendent. Some of my earliest memories are the Sunday School classes that met behind curtains that had been hung on wire across the auditorium. Not only could you hear your own Sunday School teacher teach, but you could tune her out and listen to the other class if you desired. I still remember the plays the church used to produce and what a time we had at Christmas–the Christmas carols and old-fashioned community Christmas tree, and each child received a bag of candy with nuts, apples and oranges. My father and mother were charter members of this church and it became the center of our lives. H. H. Wallace was the pastor of the church. It was under his effective ministry in East Tyler Baptist Church that I was converted—it was at a revival meeting, and when the invitation was given I held onto the back of the pew till my knuckles were pink. Finally on the last stanza of the invitation I went forward. There I anchored my soul in the haven of rest to sail the wide seas no more. The tempest may sweep the wild stormy deep, but in Jesus I am safe ever more. I was 8 years old when I was converted.
~ When I was 10 years old my mother had a serious illness and had to go to Nan Travis hospital in Jacksonville. I was fearful. I had seen the death of my older brother, and the fear would not leave me. I went out under the house to pray. I promised God that if he would bring my mother back to our home again, then I would do anything for him, including preaching the gospel. Mother came back from the hospital, and I kept these decisions in my heart. It would be several years before I actually committed my life to preaching.