The fifth Sunday in August at the Edgefield Baptist Church

in Fayetteville has come to be very special to me.

The fifth Sunday in August, 1982, found me walking out

of the church with $2,000 in cash under my arm.

The Fayette County Courthouse had been

firebombed just four months before (Easter Sunday, April 11, 1982,

10:35 p.m.) and everyone in the county was doing their part to raise

the funds needed to put it back together.

It was the custom at the time for the Black Baptist churches

to take turns meeting together on fifth Sundays. They had put

out the word that each church was to take up a special collection to

be given to the Fayette County Historical Society, which

had been named as the primary force behind the restoration.

Several county commissioners were on hand as well as

members of the historical society, and it was an event like none

other. Combined choirs sang and looked like a spring flower garden

in their various color robes, preachers of varying ages

led resounding amens and several hundred people

were glad to be sharing the moment.

At the first passing of the donation plate, the churches

had brought in nearly $1,800 and it was decided that I

could not walk out with less than $2,000. So the plate was

passed again and again, and I left with that grand sum.

Besides remembering being touched by this action,

I especially remember the words of my friend, the late Tucker Penson.

"We're not just doing this," he said as he addressed

the parishioners, "because the people who tried to destroy

the Courthouse were Black. We did not do this to make amends.

We did it because it's our Courthouse too, and we want to see it

put back."

Amen, Brother Tucker.

This past fifth Sunday at Edgefield Baptist found

me participating in the restoration of its baptismal fount. There

was dinner on the grounds at 4 p.m., a rousing amen service at 5

p.m. and at 6 p.m. five stalwart candidates entered the pool

and were baptized.

I stood with a woman whose daughter used to baby-sit

my daughter over 25 years ago. She shared with me that she was

67 years old and had been baptized in the pool when she was 13

years old. On this day, she witnessed her granddaughter

participating in that same event.

Memories are happy things that happen to you that are

completely unexpected. Boy, have I got memories of the fifth Sunday

in August at Edgefield Baptist!

Carolyn Cary is Fayette County's official historian and editor of "The

History of Fayette County," published by the Fayette County Historical Society.

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