In my family, we only had a few religious traditions. Most of these came from my maternal grandma, Stella Edwards Butzek, who was a staunch Baptist. For much of my childhood, we attended a Baptist Church. I seem to recall it had various locations - sometimes a school, sometimes another building. At one point, there must have been an actual church building because I can picture a baptismal area where adults were baptized.
At one point, my mother played the piano for church services. This was at a time when the services were held in a school auditorium. One Christmas, I was introduced as the junior pianist and played a Christmas carol.
There was always Sunday School, and I vaguely remember that we had Bible contests. We either had to memorize a certain number of Bible verses or we raced to see who could look up a Bible verse the fastest. I was always reasonably good at the second activity, and small prizes were usually available.
We occasionally attended Wednesday night services. My grandma never missed a Wednesday night service, but we didn't go regularly. I can't remember what those services were like, but like most Baptist services, there was probably a lot of hymn singing.
At one point, when I was very young and we lived in Dolton Illinois, a woman from the church who lived nearby would have Vacation Bible School for us. I think her name was Mrs. Hess. She was a short, stout woman (she seemed quite old, but was likely more middle-aged) who lived in a small upstairs apartment. The thing I remember the most was the Bible stories she would tell, using flannel board figures. I don't remember the stories, but I remember the flannel board.
My paternal grandparents didn't go to church. My grandfather had been raised a Catholic but left the church when he married my grandmother, a protestant divorcee. And my maternal grandfather had been raised in a Catholic family also, but his relationship with the church was negligible -- likely because his mother was also a divorcee. So, most of my great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were Catholic. I was always puzzled as a young girl as to why they had big Catholic weddings in their family and why we weren't Catholic.
My parents left the Baptist church at some point. I was probably about 12 years old at the time. I wasn't sure why -- I know my grandmother wasn't happy about the decision. We were living in South Holland at the time - an area that had very strong Dutch religious traditions that weren't really for us. (You never hung laundry on a Sunday.)
We shopped around for a new church and eventually, when we moved to Oak Forest, we settled on a Lutheran church. My siblings were all married in that church, but I married a Catholic - getting married in a big Catholic church in Chicago. I guess I had come full circle, back to my roots.
This week's #52Ancestors prompt was Religious Traditions.
