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I’m a Camp Meeting reenactor,  are you?

 

 

 

I have a college buddy, Ken O’vell who is a Civil war reenactor.  He spends summer weekends dressed up like a Union soldier and shoots his musket as he and others reenact old Civil war battles. As for me, I’m a Camp Meeting reenactor.  Most every summer since I’ve been a lad I attend camp meeting services and get to experience camp meetings pretty based on the pattern of the 1800s.  Camp Meetings are just a hair over 200 years old and their history is rich and informative.  Actually experiencing an Old Fashioned Camp Meeting tells me more about who my denomination is than reading about a 1700’s up tight Anglican cleric, John Wesley. So I like camp meeting reenactments.

 

But all camps don’t offer this “time travel” experience. Some sponsoring organizations have “upgraded” their facilities with modern conveniences like swimming pools, air conditioning and motel-type rooms.  These are great camp meetings (they call them “Family Camps”) to stay all week at, but I’m glad there are some real 1800’s-style camp meetings left to see too.

 

My own camp, in Fairmount Indiana is such a “living history.”  It is a real camp meeting grounds 1800’s-style.  Sure they’ve strung electricity to the cottages and have paved a couple of roads, but essentially you can see “camp meeting the way it was” at Fairmount.  I have a grandson, Max who is still too young to “get it” if I take him now but I plan to take him when he’s old enough.   I want to be able to show him what camp meeting was like when I was a kid, and Fairmount camp is one place I still can do it.  Here’s what I’ll show him: 

 

I’m glad that Fairmount camp will still be around when Max is old enough for this trip.  It’ll be like watching the Gaither videos—only better since the Gaither’s video backdrops are always tacky (even though at least one of them was actually filmed at Fairmount). Fairmount camp is the real thing—an authentic re-creation of the 1800’s camp meeting.  It will be better than going to a Civil war reenactment by far!

 

Of course by calling camp meeting a “reenactment” I’m not suggesting that all the preachers and musicians and DSs are pretending and just playing a part.  I’ve been a “camp evangelist” at more than 60 camps in my lifetime so far and sometimes I used live ammunition myself.  ;-)

 

 

 

 

By Keith Drury, August 1, 2005

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