Sunday Coffee Hour

. . . that's what we called Sunday-mornings-after-church-at-grandma's. We lived next door to Grandma Bo (short for Boulter) growing up. They had six kids and about 25 grandkids, so Sundays (in the 60's) got quite crowded in the three rooms of their downstairs! Guess where us kids got stuck? Outdoors, of course! It was the 60's, remember? This is the whole clan at my grandparent's 50th anniversary in the mid-1970's. You can see how small the house was. (I'm second from left standing up.) Let's hear it for polyester! LOL!
Coffee was made in the glass percolator and someone always brought donuts. There were also Thomas' Toast-R-Cakes but they were only for the grown-ups. Funny how hardly anyone went to church, but everyone came for Coffee Hour! (Google photos)
They had one of those log swings in their backyard (like the one in photo) from the original Walpole Woodworkers Company in Walpole, MA where my uncle worked. The swing is where we kids mostly hung out, or the side yard which we called "Grandma's Field"(when you're little, it looks like a field!) to play baseball or football.

Funny, how everything was "grandma's". Oh, grandpa was there, too, and we all loved him - especially because he gave us Chocolate Babies (Necco) and Taveners Fruit Drops!
Another (amusing) Sunday memory is that my mom would always clean the house . . . and put on her records, especially Tennessee Ernie Ford. I guess that made her feel less guilty for not going to church, even though it was one block away! We learned all our hymns at home. I didn't become a Christian until I was 24, but I know it was little things like those "cleaning hymns" that God tucked in my heart to lead me to Him.