Jesus & Peanuts

When I was growing up we attended Plainview Baptist Church in Tulsa, OK and it was my entire life, the center of my world, from birth until ninth or tenth grade. I had friends I made in the crib as a babe (A couple I still have, including Heather at Stelliform.) and started every Sunday morning with a hug from my Mam-ma. She lived across the street from the church and when she arrived, the first thing she would do was come and find me to say hello.

Other PBC memories:

  • Krissy Hillis accidentally hit me over the head with her purse while playing tag before Sunday night church. It probably wouldn't have been a problem, but she had stuffed a giant bottle of perfume into it--which broke. Over my head. Childhood concussion number two.
  • The old sanctuary had red carpet in it, which my Mam-ma had picked out as red was always her first choice for anything.
  • Singing 'Do Your Ear's Hang Low' way too many times.
  • I was a part of the puppet ministry and we would take our puppet show to other churches and perform for kids. We made our own puppets in the spirit of "red and yellow, black and white," which isn't very PC today I guess, and I made a Black girl puppet. She was fabulous and not some stereotypical bush woman or something, but a true Black girl of the late 70s with a cool t-shirt and braids with tons of beads on the ends. When she shook it, you knew it.
  • I went on a ministry trip that involved taking a dilapidated school bus from Oklahoma to Florida in the middle of summer with two nursing mothers on board. Luckily, I got dropped at my aunt's in the panhandle on the way back and then got to fly home.
  • Mr. Peanut had something to do with Jesus.

That's right. Somehow at our church Mr. Peanut was related to the Bible and story of Jesus. Kids didn't go to regular church then, we had our own special service complete with snacks, felt story boards, kid-friendly songs and occasionally a special visitor. Sometimes that visitor was Mr. Peanut. One of the men at our church worked for Planter's and I guess they thought it would be a real treat for a "celebrity" to show up at church, so he borrowed the life-sized Mr. Peanut costume, came to the kid's service and handed out little bags of peanuts like you might get on a plane. Was there a story? Did they connect peanuts and a giant monocle-wearing peanut to the message of Jesus? According to "Facts of the Bible.com," only pistachios and almonds are mentioned in the Bible. And technically, peanuts aren't a nut so I guess that doesn't really matter.

Anyway, I don't remember the connection between Mr. Peanut and the Bible. I think I was too shocked and amazed that such a famous character would be visiting my little church in Tulsa, OK. I wish I had gotten his autograph. Like Proust's madeleine, these Mr. Peanut-shaped jars at Big Lots sent me whirling down a tunnel of childhood church memories. Thanks for coming along.