OPENING EXERCISES

The Church was a red brick building with a bell tower and a flight of concrete steps leading up to the vestibule. To go to Sunday School you went down a flight of steps to the basement. As they went down the steps, the Church bell would be tolling, a fine rich sound of overlapping gongs, signifying that Sunday School was about to begin. The entire Church had the scent of rose petals that had been pressed for a long time between the pages of big books.

The cluster of elementary school children from ages five through thirteen would be assembled for opening exercises on rows of graduated wooden chairs, smallest in front. The opening exercise ritual was about the same each time and had a hypnotic effect on all but a few unfocused children, or perhaps rebels, who would be reprimanded for any deviation or disturbance. One of the grade school girls from the Church, who could play the piano, would accompany the singing. Jenny admired those who could do this, though the playing was often jerky and detached. A group of ladies, who were also their Sunday School teachers would be up front leading the singing and other aspects of the ritual. One of the women would lead the opening exercises with a short prayer, and then Mrs. Morgan, a spare pious looking woman would lead the singing in a sweet rich alto voice with “Have Thine Own Way, Lord.” Jenny later learned to love the simple beauty of this song, but when she was small, she just repeated the words and melody by rote and was glad when it was over.

Mrs. Morgan sang in the choir and was an active member of all the Church’s services and organizations. She had a son and a daughter in high school, who weren’t at all pious, and another daughter a year or two younger than Jenny who wore long pigtails and seemed very smart and good, like her mother. Her husband never went near the Church and had the reputation of being an irreverent rogue and a rascal. She bore her cross bravely and may have even been fond of her rascal.

Mrs. Gobel was another important member of the group. Jenny thought of her as two separate persons, the holy woman at Church, and the neighbor woman who lived in the country about a half mile east of their school. Last day of school picnics and Sunday School picnics were held at Gobel’s Grove. It was within walking distance of the school and there was a grassy meadow with tables for sedate adult picnics. There was a little creek that was dry most of the year, and the children loved scrambling up and down its steep banks, playing in the sandy bed, and having the wiener and marshmallow roast over a campfire in the creek bed as evening approached and they had played to the point of exhaustion and healthy hunger. The earthy Mrs. Gobel was a widow with three grown daughters and several grandchildren. She managed well on her own. Sometimes she boarded the school teacher. She attended P.T.A. regularly, as it was an entertaining social event. She belonged to the same East club that Mother did, and Mother said that she would sometimes gossip in a sly insinuating fashion. She rented a parcel of land to Daddy and was a shrewd business woman.

Next, the collection plate would be passed. Coins would be brought out from pockets, pretty little purses, and the corners of hankies, and would jingle into the plate. One of the women would read a verse from the Bible and another would ask if anyone had had a birthday this week. The birthday child would go to the front and deposit the same number of pennies as his or her age into a special box and Florence Gardner, a woman Jenny thought was so pretty in her pink dress, who taught the primary class of 5 and 6 years olds, and had a little boy of her own, would sweetly lead the group in singing the special birthday song to the birthday child as he or she stood at the front of the room:

                                            Birthday greetings to you  dear.
                                              May you be happy all the year.
                                            If  you are brave and sweet and true,
                                            The Father’s smile will rest on you.
                                              And he will be so glad to see you
                                                  Growing up his child to be.
                                              Oh----- birthday greetings to you dear.
                                                  May you be happy all the year.

Jenny liked this song and she liked it when it was her birthday week. It made her feel very special and surrounded by love. It was like the icing on the cake, and the ribbon on the package.

It was time to go to their classrooms, smaller rooms a little apart from the larger opening exercise room. They marched there single file to the accompaniment of “Onward Christian Soldiers.”