Stories told by my grandma Taylor

            The song that broke up a revival meeting. My great grandpa Daniel Starbuck was an itinerant preacher, which meant he had no church that he pastured but went about preaching at every opportunity. One thing he did was to hold revival meetings. One particular revival meeting was going real well with good attendance until my grandma and one of her sister sang a particular song. The words that I remember from the song were, “That shelf behind the door don’t use it anymore, but quickly clean the corner out from ceiling to the floor.” It was an attack on secret sins which people hid. It was not well received so the revival went downhill because people did not want to give up their sins.

            Stealing watermelons and slow horses. When my grandpa Lee Taylor was a boy he and some other boys slipped into someone’s watermelon patch to eat their fill of good watermelons. While there their horses begin to act up and trying to break loose. They ran to the horses and got on them. It was a panther that was hungry and wanted some horse meat.  They took off with the panther chasing them. The other boy’s horses were faster than my grandpa’s horse. The panther front claws would hit the rump of his horse and leave their mark with each leap. The panther chased him until he got home and the horse literally ran up on the porch of the house. I guess the moral of the story would be when stealing watermelons make sure your horse is faster than your friends.