Sundays in the "olden days"

My nan and me walked to the morning service which was about a mile away. It was a lovely walk in the summertime we hardly went in winter unless someone was kind enough to give us a lift. After the morning service we went to my auntie’s house for Sunday lunch. My cousins and myself went Sunday school and then came home for tea after which we all went to the evening service and then someone would give us a lift home. I loved it. I had lots of friends at church some of whom I’m still friends with today,and of course I got to see my lovely cousins.
When my nan got too I’ll to go. She’d send me to the evening service to listen to the sermon that I was supposed to tell her all about when I got home. Well of course I could never remember it being all of 11 years old and mainly whispering to my cousin through most of the service and trying to avoid the icy glare of my auntie as she tried keeping us quiet. Bless her ?

I remember having to get up to go to Sunday school, then straight into church and back out half way through to another Sunday school. We came home to steamed up windows with dinner on the go, my mum and dad sent us to church and they stayed home. I never understood that at all, we had to got to school all week and then spend half of Sunday in church and they never bothered going themselves.
Our school uniforms used to be all trying to dry in front of the open fire if it was pouring with rain. There were no big shops open and it took a long while here in N. Ireland for them to finally allow them to, although our opening hours now are 1-6pm so we can still go to church in the morning!
Our homework had been done on the Friday when we came home from school, but if it was spellings or reading you did that on Sunday so you wouldn't forget it....Then we were all bathed( in the same water), ears done and maybe a bowl haircut into the bargain, plus the wonky fringe.
You never cleaned windows, cut the grass and some wouldn't even turn on the television because it was a Sunday. Oh how times have changed.

I still dislike Sundays, especially wet ones! Wasn’t allowed to go on the swings when mum met me from Sunday School and we walked through the park.

In my road in 1956 none of my friends were allowed to play outside on Sundays. My Dad (not religious) suggested I cross the road to the other side and make friends with the "gang" who were allowed to play on the sabbath day. I was an only child, so I went over and for the years that followed I had one group of playmates for the week, and a separate one for Sundays. This group were considered "rough", but my Dad and Mum were happy for me to be occupied, and we were friends for years.

Sunday school 2 or 3 times (I was May Queen 1965). Billy Cottons band show, Jimmy Clitheroe, Sing Something Simple.

Biglouis
What I still see as the good old days.You can keep your cars /TV / holidays to any where in the world
Are we any happier for all this.?

MissAdventure

I hated Sundays, because I knew Monday was next, and that meant school.
After the charts on the radio, it was time for "Sing Something Simple", then bath time, ears cleaned out, and toenails cut painfully short.
I feel depressed thinking about it!

Snap! We also were not allowed to play "in the front" ! Had to be back garden. Church always, hated it! Sometimes walked about 5miles across Manchester to visit aunty and uncle and glamorous dad's cousin auntie Hilda! (Orange lippy and nails matched stilletoes, dead short sharp haircut, loved her to bits!! ) She could always out argue dad, best bit about her!! She always sent me Christmas cards upto 2007 When she passed, I now realise she was probably gay.she was very high up in ICI very unusual in the 50s60s.

One of the worst things about Sunday’s in the early ‘60s was Sing Something Simple on the radio- it gave me a terrible realisation that there was school the following morning. One of the best things about late 60’s Sunday afternoons was going to the 14-16s disco at a city centre nightclub

Loving these. Bringing back lovely memories. I wish there was a like button on here

I was a young Mum with two children in the 1950s living in a flat in London. Weekends we would walk with the dog to Blackheath to either play ball or sail model yacht t on the pond or walk through Greenwich Park to the river.
In winter we went to one of the London museums,
When we acquired a car we went further afield and met my sister, parents and grandparents for a picnic.
In 1954 we got a touring caravan on a site in Kent where we went every weekend making a lot of new friends.
We got a black and white TV in 1953. One channel.
1956 we moved to Surrey so as well as going for picnics on Sunday we had the garden and the children had a new lot of friends to play with and as we were only thirty miles from the coast could go there for the day.

We used to be packed off to Mass every Sunday morning come rain or shine. Our parents never went. We had to listen to the priests droning on. One used to tell us that if our parents had given us coppers to put on the collection plate, we should spend them at the sweet shop and tell our parents to give us silver or notes next week. This was to parents struggling to feed their kids. However, there used to be one shop open and we always hoped we would get the priest who told us to spend it, even though he was terrifying.

Like others here, we were not allowed to play outside, OK in your own garden. Mostly went to Sunday School. Roast dinners, lovely beef dripping in which we used to 'dip' bread! My Mother had been brought up by a very strict Grandmother and no sewing was allowed as "your fingers would drop off". Listening to the various Radio shows, Billy Cotton "Wakey Wakey" etc as we had no TV.

Aged about 8 or 9 I went to Sunday School on Sunday mornings. In my teens I often went round to my grandparents for their Sunday roast (although we had one at home), always Yorkshire Pudding as a first course, beef, mushy peas, potatoes. I don't remember a sweet pudding because we'd had Yorkshire pudding. Then we often went for a run in the car with my uncle. When my DDs were about 5 years old - to about aged 10 or 11 we sometimes went on a Sunday walk organised by the local council, or we fed the ducks. Quite often we went into town to window shop and have an ice-cream, it was very quiet, shops were closed and there was a relaxed atmosphere. We often went to the art gallery which was free - and warm in winter and cool in summer. Both DDs had their favourite pictures and often bought postcards of pictures. We always had a Sunday roast - still do - Yorkshire pud first course with onion gravy (Yorkshire pud made in a big tin like Grandma made, not little separate ones), beef, roast pots etc and a sweet pudding. A bit of a rush getting it all in the oven before church.

Oh Lord. Sundays. Church in the morning Eleven o'clock mass. Father Morris breathing firestone and brimstone from the pulpit terrified me. Home for a traditional Sunday lunch. Listening to the radio Forces family favourites from exotic places like Akrotiri in Cyprus. A lovely mixture of classical music, funny records and the latest pop music. A time when things were shared.
Sunday school in the afternoon. Hell on earth then Benediction at 4.30. All in latin which confused the life out of me. My sister prodding me to make me laugh.
Fear of Monday as I struggled at school. Funny to think of it all now. So different today.

I loved Sundays with Sunday lunch and 2 way Family Favourites. Then we often took my little brother for a walk in his pushchair. We went to the station to watch the steam trains puffing through. Sometimes we’d go to a little sweet shop owned by an old lady and I’d get a little triangular bag of lemonade powder, which left your tongue all yellow. We’d go home for tea and we’d listen to “life with the Lyons” and “take it from here” as well as all the other Sunday programmes.I would often embroider as I listened and sometimes a friend would come round. It was a lovely family day.

I refused to go to Sunday school more than once.
My DH was similar - when he was supposed to go there, he went to his aunty's across the road instead. The deal was that if he helped with washing the dishes (from their Sunday dinner), they would say nothing to his parents, but I'm sure that his parents knew exactly where he was ?

I waited all day long on a Sunday, in my early teens, on The Top 40 coming on. I sat with my blank cassette tapes purchased in Woolworths on the Saturday to record all my favourite songs, trying to judge when the DJ would talk to cut him out.

Oh yes.
Me too!

I was born in 1941 so remember the air raid shelters and the VE children’s party. I remember playing on bomb sites until my mother caught me. Sundays were for me going to church and then visiting grand parents before I went home for Sunday dinner (not lunch). After dinner my parents read the newspapers and went to sleep. Later on they roused themselves and we either went for a walk or visited my other grandparents where we had tea -probably salad, ham or tinned meat, tinned fruit and evaporated milk. We didn’t have a tv until the fifties and the radio was new to us. First programme I heard was Riders of the Range by Charles Chilton. We loved the radio with favourite programmes on aSunday like Itma, Educating Archie.Archie was a ventriloquist dummy ( on the radio!!!). Then there was Billy Cotton and his band. Jimmy Jewel and Ben Wallis etc etc. What we had was a lot more freedom to go out to play. Favourite treat was playing records on my gran’s wind up record player in order to hear Bing Crosby, the Andrew Sisters, George Formby etc. Things like toys were in short supply and food was on ration. However, everyone I knew were in the same boat so didn’t feel deprived. On the plus side we had a good library which I loved as I read a lot. There was a swimming baths so could swim from quite an early age. There were 4 cinemas including the Saturday Morning Pictures and the V&A and science museum were in walking distance; all free to enter. There was a playground nearby and parks if you were prepared to make the walk. Yes Sundays were a drag but perhaps the quiet and a chance to rest was what our parents needed as Labour saving devices were in the future heralded by the first launderette !!!

PS I filled one drawing book after another as I drew constantly. I have never actually stopped. So that was another favourite activity.

Can sympathise with nearly all of these comments above Sunday school &radio progs dire telly etc too

creativeness

Can sympathise with nearly all of these comments above Sunday school &radio progs dire telly etc too

But we knew no different!
I rather enjoyed some of those programmes.

Later in, in my mid-teens, a friend used to come round on Sunday afternoons with his jazz records. Goodness knows what my parents thought of Jelly Roll Morton etc being played on the radiogram.
Mum would disappear for a rest, Dad would disappear to the greenhouse.

Sunday afternoons on BBC was where I learned to become a world authority on the films of Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire.

Ah yes, Sunday bath night - Mum would snip the corner off a shampoo sachet, pour it into an empty milk bottle and top it up with warm water. All 3 children had our hair washed with it! Toe nails cut (I hated that. Sometimes my fringe would be trimmed - not always straight tho ?

Mum would snip the corner off a shampoo sachet

Drene shampoo?