Firehouse Women Transcript
- [Narrator] Production of this program was made possible in part by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, celebrating the arts in all of our 100 counties.
♪ There's a happy happy day a'coming ♪
♪ When I lay my heavy burdens down ♪
♪ I'll sing around the throne eternal ♪
♪ As the saints all march around ♪
♪ There'll be glory when I meet the Savior ♪
♪ He's the one who died for me ♪
♪ Went across to the other side of Jordan ♪
♪ Just beyond the crystal sea ♪
♪ When I cross to the other side of Jordan ♪
♪ Over on that golden shore ♪
♪ When I cross to the other side of Jordan ♪
♪ Gonna live forevermore ♪
♪ 'Twill be glory in the morning ♪
♪ Where there never comes the night ♪
♪ When I cross to other side of Jordan ♪
♪ Where my Jesus is the light ♪
♪ I have so many loved ones who've made this trip I know ♪
♪ Oh how I long to see them ♪
♪ As I journey here below ♪
♪ To hear them tell of heaven ♪
♪ And the streets all paved with gold ♪
♪ When I cross to other side of Jordan ♪
♪ Hear the half that's never been told ♪
♪ When I cross to the other side of Jordan ♪
♪ Over on that golden shore ♪
♪ When I cross to the other side of Jordan ♪
♪ I'm gonna live forevermore ♪
♪ 'Twill be glory in the morning ♪
♪ Where there never comes the night ♪
♪ When I cross to the other side of Jordan ♪
♪ Where my Jesus is the light ♪
- We've been in the restaurant for 13 years and I suppose we've been singing in the restaurant for 13 years, because we sing wherever we go. The reason it came about is because some of the customers that already knew we did sing, asked if we'd sing. And from that, it kinda just caught on. So we try to oblige when we can, when we're not too busy.
- [Speaker 1] Do we have any hot sauce in the back?
- No, ma'am.
- Okay. ♪ Gonna live forevermore ♪
- When we're all free in the evening, we would be invited from our church to other churches to sing. You get revivals, special singing, special events. So that a lot of the people that came in originally already did know that we sang, and that we sang without music. So they felt free, and they knew how crazy we were too, so they felt free to ask us would we sing, and we are just crazy enough to go ahead and do it. So from that, then other folks that came in. Now practically everybody knows that we sing. And some people bring other people just because they know we sing.
♪ The blessed Savior wrote my name when I was born again ♪
♪ He wrote it when He saved my soul ♪
♪ He wrote that I had made aright my ev'ry sinful wrong ♪
♪ My ev'ry sinful wrong ♪
♪ He wrote my name on Heaven's road ♪
♪ He wrote my name way up in glory ♪
♪ He saved my soul from sin and shame ♪
♪ I never shall forget the day ♪
♪ The blessed Savior wrote my name ♪
- I think the Firehouse Restaurant represents to the town of Gibson, a place where people can get together. And it's a place that holds people together. It's an example of what can be done in a small town. If people would pull together and keep something going.
♪ He wrote my name way up in glory ♪
♪ He saved my soul from sin and shame ♪
♪ I never shall forget the day ♪
♪ The blessed Savior wrote my name ♪
- Years ago, the town of Gibson was sort of like a bubbling community. I mean it was, one of the area attractions. Boy at that time now, of course they had all more stores was open. It wasn't like it is today. We had the stores all up and down this street with people chattering, in and out of stores, laughing, talking, meeting old friends. You couldn't walk down the street more than 15 or 20 feet before you saw someone that you knew. And you stand there and jolly gag with them.
- Just have a good time.
- And that's quite a change from then until now. ♪ ... at the door ♪
- There's nothing in Gibson to keep our young people here.
♪ They often grow weary and so often they lay down the load ♪
♪ But just up ahead are the signs of a much brighter day ♪
♪ Don't lay down the cross, child, we're too near ♪
- We're still around and we're still all have interest in our town and our friends. And hope that there will be a day when we can say it's a thriving town again.
♪ He may appear ♪
♪ Before a new dawning is coming, is nigh at the door ♪
♪ Is coming, is nigh at the door ♪
♪ Nigh at the door ♪
- There's three generations works at the Firehouse. If you don't include my granddaughter who claims to be the manager. And she's an up-and-coming fourth generation.
- You keep wrapping that one until you learn--good like Granny. See how Granny does them? Katie?
- What?
- Did Grandma Lamb show you how to do that?
- No.
- You learn how to do it on that and then next time Granny will let you help her.
- Well, my mother didn't teach anybody how to cook, okay? My mother's a very good cook, but she always worked third shift in the mill. She didn't mind you messing in the kitchen long as you clean up your mess when you got through. So what you did is learn by trial and error.
♪ My mama read a story from the Bible long ago ♪
♪ About Shadrach, Meshach, and old Abednego ♪
♪ How the wicked king commanded ♪
♪ They be thrown into the flames ♪
♪ Because they would not bow ♪
♪ And then deny their Father's name ♪
♪ Mama said the king stood high upon a balcony so tall ♪
♪ When he looked in, he was shocked ♪
♪ By all the things he saw ♪
♪ He thought that he would find them ♪
♪ Lying dead upon the ground ♪
♪ Instead of three he counted four ♪
♪ Up walking all around ♪
♪ I said, "Mama, wait a minute ♪
♪ "There's one thing that I must know ♪
♪ "If three went in and three came out ♪
♪ "Then where'd the fourth man go" ♪
♪ I never will forget it ♪
♪ Mama danced across the floor ♪
♪ These are the words I heard her say ♪
♪ While shouting through the door ♪
♪ She said He's still in the fire ♪
♪ And He's walking in the flames ♪
♪ And He'll be there to help you ♪
♪ When you call upon His name ♪
♪ And He can still deliver ♪
♪ By His almighty power while here below ♪
♪ It's good to know He's still in the fire ♪
- [Speaker 2] Ever since this cholesterol business has gotten so popular, I think they think of fatback as a treat. And have to get their dose of cholesterol in there. They like that.
♪ Because He's still in the fire ♪
♪ And He's walking in the flames ♪
♪ And He'll be there to help you ♪
♪ When you call upon His name ♪
♪ And He can still deliver ♪
♪ By His almighty power ♪
♪ While here below ♪
♪ It's good to know He's still in the fire ♪
- We try to cut out fat where we can. Can't always do that. There's no way to take fat out of fatback. You know what I mean? So they have to get it when they get that.
♪ She said He's still in the fire ♪
♪ And He's walking in the flames ♪
♪ And He'll be there to help you ♪
♪ When you call upon His name ♪
♪ And He can still deliver ♪
♪ By His almighty power while here below ♪
♪ It's good to know hH's still in the fire ♪
- The Firehouse Restaurant reminds me of my grandmama's cooking. And my mama's cooking, because that's where she picked it up from. But it reminds me of when I was a small child, and my great-grandparents lived out in the country. And even though now it's in the city, it was considered country at that time. But just going to their house for Sunday dinner and having rice and gravy, and greens, and fatback, corn bread, and chocolate cake, and whatever else they had on the menu. But that's what it reminds me of. The home-cooked meals that I grew up in the country receiving as a little girl. We're in a fast-paced society now where we eat on the run, and when we can get it.
♪ Now my friends you may be destined ♪
♪ To face life's hottest flames ♪
♪ But I'm glad that I can tell you ♪
♪ Through the power of His name ♪
- I tell ya what's really good, although it's a little thin. Like pancakes, that's unique to this place, very unique. That's what I ate for dessert. With a homemade pepper. Cup of jelly. Have y'all tried that?
- Yeah of course.
- It's great.
- Have to have the jelly.
♪ And He can still deliver by His almighty power ♪
♪ While here below ♪
♪ It's good to know He's still in the fire ♪
- And I'm glad to see that the restaurant has kept that kind of atmosphere going for them. Just that hometown, old-time connection with the businesses. So bringing a good business atmosphere back to Main Street is going to be a big plus for Gibson in the future. If it's in the future for them.
♪ Not one flame of fire will touch you ♪
♪ You'll come through it and you'll tell ♪
♪ Yesterday, today, forever ♪
♪ God is still alive and well ♪
♪ Because He's still in the fire ♪
♪ And He's walking in the flames ♪
♪ And He'll be there to help you ♪
♪ When you call upon His name ♪
♪ And He can still deliver by His almighty power ♪
♪ While here below ♪
♪ It's good to know He's still in the fire ♪
♪ I said here below, it's good to know ♪
♪ He's still in the fire ♪
- But after a while when you learned that you weren't perfect, which almost broke my heart, but I did find out that I wasn't. So after I found that out, and realized that it really didn't make any difference. Nobody else was either. And so, just like today, when we started seeing it was wrong, okay, stop. Start over again because nobody's perfect. Then it made no difference if you're singing to one person or a hundred people, or where you're singing it. Whether there's professional singers there, it makes no difference. So that's the only way I can put it is it really doesn't, as long as you feel like you're singing for the Lord, and that you may be touching somebody else, what you're doing is not for yourself. Although it makes--we love to do it too-- but it's not just for yourself, but it's for the message that's in the song. And it really doesn't make any difference where you're at when you do the singing.
♪ How the people would sing it ♪
♪ Would make the heavens ring ♪
♪ As that old ♪
- You know, it takes a lot off of your mind when you get in the kitchen, or somewhere working, and it just makes you feel better to sing. And another thing, the Bible said, "Make the melody in your heart and it'll lift you up." So that's what it does for me. And I enjoy listening to good singing.
- That's how we learned to start with, because we end up listening to Mama.
- All my mother's people was kind of musically inclined, and they sung. All of her brothers and sisters sing. And my dad played the banjo and my mother played the organ. Of course, I don't know if y'all ever hear the old-timey organ like she played. But I just come up in it and brought my children up in it. So that's the way it happened.
♪ Gather with the saints at the river, that flows ♪
- Well, I like it for one thing. I don't know if anybody else gets anything out of it, but I always get a blessing out of it. And other people tell me that they enjoy it. Of course that makes me feel good too, if they enjoyed it. So, singing with my sisters is my favorite thing to do. That's the only thing I can tell you . Started out when we were just children together. It just comes natural. Seems other people get a blessing out of it and enjoy it. Of course, I like it too.
♪ Beautiful shore by and by ♪
♪ In the sweet by and by ♪
♪ We shall meet on that ♪
- Well, I like to make a joyful noise unto my Lord. It may not be joyful to anyone else who's listening. But to me and my Lord, I guess it is. And I always feel close to him when I'm singing, and singing with my sisters. I'm comfortable doing that.
♪ And that old ♪
- Music is one of my favorite things in church. And to me it's more spiritual than just, I like preaching, but I like music the best.
- Yeah, I'm from country, old Country Church up in Anson county, see. Church in the Wildwood, and the old country church. "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms."
♪ Now the years have gone by, and so many have died ♪
- Sort of a spatial communication building, when we're singing together. We stand close, our arms around each other. Need to bond. When we're all standing up there, all hugged up, it's like we're little again. You know, we're that close.
♪ I'll fly away, oh glory ♪
- Just little things like this really show how special song is. And how, regardless, of what denomination you are, what belief you have, that brings people together.
♪ I'll fly away ♪
- It's a little pocket of reality in a hyper-real world. And it's been forever since I've been coming out here, almost since the beginning, when they opened. And it's been kind of a Saturday morning ritual ever since. Just to come out here and kick back with a New York review of books and get a little local color. And have my two worlds combine.
- Some bring their own cups. When they come in, they get their own cup, and go get their own coffee because they recognize it.
- This is better I poured it. I'll be dog, you don't look like a teenager this morning.
- She said she felt like one.
- I tell you one thing, if she looked any better, she's better looking than I am.
- Thank you, Hal.
- Something else.
- Done that last night.
- You did? That's good.
- You gonna get me the line .
- It's early in the morning just lying you want some.
- No, no I don't. Ain't no way.
- Don't let this morning stop you.
- [Speaker 4] Some of our regular older gentlemen, Liars Club people, solved all the problems or started all the problems of the world. I told 'em, I didn't know which it was, but I knew they were doing one or the other. Lot of lying going on, lot of lying going on.
- Is that right?
- I won't.
- Thank you, dear.
- Thank you.
- Y'all have a great day.
- See you, Terry.
- There you go.
- Thank you, ma'am.
- But there for about four years, as coincidence would have it, every time a mug got broke, the customer would die. I mean that happened, it happened like six or eight times. Of course these were all elderly gentlemen too, with some elderly ladies. But we had one gentleman that his cup was cracked all the way down the side and he wouldn't let us replace it. We just had to give him five or six napkins to keep the coffee from running all over the table. Because it would run out the side. But he never said that's why he didn't want us to take it. He just said it was all right the way it was. But he wouldn't let us get rid of the cup. But we finally broke it and he's still alive. So, it didn't hurt anything. I think he got over his superstition. But truly, I believe that was the reason he wouldn't let us throw away his cup.
♪ So kind and tender ♪
♪ They're leading me ♪
♪ In paths that I must trod ♪
♪ I have no fear ♪
♪ When Jesus walks beside me ♪
♪ For I'm sheltered in the arms of God ♪
- What we call now, what our Liars Club table we also use for our family table. How are y'all getting on today?
- Well, they said it's going to rain this afternoon. Short, short--we're going to have a short shower.
- What about sun up in the morning?
♪ The arms of God ♪
- About all of them calls me Ma and Grandma, so- all of them, I love all of them.
- A lot of people get a lot of nourishment here and it's not definable. A little food with some spirit. I think that's it.
♪ He walks with me ♪
♪ And naught of earth shall harm me ♪
♪ For I'm sheltered ♪
♪ In the arms of God ♪
♪ Yes I'm sheltered ♪
♪ In the arms of God ♪
- That was a prayer.
- That went great.
- I think a good song too, that it'll tenderize, and so to speak, in my language, it tenderizes your heart. I mean, it makes your heart more tender. And especially, you know, you get lonesome and you sing these songs, and it'll break your heart.
- Bring back-
- Cry a little bit, kind of wash the body out.
- Yeah.
- Maybe shed a few tears, kinda wash the body out. We're an old fashioned family, so if we get together--birth, death-- it don't make any difference, we're gonna sing before its over with. And every tragedy or every triumph is together.
- My sisters and my mama, and everybody, took my newborn, who was Emily while I stayed with this one in Charlotte Hospital because she was burned really severely. Third degree burns, third and second degree burns about 65% of her body area.
- [Speaker 7] You were three or four?
- She was just about four, and she was at death's door many times during that time. It was very serious burns. But thank God she's here, and she's the one that likes to sing with us, and is good at it too, my daughter. And then Emily is special too. She's recently overcome vasculitis, which is very rare condition. And then there's my other daughter coming in the door. She's had arthroscopic knee surgery, two dog bites in the face, some various sundry other little ailments, and cuts, and scrapes, and bruises. And in recent, in the last year, well, in other words, this time last year, I was bald. I was in chemotherapy for breast cancer. And I have overcome that. I'm a breast cancer survivor, right? Amen.
- Yes. So see. Everybody has their troubles and trials. You can always find somebody in a lot worse shape. Not that that's a consolation, but it does make you appreciate the blessings that you do have. And my most important one that I always consider, is my family. And I think that is where your strength comes from. At least mine is that family. And if they're gonna sing, then I'm gonna sing. You know, you just don't get out of it. They talk about the ties that bind, those are the ties that bind. Those are the ones that keep you from caving in and falling in. For us, I think I can speak for everybody, for us, it's that family. It's always been, and I know it always will be.
- It's neat to discover that a lot of Southern life doesn't necessarily go on in Atlanta and big cities like that. But it goes on in places like where we are now.
- All those empty windows can become full again with wonderful shops. And the Firehouse could actually be the anchor store of this downtown district. I'd love to see Gibson rejuvenated. And if the Firehouse is here, I feel like there's still a chance that it might happen.
♪ They're holding up the ladder that I'm climbing on ♪
♪ I'm climbing up the ladder and I'm going home ♪
♪ At top of the ladder, O what joy there will be ♪
♪ And the angels are holding up this ladder for me ♪
- Because they've got faith in God. That's why they're hanging on. You can see that, hear it in the music. That's, it's gotta be a lot of that. It's gotta be a lot of that. You gotta have that faith. And if you've got that faith with the good times and the bad times, you're not going to give up. You're not going to give up, you're going to keep forging on. And that's something else, another quality we've got to instill in boys and girls. Keep the faith and believe in yourselves, so you can succeed.
♪ They're holding up the ladder that I'm climbing on ♪
♪ I'm climbing up the ladder and I'm going home ♪
♪ At the top of the ladder, O what joy there will be ♪
♪ And the angels are holding up this ladder for me ♪
- Well, it's always--we come for the food-- but it's always a treat when they do sing. And they say they will if anybody ask them. So they've got a standing order from me . I love singing.
♪ Come on you Christian soldiers ♪
♪ Show the world your light can shine ♪
♪ Get on this gospel ladder ♪
♪ And don't be afraid to climb ♪
♪ Can't you hear the angels beckoning ♪
♪ Keep climbing and don't stop ♪
♪ There's a crown of life awaiting ♪
♪ For you when you reach the top ♪
♪ They're holding up the ladder that I'm climbing on ♪
♪ I'm climbing up the ladder ♪
♪ And I'm going home ♪
♪ At the top of the ladder O what joy there will be ♪
♪ And the angels are holding up this ladder for me ♪
- Well, beside the food is the fact that something feels right here. And you can't describe that in detail. And I really want to feel in some way connected. If I feel disconnected, which is frequently, it's the Firehouse.
♪ As I climb this Gospel ladder ♪
♪ Always heeding every sign ♪
♪ I know my Savior's with me ♪
♪ And He's teaching me to climb ♪
♪ Every day that I am climbing there's a battle for me ♪
♪ Every step on this ladder is another victory ♪
♪ They're holding up the ladder that I'm climbing on ♪
♪ I'm climbing up the ladder and I'm going home ♪
♪ At the top of the ladder O what joy there will be ♪
♪ And the angels are holding up this ladder for me ♪
♪ Come on you Christian soldiers ♪
♪ Show the world your light can shine ♪
♪ Get on this Gospel ladder and don't be afraid to climb ♪
♪ Can't you hear the angels beckoning ♪
♪ Keep climbing and don't stop ♪
♪ There's the crown of life awaiting for you ♪
♪ When you reach the top ♪
♪ They're holding up the ladder that I'm climbing on ♪
♪ I'm climbing up the ladder and I'm going home ♪
♪ At the top of the ladder O what joy there will be ♪
♪ And the angels are holding up this ladder for me ♪
♪ As I climb this gospel ladder always heeding every sign ♪
♪ I know my Savior's with me ♪
♪ And He's teaching me to climb ♪
♪ Every day that I am climbing, there's a battle for me ♪
♪ Every step on this ladder is another victory ♪
♪ They're holding up the ladder that I'm climbing on ♪
♪ I'm climbing up the ladder and I'm going home ♪
♪ At the top of the ladder O what joy there will be ♪
♪ And the angels are holding up this ladder for me ♪
♪ They're holding up the ladder that I'm climbing on ♪
♪ I'm climbing up the ladder and I'm going home ♪
♪ At the top of the ladder, Oh what joy there will be ♪
♪ And the angels are holding up this ladder for me ♪
♪ Yes, the angels are holding up this ladder for me ♪
