Vacation Bible School

The Bible school was held in the public school building and was specific to the Lutheran congregation. Whether the Methodists had a summer Bible school I have no idea. By the time I was on an age to go to Bible school there were only two active congregations in Gowrie, the Congregationalists and the Baptists having ceased to function.

The Congregational church was still in usable condition at the time when the new Lutheran church was being built in the early 1930s. It was used for some of the church functions while the new structure was being built, such as evening meetings of the church group, choir practice, etc. It was not large enough for Sunday morning services so those were held in the gymnasium of the school building.

I don’t know if the use of the school building in this way, for the vacation Bible school and for Sunday morning services would be looked on with favor in the present day and age but then I knew of no public reaction of a negative sort.

Where Sunday school was held during the construction of the new church I have no specific recollection (oddly enough) but I’d surmise that they were held in the old Congregational church. It was only about a block and a half away from the school building. As to the services in the gymnasium I recall only one — a Christmas children’s program in which my part was to recite the first chapter of St. John’s gospel and I remember being up on the stage all alone.

Vacation Bible school was I suppose a continuation of the Swedish school that my mother’s family participated in during the summer, probably using the public school house in use during the fall, winter, and spring months. Sessions were held only in the mornings and lasted perhaps two weeks, though it could have been longer. The instruction was pretty serious business, rather different in character and extent than I have perceived the activity to be in recent years.

There was instruction in the catechism, church history and related subjects. There were however some more recreational activities. I remember making some papier mâché tablets representing the ten commandments. This particular project was carried out in what was normally the sixth grade classroom. Other instructed was centered (for me at least) in what was the junior high room though I suspect there were other classes also.

The instructors were typically elementary school teachers who had roots in the community and would perchance to be in Gowrie during the vacation months. My aunt Laurine served in this capacity I believe as well as a Ms. Larson. Usually the congregation would employ a seminary student as sort of an intern during the summer months and he would carry part of the Bible school teaching load. The intern would also conduct the regular Sunday morning services while the regular pastor was on vacation which was usually in August.

One indelible impression remains from Bible school, of warm, sunny days, but not yet the real heat of summer. The school windows would be open and there would be the soft, coolish breeze of the morning hours, with the somnolent sounds from outside of insects chirping and the occasional song of a bird. The view across the street would be screen in part by the foliage of the trees lining the street along the front of the school building. A sensation that all was well with the world, though I might not have been particularly interested in what the teacher was saying.