01 January 2022
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Janet Middleton recalls the old fashioned Sabbath in Scotland, when work was banned and quiet pastimes encouraged. ...
Sundays in the 1950s were very different than those that most of us experience today. On any Sunday in those days, hardly anything moved - nobody was seen outside, almost everyone went to church and the children to Sunday school. The chill inside the kirk was like the Arctic, even in summer.
The Laurieston village church was packed each Sunday and the smell of mothballs from Sunday fur coats nearly bowled you over. The congegation sang the hymns with gusto in and and every key you could imagine.
We were told 'Mind your thoughts, it's the Sabbath'.
The buses that ran were few and far between and no work was done, even in the house. You listened to the radio, went for a Sunday walk if the weather held, and visiting was done on a Sunday. I remember strolling along the canal bank feeding the graceful swans as they glided along the water fluttering their wings. It was a joy to see a Pen with its brood of cygnets sailing down the canal in stately splendour on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
