The First Drive-in Church

A drive-in….church?

When a Real Texas good ole boy or girl talks about a drive-in of the past, you should know that they are probably talking about a drive-in movie or a drive-in hamburger/beer joint.

The drive-in movie theater you might remember if you grew up in my hometown would have been the Shooting Star drive-in.  At the same time, there were several drive-up hamburger/beer joints in my home town including the Steak House and the Reagan Drive-in. There were more, those are just two I remember in that town.  Another I remember was on the outskirts of Taylor, Texas.  Me and a kid named Tony Franzene were all of 16 or 17 or so and sat there enjoying a good many cold ones during the course of a pleasant afternoon.

We are not talking about a Sonic of modern day times or a drive through Micky D’s or Burger King.  We’re talking about a drive-up place like several in San Angelo or your home town, in days gone by….beer joints that served hamburgers, fries and onion rings….and ice cold beer or sometimes even root beer, and bought it up to your vehicle.

You are probably not thinking about a drive -in/drive-up church.  That might be the last thing you would think about.

But in recent days, I’ve seen on TV where a sheriff and his deputies were giving tickets or threatening to give tickets to worshippers who drove their cars up and had church in the parking lot of the church building.  The mayor of Louisville had ordered such action.  Those attending were apparently gonna be charged with breaking the quarantine law, even though they stayed in the vehicles with only close family members who lived in the same household. They were more than 6′ away from other vehicles….obviously….being in their vehicles.  I my own-self thought a few of those folks in their vehicles with their heads down mumbling words looked mighty suspicious.  I doubt that sheriff is going to be sheriff next time an election rolls around….dang lawbreaking church people.  They are among those who said the Mayor can deem a liquor store essential, but a church Easter Service is non-essential.  He’s probably going to hell for that for sure….BTW-a judge canned the mayor’s decision calling it harassment of the worst kind.

First time for everything

If you live long enough, you might have seen and heard nearly everything, but there apparently are a few surprises left.  If you are seeking Salvation at a Drive-in/Drive-up church, just be sure to keep your social distance to avoid the Coronavirus….. and if you want to be ‘one of the first’ to simply slide the car into a space out in the parking lot and listen to your pastor with all the latest technology….you may be too late.  Those lawbreakers in Louisville were too late to be ‘one of the first’ to attend church at a drive-in.

‘One of the first’ is the key phrase in this essay – –

In fact, they were almost 70 years too late.  I remember it – I was there.

And no, that was not back during the Spanish Flu pandemic.

Big Lake, Texas may have several other “firsts”, and we have seen some strange things out in Real Texas, but one ‘first’ those folks probably can claim is having the first Drive-in, or Drive-up church.  I remember it.  It was a little white ‘L’ shaped building with what we would call today a raised deck built on to the front of the building.  There were stairs leading to the deck or platform very reminiscent to the announcer’s stand at the Big Lake Little League field and other similar baseball fields across the country from Pecos to Louisville.  As I understand it, It was those announcer’s stands at Rodeo arenas and little league baseball fields where those Presbyterians back then got the idea.  It was sorta like the photo above, but higher up and more boxed in looking….like an announcer’s stand.

The preacher would walk up the stairs to the platform so all might see him,  and inside the little white building, the pianist would play to a loudspeaker like the Little League announcer plays “Centerfield” by John Fogarty.  You remember, “put me in coach, I’m ready to play…today”

It was there in that dusty parking lot where I had my first experience at ‘sleeping in church’.  Those Presbyterians who attended services there would drive up and park in the dusty lot in front of the building and wait for the services to begin. When the sermon began, I would generally drift off to sleep in the back seat.  It was similar to a drive-in movie like The Shooting Star in Big Lake and the many drive-in movie lots in small towns across Texas.  The unique drive up/drive-in church was located in the general area of the airport in Big Lake, a little east of the airport building and a few yards more east of where my old airplane hanger is located.  Bet that hangar is still there…

My dad wrote a history book of Reagan County along with Ruth Cope and Gussie Edens.  According to that history book, it was on March 29, 1949 that the First Presbyterian Church, USA in Big Lake was organized with twelve charter members and got started with that drive-in church.  Cafe operator B.B. “Jeff” Kelly gave the church their first building and the members and volunteers improved the building which was moved on location.  It had two classrooms and a kitchen.  Since there really wasn’t enough room inside, they decided to establish a drive-in type arrangement.  Brilliant!

There’s more to this story

Now this was long before Joel Osteen or John Haggee had their mega churches.  There were no TV cameras, but this little drive-in church grew and prospered for three years.  They had Sunday school inside the building on Sunday mornings and church services on Thursday evenings.  The preacher’s name was Rodney Gibson and he drove in from San Angelo each Thursday for those three years.  During that time, services were cancelled only twice. Once when Rev. Gibson’s car broke down between Mertzon and Barnhart and once when the lake filled up due to heavy rains.  The little church was located in a low spot just off the highway and inaccessible.

Rev. Jack London arrived later as the permanent pastor and the building was remodeled and services were moved indoors.  I remember attending VBS (Vacation Bible School) there as a child.  My sister Beth played the piano at some of the church services.

Several years later, the congregation built a new building on east Sixth Street in Big Lake.  They did not know where the money was coming from to build the church building.  One Sunday, church member L.L. Farr III surprised the congregation when he walked in with a huge $15,000 check from his employer Senator William Blakely, owner of the Rocker b Ranch in Reagan and Irion Counties.  The building still stands there to this day.  Blakely, a hard drinking, hard charging lawyer/businessman changed lives that day.  He also changed lives when he bequeathed the huge ranch, now covered in mega-producing oil wells, to the Shriners International, a Masonic organization, who operate the famous Shriners Children’s hospitals. The income from the ranch has generated hundreds of millions of dollars to help children at no charge to them.

Miracles do happen in strange ways.  Blakely might be the only lawyer/politician in Heaven just for giving that ranch to the Shriners.  Did L.L. Farr’s request for help of his little church spark some good deed later on down the line?  Of course we will never know.  My good friend Richard McReavy told me a day before he died that “God has a plan.”  Did this little drive-in church play a small role in providing a spark in part of that plan that ended up helping so many others?

The Presbyterians later gave the first drive-in building to Bethel Baptist Church in Big Lake, who had obtained a former ‘Dinner Club’ establishment located on highway 67 in the area of First National Bank, Big Lake.  The Bethel folks moved the former ‘Club’ building and then added the Presbyterian building to their own to enlarge it all.  Strange, but true.

Maybe those few folks in that first drive-in church in that little oil field town were a small cog in the wheel of life and part of the plan my friend said he knew was true.

I’m David out in Real Texas

…where strange, but true
things might just happen according to a Plan

P.S. I’ll bet that Louisville Mayor and sheriff will soon know that cars parked in a church parking lot for an Easter Service are more essential than a liquor store.

 

 

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