Sunday School.

Oh my, brought back memories. We had to attend church twice on Sunday's as well as Sunday school. Hated it. All dressed up in Sunday best. Shows how much it did for me anyway. Like some others, I used to cream off a percentage of the money I'd been given for collection. I earned that money!! Just hated church and ss. When they open the book of reckoning upon my arrival at the Pearly Gates my section will be the length of a War and a Peace ???

HildaJ That has rung some bells.

We all went to the village Methodist chapel, I thought to get us out of the way for a bit of peace! I liked the singing and the colouring pictures. We all stopped going when there was a big scandal about about one of the men and an affair with somebody's mother! My Mother was from Northern Ireland and I think it confirmed her belief that religion was evil having witnessed the Protestant/Catholic hatred in her youth.

My father believed we should make our own minds up but we needed to experience it first. He bought me a bible when I was 11. I still have it, falling to pieces and full of scribbled criticisms! Yes I am a very well informed non believer!

My Dad was a chapel steward too Nellie. He also did the chapel newsletter and the plan. My Mother was the Sacrament steward for years too. They were happy childhood years!

"Only a boy called David,
Only a rippling brook,
Only a boy called David
Five little stones he took".

One little stone went in the sling,
And the sling went round and round,
One little stone went in the sling
And the sling went round and round.

Round and round,
Round and round
Round and round and round.

One little stone went up up up,
And the giant came tumbling down.

No playing out for us on Sundays! We went to church in the morning, came home for dinner and then my brother and I walked to Sunday school. I didn't realise until my adult years that this must have been so that parents could have the house to themselves and get jiggy. Sunday school proved good for me because there was a Sunday school teacher who realised I had a good singing voice and worked with me to learn songs to sing in church as solos. I think it was due to her that I began to have confidence in singing and this has been very important to me for all of my life.

Chewbacca, maybe I`m wrong, because that sounds just like the old mill we went to, complete with rickety old lift, so maybe it was Ancoats, not Oldham.

Was this the rest of the verse Nelliemoser?

^And when the Saviour passed that way
He looked into the tree
And said, "Now, Zacchaeus, you come down
For I'm coming to your house for tea"^

You're right, those little hymns stay in the memory for a lifetime.

Another lapsed Methodist here
I am HAPPY
I am HAPPY
I know I am i'm sure I am
I am HAPPY

I am SAVED etc.
etc
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
??To shine for him all day??

Hear the pennies dropping
watch them as they fall
Every one for Jesus
?He shall have them all??

Now Zachius was a very little man
and a very little man was he.
He climbed to the top of a sycamore tree
Our Saviour for to see.

These early learnt Sunday school Chorus's really stay in your mind.
Juliette That is what I though the words were. There must be more.
I wonder if the chorus's were generally Non Comformist or mainly Methodist things .

The Methodist Chapels I spent my childhood in were not that rigid. My father was the chapel steward for years doing the collections .
No one did hymns like Charles Wesley. Every one a really good sing along . Far more interesting and lively than most of the C of E ones I have heard.
Brass bands often warm up to Hymns and there is an expression about playing the hymns at "Chapel Speed" which is often faster than what to me appears to be rather dirge like C of E renditions.

Please add any more chorus's if you know any .

The one we went to, back in the 1950s, was in an old Mill in Ancoats, Manchester. About 4 floors of clothing, accessed by a terrifyingly rickety lift that frightened the bejaysus out of a 6 year old!

Chewbacca, I went to Sylvana once with my friend and her parents. Where was yours? The one we went to was in an old mill in Oldham.

Both my parents were regular churchgoers so my brother and I had no choice but to be there 3 times a day. Mum would put a casserole and rice pudding in the oven on a low light for us to come home to at lunchtime with a welcoming smell when we walked in. We lived at the seaside so after the afternoon Sunday school we went a walk on the prom in our Sunday best but were not allowed an ice cream on Sundays. It was a way of life which continued into my teens and I met my husband at the youth club.

Every Sunday, as soon as the Billy Cotton Band Show began on the radio at 2 o'clock, we were packed off to the Methodist Church Sunday School. We were given 1d for the collection plate. I remember us sitting on little wooden chairs and singing hymns such as "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam' and "I Am H. A. P. P. Y.". I received several books for good attendance and one was Joseph and His Coat of Many Colours and another was Jesus by The Sea of Gallilee. They had very colourful stickers on the inside of the front cover with you name and the percentage of your attendance. Your attendance at Sunday School had a direct bearing on whether you'd be able to help carry the banner in the Whit Walks or not and, as it was the only time of year that we ever got new clothes, even us kids worked out that it was best just to suck it up. But the new clothes, from Sylvana, were never allowed to be worn except "for best".

I went to Sunday school - fat lot of good it did me! I used to save half the collection money to buy a cream bun on the way back!

I think parents used to send their children to give them the privacy to make more children!

I remember that verse too Juliette you brought it all back to me, another one I remember Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, - happy days.

My atheist father and non-practicing, (at the time), Catholic mother believed that at some point we could make up our own minds about religion so didn't stop us from attending any religious ceremony should we wish to do so. The Catholic Church didn't have a Sunday School but I went to Mass regularly during my summers in Ireland so I was very familiar with it already. Curiosity made me try out every Sunday School in our smallish village, two Church of Scotland, one baptist and one 'happy clappy' for want of knowing its proper name. I became popular with the Sunday School leaders as I had a talent rote learning and would happily recite screeds of whatever scripture I was given, my singing voice on the other hand probably gave them nightmares but I knew every word of every hymn and belted them out with gusto.

One memorable Sunday I went home and shared the fact that I'd been 'Saved' that morning, no idea what it meant but I was a bit of a drama queen and quite enjoyed the fuss. My Dad gave me a lecture on critical thinking and not being afraid to stand away from the crowd. After that I got a bit bored with it all although I did miss the singing.

Thank you annsixty I always remember the actions, and to Deep and Wide ?

Mine was very much a non-church family, but wanting to take part in the Manchester Whit Walks I learned that I would have to attend the local Methodist Sunday School for at least the three weeks prior to the walk. I duly went along and endured the most boring hour of my life; the second week was the same and so with reluctance I gave up the idea of joining in the Whit Walk. However, the experience came in very handy when, many years later, I became a Sunday School teacher myself and tried very hard to ensure that the children were never bored. I taught Sunday School for 27 years and am still in touch with many of the youngsters who came to my classes.

There didn't seem to be an equivalent of Sunday school in the Catholic church, but we didn't get off the hook, oh no!. Mass in Latin and if we were really unlucky dragged back to church in the afternoon for Benediction

My sister and I went to Sunday School every week. One Sunday there was a problem and we were sent home early. As we arrived home I noticed that my parents bedroom curtains were closed. My dad came down to let us in and said they were in bed because they had suddenly become ill but were better now

I was brought up a Catholic so no Sunday school but had to go to Catechism every Saturday.

Yes, I also went to Sunday School run by two elderly spinsters (well they seemed elderly to me). Always had a 'best coat and shoes' which probably came for C & A. As I was an only child I enjoyed the company and the seaside outings and the Christmas parties with children from the local orphanage.
At the time we lived on a really deprived estate but not many of the local children went, I don't think their Mum's had enough money to do Sunday Best, as this was in 1946 and money was very tight.

Yes, I went to Sunday school, along with my siblings. My mother and step-father weren`t churchgoers, but we went to the Sunday school at the local Congregational church, in a hall at the back of the church. There was a separate room for the littlies, called the primary, then when we got a bit older we were in the main hall. The teacher was Mr.Noble, and there was a secretary called Peter, and a young woman called Pamela, but don`t know what she did. When we were bored, we`d take hazel nuts to Sunday School, and place them on the floor so that when we stood up to sing hymns we trod on them and there was a very satisfactory CRACK!
At the whit walks which went right round the village, we were led by the local brass band, the Elsecar main colliery band, they wore a dark green uniform, and there was a lorry for the little ones to ride on the back when they got tired of walking. It was the only time that we got new clothes, that were then our Sunday best.
Once a year there was prize giving, and we received books for attendance, whichever book you got depended on how many times you`d been. I never got the "big" prize, which was a Bible, but that never worried me!
We went twice, morning and afternoon, and most Sunday afternoons I`d get the bus afterwards and visit my great aunt Rose, who lived at Hoyland Common, I adored her, I`d have my tea there, then get the bus home in the evening.

That was Zachias.You have reminded me of that now, I think it will be an earworm for the rest of the day.

Yes I went on a Sunday afternoon. We had stories, songs, coloured stickers for attendance and a Christmas party and Whit Walk. I once went to a Methodist Sunday School with a friend. It was much more fun .I remember a song about a ' funny little man who climbed up into a tree' ! Only went the once though as my Mum was strictly CofE

Thank you Juliette ! I had totally forgotten that verse until you reminded me of it. I've been singing it ever since. We always had a threepenny bit to put in the collection.