Have you ever been to a “pounding?” Salvation South editor Chuck Reece was taken to one when he was a child, but he never knew where that name came from. That is, until a writer submitted a story to his magazine about the fading Southern tradition where those who have, help those who don’t. Chuck explains in this week's commentary.

Old time jars on a shelf
Credit: Courtesy Salvation South

 

TRANSCRIPTS:

I first heard the word one Christmastime, a long time ago, and it scared me pretty bad.

My mom and dad told me we would need to go to our church on a Wednesday night for what they called a “preacher poundin’.”

Now you might guess how that would scare a young man. Were we going to gather at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church to beat up our preacher? Pound him with our fists? Or, worse yet, a stick?

No, Mom and Dad explained, we were going to the church to give Christmas presents to the preacher and his wife. In the little churches around Gilmer County, like Pleasant Valley, the pastors were generally volunteers. Not paid employees of the church. So, it was customary to give them presents at Christmastime. It was the least you could do.

But for decades, I never knew where the word “poundin’’” came from.

Deb Bowen is a writer from the North Carolina coast who the readers of our online magazine Salvation South love dearly. She sent me a new story she had written, called “Takin’ Up a Poundin’.”

And in that story, I finally learned what a poundin’ was. Deb was telling a story she heard from her mother, who was a kid during the Great Depression. Deb’s mom and her friend Hyacinth overheard the prayers of the wife of the preacher at the little church they attended in Wilmington. And this is what they heard:

“Please, Lord, I’m not asking for food for me and John, but please give us milk for the baby.”

It was the Depression. Times were hard. Food was scarce because money was, too. But still, their new baby needed to be fed.

So, Hyacinth and Deb’s mama ran home to fetch her little red Radio Flyer wagon. Deb’s grandmother asked them, “Where y’all goin’ in a such a hurry?”

Deb’s mama replied, “We’re takin’ up a poundin’ for the preacher’s wife!”

Deb explains the origin of the term in her story. This is what she wrote:

I don’t know if the custom of “takin’ up a poundin’” was peculiar to Mama’s neighborhood in Wilmington, North Carolina. I have heard it in only one other place — up the coast on Ocracoke Island. The tradition was simple: a “pounding” was when you asked folks to contribute a pound of whatever food they could spare to a neighbor in need.

Finally, I knew what that scary word meant. And I knew that I loved it.

The holiday season is a time when we share whatever bounty we have been graced with. Or at least, it should be the time when we share that. I once read in an old book, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required.”

So this year, I’m going to be careful to look for places in my community where there is a need that I just might be able to fill, with a pound of something I already have.

Happy poundin’, y’all. You can read Deb’s full story, which is as sweet as holiday cookies, at SalvationSouth.com.

Salvation South editor Chuck Reece comments on Southern culture and values in a weekly segment that airs Fridays at 7:45 a.m. during Morning Edition and 4:44 p.m. during All Things Considered on GPB Radio. He also does an extended version of the podcast called Salvation South Deluxe each month. You can also find them here at GPB.org/Salvation-South and please download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform as well.