Have I Been Here Before?

Back when I was in high school, my church youth group would go on choir trips. We’d ride on the bus for hours, stop in some strange town, sing in a church, then hop back on the bus for another whistle stop somewhere else.

We loved these trips. Not only did it give us a chance to get out of Mayberry for a few days, but we’d get a chance to check out the girls in other church youth groups.

Funny but I distinctly remember one such trip when our youth group visited Bluegrass Baptist Church. I don’t remember much else except that somewhere on that trip we stopped off at Johnny Cash’s house and took some pictures. I’d always thought that church was in Kentucky (hence the name “Bluegrass”).

The host church would line up families to put us up for the night and it was on this trip that our host family had a party for some of the other kids in the youth group. I remember they put us up in a basement with a tv, pool table, couch etc.

Years and years later, one of my buddies back home was visiting Hendersonville when he went to a party at a house with a basement. He kept thinking “this place seems familiar”. Turns out, it was the same basement and house we had stayed 26 years ago.

And now this is where it gets really strange. I was talking to my mom on the phone Sunday and it suddenly dawned on me that “Bluegrass Baptist Church” wasn’t in Kentucky, but right here in Hendersonville. In fact, it’s just down the street from our new house! I dug up an old photo of our youth group in front of that church and might post it here when I get my scanner out of storage.

But no…our house is not the one from 26 years ago but it’s around here somewhere.