By the way, I should have noted that the phrase "All day singin' and dinner on the ground" is a commonplace, used in advertising revivals and camp meetings in the south for probably the best part of a century or more.

The idea was, if you would come to hear the preachin', you could get to eat a vast array of food, wonderful delicacies fixed specially for the occasion ... source, also, of the "Methodist Pie" song:

Well, they all go there for to have a good time
And to eat that grub so sly,
Have applesauce, butter, and sugar in the gourd,
And a great big Methodist pie.

Needless to say, the food you could get at the revival gatherings was home cooking and the very best the community ladies could produce. They vied for tastiest and best, fanciest and most delicious, sometimes held bake-off and eating contests as well (though not necessarily under the auspices of the revival), and it was stuff you would be unlikely to get at home unless your Mama or wife was an especially good and versatile cook.

Usual meals were not necessarily sparse but they were plain. Most women had too much to do to have time for fancy cooking every day. They fed men needing a lot of calories, mostly fat, for field work -- they burned it off and many stayed thin as a rail on pork, lard, drippin's, hoecake, johnnycake, etc. But the usual home meal did not offer many choices. "Dinner on the ground," by contrast, attracted top dishes from every woman in the congregation, and was SOME eatin'.

Applesauce was rare. Butter was rare, most people made do with lard in the country. Sugar in the gourd was a real special item for parties only, sucked by the kids to keep them quiet. And the average farm wife did not bake pie very often, maybe only for a Sunday treat or not at all. To this day southern wives love to spread a table groaning with food for guests, in part to show they can: barbecue, fried chicken, two or three sorts of potatoes, green beens fixed with salt pork, salads of greens, salads of jello and fruit, biscuits, rolls and other bread, chocolate cake, and pies, pies, pies...

Gawd, and me on diet. You can tell it, can't you?

I do think if it wasn't for "dinner on the ground," religion would never have made such headway in the south.

Bob