Sunday School

This is Almida Törnvall in 1914, so she's
a bit younger here than when she
started the Sunday School

"I think I mentioned that the local Lutheran church didn’t have any Sunday School at that time. Well, when we got a little bigger, Almida Turnvall who lived in Stenstugan she belonged to the Alliansmissionen and she wanted to start a Sunday School.  My dad supported her because he thought it was a good idea for the neighborhood kids to learn more about the Bible. On Sunday mornings then, all the kids around Kjettestorp and Vimantorp would go to her house. We would set out and walk about two miles to her house. She had about two hours of Sunday School. We sang songs, and she gave us bible verses to memorize so we could recite them the next Sunday. This lady was very hard of hearing. She had a device that looked like a horn of plenty; it was a metal horn. When you were going to answer her questions, you put your mouth close to that opening in the horn so she could hear us. I remember the first time that I got to go to Sunday School.  I begged Mother to let me go and Brita was so angry. I was about five years old. Brita stomped her foot on the floor and said, “Won’t I ever be able to go anywhere without having to drag along little kids?!” But Mama had decided that I could go if I wanted to. She put a summer hat on me that was a hand-me-down; it must have been Brita or Sara’s the year before. Mama had a trick every summer; she bought some kind of paint that

One of the ways Mom taught me Swedish

was through children's songs. She created a

little songbook in her handwriting and it

includes "Himmelriket tillhör barnen"

they had in stores; she would paint the old hats and they looked new, all freshened up in a new color. Well, this hat was actually too small for me, so oh, that hurt my head. When I got back home I was so glad to get rid of that hat. Well, Tant Almeda had a two-hour Sunday school.  She’d have a recess in the middle there when she always treated us to some homemade cookies or apples or even candy. You know candy wasn’t so easy to find in those days. I loved Tant Almeda’s pepparkakor best.

Well, when Farbror Folke came home from Mongolia, he was getting involved in our Sunday School. He was instrumental in getting us new song books. We had songbooks called Sionstoner för Barn. (Zion’s tones for Children) The Pentecosts had their own songbook and that was called Sionstoner but the one we used in Sunday School was made especially for children. The Pentecostal movement was strong

This is a copy of the newspaper Mom describes from 

December 1938. She kept it with her "Swedish papers" :)

right then in the late 20s and early 30s. They did more contemporary music and the young people loved that a little faster pace. One song I remember from that songbook that we used to sing went “Himmelriket tillhör barnen! Oh det är en härlig sång! Skulle jag från Jesus då bort på syndens vägar gå? Nej, till himlens glädje ställer jag min gång.” Roughly translated, it means, “The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children. Oh what a beautiful song! Should I then as a child stray onto a sinful path? No, to heavens joy, I’d rather go.” We would also get a sort of little newspaper called Barnatidningen Senapskornet. (The Children’s Paper The Mustard Seed) There were always stories in there about children. Of course, we all had to share because it was one to a family.

Sometimes Farbror Folke would come with us to Sunday School but then we didn’t walk; we’d go on bicycles. Where they got all the bicycles, I don’t know. They must’ve borrowed some. Papa, Mama and Ragnar had bicycles. There was one time we went when I was going to ride a bike by myself, but Margaretha was too small for that so she was going to ride behind Farbror Folke. When we were going home, she got her foot in the wheel and oh how she cried. That foot hurt her for quite a long time after.

This is another page from
Barntidningen Senapskornet

One time the Sunday School was invited to a family. It was going to be a party out in the yard. In those days, when they had refreshments, the grown-ups always went first and the kids had to wait. This was a party for kids and still they had to sit there and wait. The family had set up benches in the yard made of two saw horses and a board across it. On those benches, the sawhorses were never out at the ends of the boards; they were a couple of feet in. Well, I remember there was one old gramma. I thought she was old anyway. She came with a coffee cup in one hand with a sugar cube on it.  She came and sat down on the outer edge of one of those benches and started to drink coffee like they did in those days. She put the sugar cube in her mouth and poured the coffee on the saucer and drank from the saucer. I guess that cooled the coffee off a little bit. As she was doing this, it happened that all the grown-ups had gotten their refreshments and the call came that now it was the children’s turn. Well, all these kids had sat on that bench on pins and needles hoping that there would be something left for them. They were so excited that they all jumped up at once. The bench flipped up and the old lady landed on the ground with saucer and cup and coffee flying all around. We all put our hands over our mouths so as to not laugh out loud, because kids weren’t supposed to laugh at grown-ups."

If you want to hear Mom sing, "Himmelriket tillhör barnen", click below :)