Lutheran Stuff (and nonsense)

I love being a Lutheran. Been one all my life and expect to remain so until I get my ticket Home. I love the liturgy and all the old hymns. Over the years as the church has changed to the present, I have embraced the newer liturgy and hymns and praise songs. I still love the traditional stuff and wish we could do some of it once in a while, and a blended service is my favorite.

Potlucks were always a big thing. There was always fried chicken. There were always scary salads involving macaroni or all sorts of beans. And all covered in dressing or mayonnaise. There was usually some kind of spaghetti or noodle dish. And the most important of all…RED JELLO WITH BANANAS ON TOP!!! Or maybe miniature marshmallows. I preferred bananas. Many times we would bring a dessert in the form of store-bought oatmeal cookies made into sandwich cookies with icing between.

When I was growing up, Vacation Bible School was always 2 full weeks in the summer. Bible stories, crafts, songs and some kind of presentation for the parents at the end. And Sunday School was year-round. No break in summer. And after Labor Day was Rally Day Sunday. We would all go to our classrooms where we’d been all year and the teacher would usually have a small gift for each child in the form of a pencil with a Bible verse, or something like that. Then we would bid farewell to that teacher and all go to the next grade classroom.

The Rally Day picnic was awesome! After church everyone would get whatever food they were going to bring and we all met at Durham Park. We’d have food, games, play on the swings. The adults would talk or play horseshoes. Toward the end, there would be the Peanut Scramble, with Pastor Schwermann taking a big bag of peanuts in the shell and wandering all over the park, throwing out handfuls of peanuts for the kids to scramble around and gather. It was at the Rally Day picnic that Marv and I met in 1974.

For Easter, there would be a Sunrise Service at the local Starlight Drive-in, where the cars would park and put the speaker thing in their windows. The pastor and the choir would be on top of the refreshment stand on folding chairs. They would have a couple of mikes set up. We’d all have bulletins and would sing along with the choir and the pastor would give a short Easter sermon. In case of rain, they would all be inside the refreshment stand. Then everyone would go home for a bit of a rest. Except for the Men’s Club. They’d go back to the church to prepare breakfast. Awesome breakfast! Eggs, pancakes, sausages. YUM! Then there would be the regular service. At home afterward, we would always have a special Easter lunch.

Good memories.