Just Call It A Pool Party With Participatory Dunking
So, Northwood Temple Academy is a private Christian school who had themselves some sort of tent revival last week at school. The school is in Lubbock, Texas, home of diddle squat and sand. My dear friend Dirt Janochek say that Lubbock exists because the devil spit it up outta hell. Dirt ain’t far from wrong.
In language worthy of a Republican congressman on the witness stand, the head of the school, Renee McLamb told this story … on Facebook.
“I feel it in my bones, You’re about to move! Today we had over 100 middle and high school students spontaneously declare their faith and get baptized today. We will have more pictures of these powerful moments posted over the next couple of days!”
Three kids were scheduled to be baptized that day. Now whether the holy spirit or teenage hormones were involved, 100 kids got the Jesus itch and that fire needed put out by holy water. Now, I dunno if Northwood Temple Academy are dunkers or sprinklers but water has got the be involved. Lubbock is in a desert and temperatures have been well over 100 degrees all summer.
Okay, some parents were thrilled but some were mad, double mad. Usually a baptism is a big thing with a cake and Aunt Polly’s jello fruit salad and a ham or something.
And then there was another problem.
McLamb said that most of the parents that contacted her were glad, but some were unhappy with the move. Some of the children had already been baptized, and at least one family was concerned that a second baptism could undo the first.
Oh good Lord, why do they even bother with school. It doesn’t seem to be taking.
“Happiness is Lubbock, Texas in your rearview mirror”
—Mac Davis, a native of Lubbock.
Truer words were never spoken. However, the story says the school is in North Carolina.
1Well, I missed that one bigger than Dallas – I must have gotten it from a Lubbock newspaper. That, or I had too much wine with lunch.
2Never mind the reflexes… it’s nice to be occasionally reminded that we don’t have a complete monopoly on lunacy.
3BarbinDC @1, Then living in the Valley, I once did a TDY in Amarillo. When I sometimes drove home [usually flew SWA every couple of weeks], it was like 770 miles. That made for some long short weekends. Usually about 12-14 hours each way, but I think that I once or twice did it in 9-10 hours. [55-86mph avgspd]
Most of y’all non-Texan short commuters have no idea…
‘Happiness is Amarillo, Plainview, Lubbock, Tahoka, Lamesa [gasup], Big Spring, Sterling City, San Angelo [gasup], Eden, Brady, Mason, Fredericksburg, Comfort, San Antonio [gasup], Pleasanton, George West, Mathis, Robstown [gasup], Kingsville, Rivera, Sarita, Armstrong Ranch, Raymondville, Lyford, Sebastian, Combes or Santa Rosa, Texas in your rearview mirror’…
4Juanita Jean Herownself @2, There’ve been worse examples in parts of bible-thumping Texas backwaters.
5The ISD I’ve been in for a couple of decades for one. Gotta GTFOH ASAP…
JJ, this may have happened in North Carolina, but that doesn’t invalidate anything you said about Lubbock.
One thing about it, though, is that a *lot* of great musicians came out of Lubbock and the surrounding area, starting with Buddy Holly. It’s almost as if there’s nothing to do there but practice…
6Sandridge #4: I’m so old I remember when it took THREE DAYS to drive from El Paso to Beaumont. That, of course, was before I-10 was built. Whenever I fly back to EP, it always amazes me how desolate and vast the landscape around those parts is.
Let’s just say that I caught the first thing smokin’ as soon as I had a chance and never looked back.
7Y’all enough dissing on Lubbock! We moved there in 1980 when my husband took his first job at Texas Tech. He came came back after the interview and said it was flat and ugly, but he liked the people and the school and he could work there. We found out that it was a great place to live and raise our children. I got my law degree from Tech, our daughter got her undergrad degree and our son got his master’s from Tech. We are now back in Alabama where I grew up, but Lubbock will always hold a special place in heart. And remember, Lubbock had more sky!
8BarbinDC @7, Ya got me I guess, don’t remember when there wasn’t an I-10; although being in the Valley didn’t pay much attention. Hwy 77 and 59 to Houston was my more usual traveling route.
9Went through El Paso a few times. Coming back from SoCal one time, the kids and I went horseback riding on a ranch there for the better part of a day. Had to stay in the motel for a couple of extra days before continuing home. Nobody could hardly move after all that riding free on the range land, but it was fun.
Drove through Lubbock once. Didn’t see a lick of diddle squat but plenty of sand.
10The potential benefits of education never sway the truly, willfully ignorant.
11My father, upon finishing his doctorate on the GI Bill, applied for several jobs and was offered a job at what was then West Texas State, not all that far from Lubbock by TX standards. He told my mama, a TX native who had escaped during WWII, that he’d rather be unemployed. Luckily for both of them he got a nice offer at San Jose State and spent the rest of his career there.
12We did make periodic trips from CA to TX to visit my mother’s family. One time we made a slight detour to see Andrews, TX, which was named after an ancestor of hers. We were not impressed. Maybe if he hadn’t been so careless as to get killed in the first battle of the War for TX Independence, he could have had Lubbock named after him, instead.
For all you folks badmouthing Lubbock please remember that the end of the Mack Davis song says happiness is Lubbock getting nearer and nearer!
13What happens when you get baptised ? The *church* makes more money .
14Barb in DC. Since we’re in Nawth Car’lina, I have a story about Babdism.
It was 1967, at cow college, and Catholic boy who was my editor at the student paper knocked up a babdist girl from the finishing school. It finished her; they got married.It was 1967.
The rehearsal dinner, which was also the first time the families met, was tense.
The father of the bride mentioned they were Babdists. The father of the groom responded: ‘Footwashing or immersion?’
Everyone else wanted to slide under the table but the two fathers got on fine after that.
15So, they did this without parental permission?
16How interesting.
Brian, may I steal your “…willfully ignorant” quote.
17I joined a local site called “Nextdoor” which is supposed to be used for neighborly help in finding lost pets, recommending repairmen and updates about closed roads and the like.
One of the posters asked why there were so many police cars coming in from the Pittsburgh airport. A commenter stated that it had to do with President Biden visiting on Labor Day. All of a sudden all the Trumpists came out from under their rocks delivering just about every hoax and conspiracy theory I’ve ever heard. When a few brave souls and I asked that they not turn our peaceful little site into a political harangue and attempted to fact check their assertions, of course the name-calling began and accusations of censorship erupted.
Although their critical thinking skills were woefully lacking, as a retired teacher, I cringed at their grammar and spelling mistakes. It was all I could do to keep from correcting them but knew it was a losing battle. They are truly willfully ignorant.