From time to time you will hear me refer
to Po Grab. It’s where the family farm
is located in middle Tennessee. Back
before google maps, you couldn’t get there from here. Seriously, the maps we drew included “look
for the…” type content. People would
always get lost trying to find Foster Hollow Road and Hannah’s Gap Road and
Chestnut Ridge. Now I just drop a pin and people drive right up the
hollow.
Most stories are similar, but I always
heard that the valley got its name when an ole farmer came to the little store that
was both a place to purchase goods or barter goods. He was there to purchase his seeds for the
spring planting. Back then you took a
small brown bag and grabbed a handful of seed for a nickel. It was reported that he walked out that day
and said, “That sure was a poor grab.”
It stuck. Soon it was called Fullerton’s Poor Grab Store. I remember Granddaddy giving me a dime and I
could walk down the hill, cross the creek and buy M & M s and a coke in
that small green bottle. My grandmother
Sorrells recounted trading eggs for dry goods.
Growing up visiting my grandparents or
spending the summer there I recall a picture of our message series ONE
ANOTHER. Everyone helped everyone. All the farmers got together to put up one
another’s hay. If a barn was to be
raised, then all the community came together to help. The church was very local and very One
Another. What was true in their lives on
Sunday was true every other day of the week.
There was a couple who were “special” who lived between the Po Grab
Store and the Church of Christ Church. My grandparents always took care to ask
what they needed from town when they went.
They often took meals to them.
Others in the community did the same for this man and woman who could
not do much for themselves.
It is different today. Large gates, “NO TRESPASSING” signs, and
video cameras at the locked gates are not prevalent but they exist. Let’s lead the way church!
Love
God! Love others! Serve!
Pastor
John
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