I couldn't think of a more descriptive yet short title.
The thread about KH cleaning stories got me thinking about my old KH and the story behind it. Thought I'd share it and hopefully some of you will add your own.
There's a couple of folks here who may know a little about my old Hall of their own and may hopefully correct any misinformation I may provide or even add their own stories. Like most others, that old hall had actual apostates (Ingram I think their name was) and its own (what hall doesn't, right?) urban legend about smurfs. It also still holds plenty of memories, both good and bad.
The Old Perry Kingdom Hall.
I hail from Macon these days, but grew up further south (and more rural) in Perry. Actually my family was from Fort Valley originally. That was my true home, one I will never forget, when I was a true kid living with real woods to play in. We moved when I was 12 to Perry so I guess I can honestly say that hitting puberty around that time and being an adolescent in the 80's and all that Perry was where I grew up.
"Serving where the need was greater" was our call, and we moved to a congregation of about 25 or so.
The Kingdom Hall at that time was this little brick building on Highway 41. Before Interstate 75 dissected Perry and the rest of central Georgia, Highway 41 was one of the main Georgia highways to get to destinations North and South (preferrably some destination other than Perry) and for some ungodly reason Highway 41 and her successor Interstate 75 still run through that little hick town.
Old-timers in Perry at the time still remembered when our Kingdom Hall was far from being a house of worship. It used to be part of a hotel, restaurant, and truck stop called the "Blue Diamond" or something close to that but it died when Interstate 75 came rolling in as did many other establishments on that route. Just take a ride on Highway 41 and the history may still be there. Whatever. I-75 came and Highway 41 became just another rural two-lane. Anyway, the property was bought. One building became the Hall and the rest was demolished. Some even said that the hotel was simply razed and buried in the vacant lot next to the Kingdom Hall.
The Blue Diamond however, though now a house of worship, seemed to always keep its place in local lore sometimes brought up by Perry's old-timers in field service. It wasn't just any hotel, and it wasn't the "Kingdom Hall". In that event, it was always "the old Blue Diamond". It had been a "house of ill repute" after all and small hick towns run by "bible thumpers" just can't let that die now can they? Back in the days when hotels in Perry weren't run by Indians and Arabs but by "blue-bloods" - what I call them - the old-timers in Perry, the local "who's who" (who never have so much as a parking ticket) this little stop on the old highway now simply called "41 South" kept travellers and truckers comfortable in more ways than one.
In a small town, a hick town as I call Perry, that was tolerated but never completely forgiven and definitely never forgotten "back then". Thus, that black mark remained for so many years. Still may and probably does, for all I or you know. Hick towns have a way of doing that. They may have interstate highways, satellite TV, and dial-up internet service. But they never really forget stuff like that, after all what else is there to do while the modem desparately searches for a good connection to bring the information age to the 1950's right?
Sorry, was I rambling?
Finally, the congregation elders made the move to a brand new "quick-build" in 1987. By then, they weren't called "two-day Kingdom Halls" anymore. Of course, we still tried to make that goal. Remember when we used to call them that? The main reason for the move was obviously that the congregation had outgrown that run-down brick building. Not to mention the fact that the old brick building was only one bad mark on some county inspector's form from being condemned. But always there and never to be ignored, and maybe only secondary in importance but always to be left [almost] unsaid amongst us was the old memory of the "Blue Diamond" that would never completely go away.
Mike.