I was 10 years old.
We were living in Plainfield, Indiana. We’d only been there a few months, having moved away from Mooresville, where I’d lived most of my 10 years of life.
It was evening time — dark outside — I remember that. But I don’t remember exactly what time he knocked on the door. Mom answered, and there stood Hugh and Nancy Tipton.
We’d been attending Mt. Gilead church in Mooresville for the last couple years. At least that I remember. Memories prior to your 10th birthday can tend to be kinda fuzzy, but what I do remember is that Mom would take me to church, and we would often sit in the same pew as Hugh and Nancy.
Yes, we had pews. And they were wooden. Those a bit younger than me might remember Mt. Gilead two buildings ago. But if you’re my age and older, you remember Mt. Gilead THREE buildings ago. Today, the previous Mt. Gilead location is known as MG2, and it stands on Kitchen Rd. as it has for the past 30 years or so and serves as a satellite building to the current campus.
But in the open yard just to the front of MG2 is where the building before that stood for nearly 100 years. (In fact, the cafe area in the basement of MG2 today was a part of the original basement to this earlier building.)
It was in THAT building I first remember Hugh and Nancy, and as a young pre-ten-year old child, when I’d get bored at church — as kids of that age are wont to do — I’d crawl out of the pew and play around on the floor and under the pews under Hugh’s and Nancy’s feet. I remember that well.
And so here they were, at our house, and they weren’t there to see Mom. They were there to see me. Actually, Hugh was there to see me, and talk with me, as Nancy chatted up Mom. Hugh asked if I’d considered asking Jesus as my Savior, and if I was interested in getting baptized. I was — I guess he’d sensed something in me at that young age. He talked with me for quite awhile, and left me with a little handbook that detailed the ins and outs of the plan of Salvation, and what it meant to get baptized and ask Jesus into my heart. We’d go over the book, Huey said, and we’d reconvene in a week or two to talk some more about my decision.
A few weeks later I was baptized, as a ten year old boy, because Hugh Tipton came to my house and talked to me about Jesus.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I re-upped, so to speak, a few years later, and was re-baptized by my friend Kenny Fulk as an older teenager. Even though I realize now it was unnecessary to do so, I felt at the time that I hadn’t had a full grasp on what it meant to follow Jesus when I was baptized as a 10 year old, and felt it best to do it right after I had a better understanding.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Huey left his home one night and drove to the next town so he could share the Gospel with a 10 year old.
Because that’s the kind of man Hugh Tipton was, and that’s how much he loved Jesus.
If you’re reading this, and you know Huey, then you probably have a hundred stories, just as I do. And individually, those stories can’t possibly capture the man he was. It is only when they are examined as a whole that you can begin to see the true and more complete picture. All the stories — yours and mine — that really tell the story.
But I’d like to tell one — one that most people younger than me probably wouldn’t recall, and more likely wouldn’t believe if you came to know Huey in the latter half of his life.
Many years ago, Mt. Gilead began periodically putting on musicals. Perhaps they even predate my memories, I can’t say for sure, but they started innocently enough, with adults within the church performing in them. Those led to some great youth musical productions (The Light Brigade and The Race is On, anyone?) Over the past 15-20 years, they’ve morphed into full blown, near-professional theatre productions. We’ve always had great talent at Mt. Gilead for as long as I can remember, especially musical talent. And there’ve been some great performances along the way.
Somewhere along the line — I do not recall if it was before or after my baptism — the church put on a musical entitled The Music Machine. It was fantastic! It was a story about this magical machine that would spit out songs about Christianity if you fed Biblical words into it. In this case, the words of the fruits of the Spirit. You know… love, kindness, joy, self-control, patience, etc. It was wonderful! A conductor (portrayed by Clyde Grammon, if I recall) would turn the big crank on the side of the machine, and it would start chugging this great noise…
{Whir-whir, chicka, chicka, bom-bom, psst….}
And out would pop a song about a certain Christian attribute. Each song sung, of course, by members of our own church.
While I remember precisely the sound the machine would make, I really don’t remember much of the songs themselves.
Except one…
The song about patience. In the musical, the song is sung twice by two different characters, first a snail named Herbert and secondly by his wise old father who had a very deep voice. I honestly do not remember who sang the father’s part.
But I remember Herb the Snail, and he was portrayed by — you guessed it — Hugh Tipton.
Have patience, have patience.
Don’t be in such a hurry.
When you get impatient, you only start to worry.
Remember! Remember! That God is patient too,
And think of all the times when others have to wait for you!
Yes, indeed, sung with vigor in a unique, rich baritone that could only belong to Huey!
Believe it or not.
To this day, I do not know why that has stayed with me so vividly. Not only Hugh singing it, but the exact words to that part of the song. I can only guess, but I think it’s because it was such a different facet of Huey — before or since — than any one of us was used to. Oh, I believe over the years I might have seen Huey in a random choir performance at the church here or there, but if you knew Huey, you knew singing, dancing, performing, or being on stage — in any capacity — wasn’t his forte, and certainly wasn’t his burning desire.
Yes, Huey was many things, to many people. That’s my story, and I’m not alone, I’m sure, in recalling it. You most assuredly have your stories. I’ve known Huey for nigh on 40 years, and we traveled a long road together — from the little boy crawling under his feet under the pew, to working on staff as an adult at the church under his Eldership. Along the way, he showed me tremendous amounts of love and respect and grace and mercy. And we shared laughs and tears. To me, he was a friend, even when he was my boss or colleague, and a brother in Christ. I’ve seen others who knew him post great things about him on social media sites in the last couple days. Impressive lists of who he was, and what he did, and how he touched people, and to what I’ve read, all true, and still don’t come close to accurately describing what a massive Man of God he was.
There are, and will be, multitudes of people in Heaven because of Hugh Tipton. I dare not attempt to even estimate the number. It won’t come close. How many other people can you say that about?
I’ve missed him, and will still, until we meet again, which we will. That makes me smile.
EPILOGUE: As a child, we actually had the album (yes, the LP) of the soundtrack to The Music Machine musical. I listened to it often, and remember marveling at how closely the voices and characters I heard on the album matched those who’d performed it church. I remember being particularly amazed at how closely Huey’s voice matched Herb the Snail from the record.
After writing this column, I decided to poke around on the internet to see if I could find anything from The Music Machine, and wouldn’t you know it? There it was, the full album, start to finish, on YouTube. Amazing thing, that interweb!
Check out the link here. I listened to it all over again. Tell me I didn’t nail the sound of the machine! And my recollection of the lyrics to “Have Patience” was dead on accurate!
And just in case you’re wondering, which you should be by now, the “patience” song starts at the 13:00 minute mark. Herb the Snail is just how I remembered — and he sounds just like Hugh Tipton!
