I get nostalgic every summer for an old fashioned summer. Do you remember what it was like when you were a child and suddenly school was over for the year, the summer stretched before you? I still feel like that once Memorial Day is behind me. As though summer was just slap full of fun things to do and see. We tend to vacation off season and for beach days that means before Memorial Day and after Labor Day. But many of the mountain areas are now in 'off season' mode. Perhaps we might sneak away for a bit of a get away? At the very least, perhaps we'll slip over to our little mountain just an hour away or go for a picnic at that River state park nearby.
I thought, for fun, I'd try to do a post once a week about some aspect of summer I remember or which my children experienced.
And this week that memory centers around Vacation Bible School.
Growing up Primitive Baptist we didn't do Vacation Bible School. I recall going only twice. When we lived in Powersville, which was a small once upon a time community, the Methodist and Baptist church combined efforts to do VBS. Typically VBS ran a full week of evenings. When we'd moved near Perry, Mama's uncle, who was a Missionary Baptist minister, invited us to attend Vacation Bible School at his church one summer. I found the experience very enjoyable especially since their Bible school was run during the day.
When my own children were growing up they often attended several Vacation Bible Schools. The local churches tended to take turns running theirs so a child might well spend the full month of June going to one church or another all month long. Even in the small town where we lived there were Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Seventh Day Adventists and a couple of independent non-denominational churches. Neighbors were always kind to invite my children to attend services at their churches.
The children really enjoyed those summer days and were eager to attend the various churches to which they were invited.
Arts and crafts were the order of most days, along with snacks and of course, singing and a lesson of some sort from the Old Testament. Most all of them ended with a special program for parents in which each class performed, received a prize for learning verses and brought home their crafts.
These Vacation Bible Schools were run by the churches. There were none of the formal purchased themed learning programs that are now all the vogue. I've nothing against those mind you, but that's not what I or my own children experienced in their schools. I think some of the themes they have these days sound rather fun.
Did you attend VBS? Was it part of your summer memories?
7 comments:
VBS brings back memories for me. I attended three VBS as a child over 3 summers. The first one was a couple of towns over and I spent every day of that waiting to go home, afraid that I was so "far" from home. The people who ran it were very strict and it was not much fun. The next year is the VBS I remember so fondly. Arts and crafts, cold fruit punch and graham crackers and two of the nicest young women who ran it. It was 50 years ago and I can still see them with their long hair and glowing dresses they wore.
The next year the VBS was held at a salvation army center, poorly run, no supervision. I choose to remember the loving VBS I went to. I was sad when it was over for the week and signed up immediately for the next session. Thanks for sharing your VBS experience. I am sure those 2 ladies I remember so fondly never knew how much I appreciated their kindness all these years later
I loved VBS and went every summer. Great memories!
My memories are much like yours -- attending several church's VBS programs each June -- they were run during the day and featured arts and crafts, singing, Bible stories and verses and of course, snacks! Our Baptist church always had snow cones, which was a real treat. Later, as a young adult, I helped with the VBS program at our little Methodist church. I remember one year I made puppets. The church I attend now, sadly, has only two small children who attend regularly. I think one of the larger churches in town still has a week-long VBS program.
I went to 2 different vacation Bible schools each summer. We would walk to the Baptist church one week and then to the Methodist church the next week. We had koolaid and cookies for snacks. I still remember a lot of the songs we used to sing.
I'm glad you all found a happy experience at at least one Bible School. I confess it all seemed mighty foreign to me because of the upbringing in the Primitive Baptist church which had very decided ideas about Sunday school and such so I always felt a bit awkward. But I do remember those two experiences favorably.
We did attend VBS every summer until I aged out. I was just telling the kids the other day that the first thing I think of when someone says "VBS" is cherry Kool-aid and graham crackers. Every day, every year, that was our VBS snack.
Tammy, that's what we got down here in Georgia too. Cherry kool-aid and grahams! I guess because it was cheap and no kid ever complained over either.
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