When it comes to shining the light, nothing beats a sunny couple of days in mid-September on the banks of Whitely Creek.
That’s where I found some happy members of John Corbly Memorial Baptist Church on September 18, doing some real time shucking and grinning behind their booth at the White Covered Bridge Festival. Corn husks and a pot of boiling water were a sure sign that festival goers would soon be eating fresh corn on a stick dripping with butter or forking into a walking taco as they took in the sights, shopped the crafts or listened to live music – most of it gospel – that filled the air through the weekend.
“We’ve been coming here since the beginning. First we just came on Sunday to hold service. Now we do that and everything else, ” Deacon Dave Reid told me. His booth was filled with a jaw dropping collection of rare artifacts hardly seen outside of magazines or behind glass in museums – original handmade 18th century rifles, Greensboro and Hamilton stone glazed pottery, pistols and memorabilia. “I know the men who made these rifles and who they apprenticed to.” He pointed to a crock. “This was made by an ancestor of mine who was a potter in Rices Landing.”
Other churches were here to pray and play in the great outdoors as well. Fordyce Methodist was selling hot dogs, hot sausage and ghost pops; Mt Pleasant UMC had a tasty menu that included root beer floats and apple dumplings with ice cream and Mapletown Methodist was on hand to make breakfast for festival volunteers. And every table under every tent and canopy where people sat to eat and escape the sun had plastic sleeved thank you lists naming the 30 plus patrons of this year’s event.
Longtime volunteer Nancy Zalor told me that back in the 1990s the festival happened sporadically but when it did it offered up good gospel music to visitors during the Washington/Greene Covered Bridge Festival. “One year I brought a pony and cart and gave rides and the next year we decided to do that too.”
By 1998 the community was onboard for the long haul and the festival became a yearly celebration, halting only for the aftermath of 9/11, hurricanes Ivan (2008) and Gordon (2018) and COVID-19 (2020). The county took note and in 2008 the old queenpost bridge built in 1919 was refurbished to last “another 90 years.”
Back at the Corbly Church booth, Pastor Gary Whipkey and wife Jill arrived to help. He would be holding Sunday services tomorrow morning on the chrysanthemum studded stage for everyone who had slept over as reenactors and those who came early to get ready for a last day of wagon rides, Civil War battles, gospel music and hours of happy camaraderie in the sun and shadow of another perfect day.
Any other time of the year, Corbly Church members are busy doing missions, holding work parties to keep the church repaired, having bible study on Wednesdays, hosting the yearly Corbly Family Reunion – and planning for next year’s festival on the banks of Whitley Creek. You’re welcome to join them.
