When my family lived on Manget Street across from Larry Bell Park,
down the street almost at the corner of Glover Street was a small church called Mary Memorial Church.
I drove by there recently and it
is still there, I was surprised how small the parking lot and church are. I was friends with two brothers George and
Mike Hobby, both have died. They were
Catholic. During this time of our lives they lived with
their parents on Glover Street. They
sometimes had a horse and had a barn for the horse behind their house. The barn was right behind the Mary Memorial
Church.
One Sunday night we three were climbing on their barn and
climbed up on the roof. We discovered we
could sit on the barn roof and look into the window of the church having its
Sunday night service. They did a lot of
shouting, crying, screaming, and raw religious music.
My uncle Tom Petty and his wife Mary Jo Johns were members
there and also belonged to a gospel
singing group. It would have been very
interesting to watch them sing. Tom did
not look like the singing type. They
never performed the nights we were there.
The two Catholic siblings enjoyed perching on top of the
barn and watching the Pentecostal or
Primitive Baptist Church.... it was far removed from what they were used to: confessional booths, Priests with
robes, Crosses, Marys, and all that.
I don't think any of the congregation ever saw us gawking at them. But again, maybe they did and preferred not
to cause a ruckus.
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