OLD CAMP MEETIN'
Sung by Ruby Vass, 1957, Virginia.
Long ago, when but a boy, at old camp meetin' time,
How my heart would leap with joy to hear the old bells chime;
Callin' all the saints of God into the house of prayer;
Oh, such prayin', shoutin', singin', for the Lord was there.
Chorus-
I like the old-time preachin', prayin', shoutin', singin'.
I like the old-time readin' of God's word;
I like to hear those glory hallelujahs ringin',
I like the old-time worship of the Lord.
2
I remember Father dear in that old-fashioned day
How his voice would raise and swell when he began to pray;
Higher, higher it would rise until I seemed to feel
God would save us everyone from death's eternal wheel.
Chorus-
Pp. 93-94, with musical score.
Camp meetings spread throughout the rural south and west from the early 1800s. A large one persists in north Florida, and there may be more.
Herbert Shellans, 1968, "Folk Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains," Oak Publications.