RECOLLECTIONS ...FROM A JEREMIAH PEOPLE Tour
By Sterling
Swan, Technical Director
(Jeremiah
People began in 1971. They were a comedy, drama, music team, part of the
Continental ministry, that toured coast to coast nine months out of the year for
45 + years.)
A VIVID
MEMORY
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| Jeremiah People 1974-75...and the van |
One morning,
following a very heavy rainstorm the previous night, we were driving east along
I-40 toward Little Rock, Arkansas.
Although low on fuel, we elected to bypass the exit at hand and stop at
the next station down the road.
Less than 2 miles east of that unwise choice, we realized that we could easily run out of gas before the next gas station. No problem, we’ll just cross the grassy median strip, double back and gas up. Half way across that median strip we bogged down in what had become muck and there we sat…totally stuck! This in itself was not unusual for a Continental tour, in those years busses and vans were frequently breaking down. (Thank you, Sterling!) We finally got a tow truck to pull us out, drove back and fueled up.
Little did
we know that the Arkansas highway patrol, acting on a tip, had staked out that
portion of the interstate looking for out-of-state vehicles carrying illegal
drugs. Our little median strip u-turn
aroused the suspicion of the stake-out team and they started trailing us in
unmarked cars as we headed east again.
It all came
to a head on the western edge of Little Rock as three unmarked patrol cars
pulled us over right on the busy interstate.
Jon Sherberg, who was driving at the time, was asked to get out and sit
in one of the patrol cars while they check his license. A few minutes later the detective in charge
told the other six of us to get out of the van, open the back doors and empty
the van. EMPTY THE VAN!! …on the side of
the road.
Now it was
clearly time to play our Christian card.
We explained that yes, we were from California, but our president, Cam
Floria didn’t allow us to use any drugs stronger than Tylenol. Yes, we were smuggling things…Christian tapes
and records from state to state that even the detective’s mother would probably
like listening to and best of all, we were performing in a church in Little
Rock that very evening. He heard our
story, looked at our sardine-like maxi-van, paused and sent us on our way.
That night,
after we arrived and before our performance commenced, one of the church staff
people commented with squinty eyes, “So, I saw your Jeremiah People van stopped
on I-40 earlier this afternoon surrounded by police cars. Seemed serious. What happened?”
(Here we go
again…) “Would you believe……”
“Nothing is
hidden that shall not be revealed…”
Members of
the 1974-75 J.P. “smuggling team” were: Jon Sherberg, Mike Johnson, Jim Custer,
Pam Bartlett, Vicki Robbins, Judy Walker and Sterling Swan.
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| Sterling Swan |
