My Growing Up Years

The church of my childhood, in the 1960s

I remember playing on the lawn of that church with the other kids.  We'd play Tag, running around the palm trees with their overhanging fronds.  We'd play Hide and Seek, running in and out of the arbor vitae and juniper trees growing against the walls of the church.  We'd have wars, pulling off the sage green "berries" from the arbor vitae and throwing them at each other in make-believe fights.  The boys could throw harder and the hits could sting.  After the "berries" had lost their seeds they were just brown empty hulls, and we couldn't throw them hard.

At night after the church meeting was over our parents would stand around, talking and laughing up and down the outside steps.  We'd run in and out between them, looking for our friends and calling to them to come and chase us.  We'd break off pieces of plants and hold them against the floodlights lighting the front of the church.  The lights were hot and we'd watch the greenness of the plants shrivel and darken from the heat.  Sometimes we'd burn our fingers a little.

Gradually people would collect their children and go home.  Some would drive in their cars, and some would walk home.  We lived close enough to walk, but usually drove because we had little kids.  Sometimes we'd sneak away from our parents' view to play a little longer, knowing they wouldn't leave us behind.  Often my family would be near the last to leave.

In the daytime we'd roam around the small enclosed parking lot at the right side of the church.  There was a larger unpaved dirt parking lot on the left side of the building, but it didn't have any plants growing around it.  The paved side had rose bushes lining the walls. They smelled so sweet when they were blooming, and they looked so beautiful!  Red, yellow, pink, mixes of colors, some climbing the flat brick walls, others guarding the walkway into the kitchen.  Some windows opened out above the rosebushes and those classrooms would have the scent of the blooming roses.

We learned about the Bible in our weekday children's classes.  The meeting lasted an hour and a half, after school.  I remember once bringing a little milk carton from my school lunch, like the other kids, and we covered them with white salt clay dough to make a biblical house.  There was a parapet around the top and a small stairway at the side.  We would memorize scriptures and learn songs that taught the books of the Bible in order, too.

I remember that for several years there were just two or three of us girls in my class (the boys had a separate class). We'd sit knee to knee with our female teacher in a corner of the recreational hall for our lesson, while other groups sat around their teachers, in their wooden-seated folding chairs.  Our class was small, others were larger.  We all talked at once, no blackboards were used at all.  Each teacher had their own manual to teach from, and they usually read the stories right from it, and asked questions of us children.  We sat, and listened, and talked for about 40 minutes, after having been in school all day.

I still remember the lady who taught us songs during Singing Time.  She had a wonderful voice and knew how to encourage children to sing.  She would do a sideways figure 8 pattern with her hand when she lost her place in the music and didn't know what beat she was on.  That is a very convenient thing to know!  I met her at Easter this year and thanked her for teaching us singing so long ago.

The first class I remember was called Rainbows.  The next class was Co-Pilots, then Top Pilots.  We had small scrapbooks we would glue the week's handout into.  They were fun to look at.  I wish I still had mine.  The boys and girls separated the next year, at age 9.  The boys went into Blazers.  The girls went into the Lihoma program, Gaynotes, Firelights, and Merrihands.  The boys learned scouting type stuff, and the girls learned homemaking skills.  The Gaynotes learned to embroider a sampler, the Firelights learned how to knit a potholder, and the Merrihands learned how to crochet a small purse.  I don't know what happened to my pink potholder, but I still have the framed sampler and the white purse.  The cross stitch sampler said, "I Will Bring The Light Of The Gospel Into My Home."

Of course, we all learned about Jesus and his teachings and how we should act, as well as doing handicrafts.  I remember the songs for two of the classes and wish I remembered the song for the last year.  The emphasis in our lessons - speaking from the girls' experience - was on kindness, taking care of ourselves, planning for our homes, and keeping the commandments.  We learned about the pioneers who came west, and celebrated Pioneer Day, July 24, with songs and a dinner at the church.

When we turned 12 years old, we graduated into the teenager classes.  The boys entered the Boy Scouts of America program.  The girls went into Beehives, MIA Maids, and Laurels, for two years each.  The girls' classes still had songs for each group, and we learned more about virtue, purity, vice, homemaking, cheerfulness, kindness, the scriptures and about Jesus.

We could earn little pins in Beehives, an Honor Bee the first year and a Beehive the second year.  I wrote my reports, and attended my Sunday meetings, and earned my Honor Bee, but didn't acquire the Beehive.  When we moved into MIA Maids, we were given a fancy binder, white with a white rose imprinted on the cover.  It was called "My Treasures of Truth," and was just like the one my mother had.  It was essentially a personal history binder, and I worked to organize my life's small mementos and my stories of my life so they could go in my Treasures of Truth. Mine isn't as fancy as my mother's, but it will do. 

For the last two years we were awarded a small gold necklace of a laurel leaf with a tiny pearl for completing the requirements.  I still have that necklace.  I've worn it and my Honor Bee many times, proud of my awards.  Each of my achievements meant a great deal to me then, and now.  I was even looking forward to becoming a Gleaner when I was 18, just like my mom.  The young men became M-Men.  But the church changed the program my last year in Laurels and did away with those last two group designations.

When I turned 12, we completed a new, bigger church building because we'd grown so much. We left the old building near the center of town and moved out by the new college.  For some of us, it was in walking distance, but only if you were wearing tennis shoes, because there weren't any sidewalks the last half mile, just sand at the side of the road. It had a much bigger chapel and recreational hall, and many more classrooms with blackboards, and carpeting everywhere. 

The old church house is still there in my hometown.  It belongs to another church now.  The roses and the palm trees are gone, but the front steps and the sidewalk are still the same, and I remember it all so well.  It reminds me of a very happy time in my life.