I was just a teenager when I first remember the crowd and all the baptizing in the river.  Everyone would go to the river in their Model T cars.  The ones to be baptized were dressed for the occasion.  We always sang religious songs.  The most popular was “Oh Happy Day.”  Sometimes it was sung over and over.  The weather was hot.  Some women wore large hats.  The older women wore sun bonnets.  Lots of people had umbrellas and a few times during the baptizing a whirlwind would come along.  The women would grab their hats, but while they were trying to hold their hats, the wind would be turning their umbrellas wrong side out.  No one laughed.  The preacher’s voice would be heard echoing down the river for a half mile.  I always feared the people wouldn’t come up out of the water safe.

Some of the younger men would go across the river and sit on tree limbs so they would have a better view.  When the women came out of the river, they would go to the bushes to put on dry clothes.  Some older women would follow so they could all form a circle with their full skirts so no one could see the younger ones dressing.  And I can tell you, no one came from behind the bushes not fully dressed.  When it was over, everyone would get into their cars and a few buggies.  When those old cars were cranked up, I never heard such a clattering and splashing because we had to go back across the river.  The men shot the gas to those old cars.  The women and kids held on for sure.  They stayed with their hats.  We had two steep banks to get up.  All the sputtering and pushing took place.  If one didn’t give it a lot of gas, the car would go backward.  Some times the old ladies and kids got out and helped to push the car up the hill.