SUNDAY SCHOOL MEMORIES

One day a man came to our house and told mum he was from a church and he was wondering if some  of us kids would like to go to his Sunday School. This man became a huge part of our lives, right up until his death. When I was little he seemed to be old, but looking back he was probably only 40 or so. 
Mum and dad must have thought it was a good idea, cos my brothers  started going. I didn't go there until later.
For some reason we went to a different church.  We went to the Gospel Hall Church. That was quite fun.  In those days we had to dress up.  You know the whole kit and kaboodle.  From head to toe.  I was always dressed beautifully.  Mum used to sew all my dresses, and they were gorgeous.  I remember one though that she bought.  It was lovely but I must say, my favourite ones were the ones she made.  One I loved was pale pink nylony material, with sort of embossed white roses.  It had a lace collar, puffy sleeves, a full skirt and a beautiful belt that mum tied behind my back.  When tied properly the bow sat perfectly and the rest hung down and looked very girly.  The dress mum  bought was a bluey mauvey color and it was velvet.  Very pretty. It also has a lacey collar and tie belt.  It was pretty.  We wore gloves and they were all lacey and very dressy.  Funny, now you only see little girls wearing gloves when they are being flower girls.  Then of course there was the hat.  Our hats were white or cream with a turned up  brim.  Around the brim was a silk ribbon.  It was sewn around to the back and tied in a bow, but the long trailing bits would hang down our backs. We called these ribbons "hanging downs" quite aptly.  We'd flit our heads round fast back and forth to make the ribbons dance. There was a thin band of elastic which went under our chin to keep our hat on our head.  We had special shoes too.  They were our Sunday best.  Patent leather. All shiney and made a clippy sound when we walked. I remember one of my sisters used to paint her shoes garish colours, like lime and orange.  Apart from that though, we always dressed up and looked like princesses.                                                                Anyway, Sunday School.  We would get all dressed up and a lady would come in her huge car and pick us up and drive us to Sunday School.  Everyone called her Auntie, so we did too.  She was a nice lady from what I remember.  Two of my older sisters made friends with two girls but my sister Janet and myself stayed together at first, until we got brave.  You must understand, where we lived neighbours were few and far between, so we were shy as they come.  Maree made friends with a girl who also had a sister my age and eventually we became friends. (she was the girl who gave me my ginger cat, and who my biggest sister tried to chase home when she came to my house after school one day) and Janet made friends with another girl, so the four of us stuck close together.  When we got to Sunday School we sang songs and then we were put into different groups with a teacher.  We each had a pamphlet we coloured in and had a lesson about the bible.  When class was finished we were given a little memo book and a little ticket.  The ticket had a verse from the bible on it with a pretty picture.  We took the book home and learnt the verse on the ticket and recited it to our teacher the next week.  After Sunday School the grown ups went to church and us kids stayed in this huge room playing.  When church was over there was afternoon tea and then "auntie" would take us home.  I loved going to Sunday School, cos there was never any bullies or anything, it was just fun, and I loved dressing up.      
I havn't finished this yet but it's getting long so i'll finish it later.  Bye for now.  Signing off. Roger that.