I remember when the old woodstove was located toward the left front of the church with about 3 to 4 cowhide chairs nearby. The front entrance to the church only consisted of the two double doors inside the main entrance of today. At the back of the church were two Sunday school rooms and upfront were two more Sunday School rooms (where we used to get dressed up for Christmas plays, etc.) Out front was where vehicles or horses and wagons were parked.  There was no pavement. The restrooms were located outside with women’s to the right and men’s to the left.  The side doors were used for those purposes, mostly.  An old fence wire table was located at the fire north side of the parking lot. It was used for potluck dinners at Easter, homecomings, etc. I helped Reverend Marty Mears build the concrete table that is located under the pavilion outside around 1960.  Years ago the seating in the church was of pine pews and the boards were spaced about an inch apart. My Aunt Anner (Anna) Lou Hall would always bring quilts and blankets for us kids and we put them under the pews. When we were falling asleep, she would have us crawl under there until time to go home.

We used to hold Sacred Harp Singing there, now and then, which was an all day affair with dinner on the grounds. Still have my song be,? OK. (Not sure what he meant here.) There was an old roadway that used to run on the north side of the church which took you to the pavement behind the church.

There are so many memories of childhood surrounding New Bethany. I can’t mention them all.  One, can you believe at the age of 16, which would be 40 years ago, I was elected Superintendent of Sunday School at New Bethany? That had to have been a record of youth… Wow!  Oh, and another. My Uncle Cecil used to preach and while doing so, he would step off the stage onto the altar, then walk across the back of the pews and back to the pulpit. While doing that, if you were nodding, he would call you by name, expressing that if he was boring you, the door was at the back and come back when he would not be doing that to you, lol that was my Uncle.