A Church Remembered

March 11, 2020 –

I remember the smells and taste of my mother’s cooking. I recall the sounds of Friday night football games and seeing the warning signs, “Don’t Touch” on freshly painted objects, things.

Our nostalgia heightens our five senses. And, often, when I think of the past, I remember my childhood church in the vale, Second Baptist Church, in Ocala, Florida.

In June 1857, a young music teacher named William Pitts wrote a song, “The Lit­tle Brown Church in the Vale.” I believe this song describes many churches we remember as children.

There’s a church in the valley by the wildwood

No lovelier spot in the dale

No place is so dear to my childhood

As the little brown church in the vale

(Oh, come, come, come, come)

Come to the church by the wildwood

Oh, come to the church in the vale

No spot is so dear to my childhood

As the little brown church in the vale

I recall my childhood and how the five senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch to help return me to those days. And, no place is as dear to my childhood as the Second Baptist Church in Ocala, Florida.