“Sunday! A family day with a touch of weekend thrown in for good measure.” ― Anthony T. Hincks
Don’t you just love Sundays – that day of the week when we pause for a moment from our work routines? Well, those of us who don’t have those jobs that have to be done on Sundays too like nurses and policemen and preachers. But yesterday I started thinking about all the great Sundays I’ve enjoyed. And many of those happy days were with family members. Sunday is a day for families. It can start out with worship time with your church family. Those people you meet with on Sundays are a family too.
When I as a kid, Sundays meant fun with cousins. My dad wasn’t a churchgoer but he still took Sunday off. He was a farmer and sometimes an ox got in a ditch, but most of the time the work waited for Monday. My husband’s family were churchgoers and his dad would not work on Sunday, except he had a dairy. Cows don’t know Sunday. You have to milk them twice a day every day, so my father-in-law and my husband and his brothers did that work on Sundays. You have to feed your animals on Sunday too. But besides those necessary chores, Sundays were days to pause and rest.
Or play. That’s what we did as kids when we’d either go see our cousins at their house or they’d come see us at our house. The grownups would play cards or sit around talking, but we kids would be outside playing ball or hide and seek or exploring in the woods. Or letting me take their picture with my camera. I always liked this totem pole shot.
Then after I married and had my own children, Sundays still stayed special days for family. Every Sunday would start with church. It would be up and rush around getting the kids dressed and out the door on time for Sunday school an church. When they were babies it could be a challenge keeping them quiet in church. No nursery at our small country church. But a few Cheerios and plenty of stern looks got us through most mornings. Did you know that Cheerios dropped on a hardwood floor can roll a very long way? 🙂 Plus, those Mary Jane black patent shoes with buckles can do a job on stockings. Back then, a woman had to wear stockings and dresses to church. Always.
After church, the kids would run around the churchyard and the adults would stand under the big old oak tree and talk. Then it would be off to either my mother-in-law’s house for dinner or to my mother’s. Sometimes we visited both places. My in-laws first and then my parents. The kids loved it when their cousins were there too. For them, the same as for me when I was a kid, that was play time with cousins who were also their best friends. Plus they loved visiting their granny who is in the picture with all but one of her grandkids.
Things are different for us now. We still get up and rush around to get to Sunday school, but the kids don’t get to come home every Sunday for Sunday dinner. Two of my kids live out of state. The other one is here in my town and sometimes they do come over on Sundays. They did yesterday and we had that fun family time. But my grandkids don’t have the fun of playing with their cousins at this grandma’s house on Sunday afternoons the way I did or the way my own children did. They do have that fun on the other sides of their families with cousins who live closer to them.
Do you have good memories of Sunday afternoon family times?
As always, thanks for reading.
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Our Sunday afternoons (my 8 siblings and I) always included nap time after Sunday School/church and Sunday dinner. The ‘little kids’ needed their naps, and Dad sure appreciated his. So everybody lay down although us ‘big kids’ were merely quiet, not asleep. We knew not to wake Dad, but sometimes after he’d gotten his rest, we could persuade him to take us ‘to the farm’ where he grew up and his parents and 2 brothers operated a dairy. What fun, running and playing with the cousins who lived there, climbing haystacks, or playing hide and seek. Sometimes I’d ride our aunt’s outgrown bicycle a short distance down the gravel road to where the creek flowed underneath. At times there was a mere trickle going through the culverts while in springtime they might be at full capacity with melting snow run-off impatiently racing along. Occasionally Grandpa would cook up a batch of oyster stew with some of the milk from their herd of 100 black and white Holsteins. More than one of the grandkids totally avoided the oysters, enjoying just the seasoned flavor of the warm milk with those special little oyster crackers. No matter the season, there always seemed to be something exciting going on, especially in the eyes of the grandkids!
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Sounds like great Sunday afternoon family memories, Jolene. Thanks for sharing. I can practically see you running around playing with your cousins and having a great time.
I don’t. My dad was a career Army officer so we never lived close enough to either side so that we could have family Sundays as you describe. However, Sundays always have been a special day for our immediate family beginning with church. Growing up mother would either fix a special meal after church or my dad, thinking she should have a day off from cooking, would take us out to eat. At night he would fix popcorn for all of us for supper. 😊 My husband decided long ago that I should also have Sundays off, but everyone could fend for themselves. Of course, little ones had to be fed, but no heavy cooking was involved. I still, at 77, enjoy Sundays off from cooking but still seldom go out to eat. Our two sons live close but their time is spent with their families. Our daughter, at the present, lives in Japan so she can’t come over on Sundays. They all work hard so the day and a half they have on the weekend is normally spent doing what they need to do in their homes. Yesterday we did have the pleasure of having our son and his two boys plus a friend for the afternoon. That was fun!
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I don’t think things are the way they used to be for many families. There seem to be so many different things pulling at people these days, Karen. We don’t seem to have time to go visiting and sit on the front porches and talk about the weather or the neighbors or whatever. But your experience was different since you were an Army family living away from your extended family.
It’s nice that your dad thought your mom should have a Sunday off from cooking. And that your husband followed his example. I have done quite a bit of cooking on Sundays, sometimes for church dinners. Sometimes for my family. But I don’t do any much cooking any time as I used to now that the kids are grown and have their own families. That’s life. Things are always changing.
I loved summer Sundays the best growing up! We attended a small little church close to Eagle Creek. At least once a month during warm, or at least not cold weather, we’d have pot luck dinner on the grounds. And if it hadn’t rained recently, one of the local men would hitch a wagon to his tractor and we’d all go down to the “bottoms” for a picnic and softball game. It wasn’t unusual for a couple of the boys to “accidentally” fall in the creek. Several times a year there’d be a baptism in the creek too. I was one of those on a not quite warm spring day many many years ago. We would all stay until time for evening church. Those were the best Sundays of all.
What great memories you bring back with your posts, Ann! Thank you for sharing!
Have an abundantly blessed week!
Author
Now that sounds like a wonderful church family to be part of Lavon. I’ve only been to one river baptism, but I’ve heard about plenty of others. I used what I heard for the baptism scene in Summer of Joy. Loved writing that scene.
We have some what we call “eating meetings” at our church, but they are different from how they used to be. Everybody always seems to be in such a hurry to get home these days. It’s good to read about how your church family made a day of it and then stayed for night church. As you say, wonderful memories.
The totum pole picture reminds me of the ten siblings in my daddy’s family. That pose turns up when I look through old blurry photos too. Sometimes they gathered around the piano and sang. Mostly they sat, told stories and laughed.
I was so thrilled to hear my daughter-in-law tell a group of Bible Study ladies that our family ‘laughs a lot’. Praise God!
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Helen, that is a good thing for someone to say about a family. Laughter and good times are great memories to have. Families that sit around and tell family stories are the best. We do that with our families. Even when it’s the same stories told again and again, we still laugh.
I was very proud of the totem pole picture when I took it years ago.
Mama and Daddy always cooked a special meal on Sunday. I mention both of them because they shared the cooking. Most Sundays, we enjoyed roast beef, cooked with potatoes and carrots. A side of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers was usually enjoyed, too. Special memories of the delightful aroma filling the house in the afternoon.
Author
That sounds yummy, Melissa. My mom had two meals she’d serve when we all came home on Sundays. One was roast beef, mashed potatoes, etc. The other was this macaroni, tomatoes and hamburger dish she made. Then for dessert we would usually have blackberry cobbler or gingerbread with fruit sauce. She was a great cook.