Sundays were for Visitors and Visiting

hollydolly

hollydolly

SF VIP
Location
London England
I'm from a very large family, and when I was a kid even up to 18.. we'd always go visiting relatives on a Sunday...not every Sunday, but if there was visiting to be done it was done on that day.. we'd put our best clothes on and we'd go and visit Granny or granda or uncles and aunts.. I suppose it was because that was the sure fire day the old man had off work.. but

What happened to that ?.. does anyone still go Sunday visiting ?
 

Sunday was for being dragged to church in the morning, lunch and then possibly visiting in the afternoon. As I grew up it was a time to go out with friends, and maybe a bit of rowing or sailing. Now, Sunday is just another day - or for many people, shopping day and church attendance is a thing of the past.

Although I'm a Humanist, I still used to think that there should be a 'quiet day' - probably Sunday, but being retired, I can have a lazy day or go visiting whenever I want.
 
I grew up doing that too. At my grandmother's house all my aunts and uncles and cousins would gather for dinner and playing. When I got a little older that had died out. So my mother tried to keep it going by visiting one of my aunts' or uncles' homes on Sundays. Usually just the two of us. Once in awhile my brother would go with us. Then when I got my first car and lived away from home my brother (he lived with me at that time) and I would go to my parents' every Sunday for dinner. Then later on when I was married, I still went to see them on Sunday and took my son. It was very rare that my husband went with me.
 

I grew up in an area with the Sunday blue laws.

It took some planning if you wanted to go for a Sunday drive to visit family and friends because the gas stations and most other businesses were closed.

For me, Sunday meant church, a long boring dinner, and moping around in my good clothes with little or nothing to do.

The thing I miss most about those long boring Sundays is the food and the dear old souls that prepared it.

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Yes Bea, I remember that , being dressed in Sunday best, and being taken to visit, and being told to go out and play, but keep your clothes clean... ' erm yep ok''... never happened. My granda lived in a slum tenement... and the back courts were middens and filthy... no chance of staying clean.

On Sunday mornings I went to Sunday school, no-one else in my family did, so if we were going out to the relatives on a Sunday I had to forego my Bible class.. However in various times in my life I was in foster care, so Sunday church was a ritual... but no visiting anyone.. instead we had a big Sunday lunch ( something we didn't get at home ).. then we'd have to ensure our shoes were all cleaned and ready for school on Monday...homework done, baths and hair washes.. and then a small tea of usually boiled egg, toast and fruit...
 
Ham sandwiches and fruit cake was always for Sunday tea at Granny's house. That was on the rare occasions when we were able to visit the town where the family lived. These days, nearly everyone has a car. It's easy to forget how different it was when you had to travel by bus and train.
 
Lavinia said:
Ham sandwiches and fruit cake was always for Sunday tea at Granny's house. That was on the rare occasions when we were able to visit the town where the family lived. These days, nearly everyone has a car. It's easy to forget how different it was when you had to travel by bus and train.
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It's true what you say... altho' my father did have a car, but we usually travelled by bus across the city, because my father was a bus driver so he got travelling for free...

Going to my granda's meant Rabbit stew for dinner.. gpoing to my granny ( divorced paternal grandparents)... was sugar sandwiches and jelly you could bounce off a wall, for us kids, but we didn't care , she had a Play park right outside of here house so we loved to play in there with our new friends.. whom my mother spent all the time telling us not to mix with ..:ROFLMAO: she was such a snob my mother..

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Yes, when my siblings& I were younger we would go to church with our parents,then go visit our grandmother{mom's mom,our grandfather died when we were really young no memory of him} .As we got older, she would invite one of us each Sun to have lunch with her. They are great memories
Those days are gone,I still go to church almost every Sun,no family members live here to visit
 
I still have one uncle living, ..he was the youngest of my fathers' brothers, 20 years younger ... but he lives in another country, and I get sporadic snail mail from him.. he didn't have children.

I have lots ....of cousins but everyone is spread all over... I have 6 siblings.. again, spread all over, no-one visits any more..
 
I really don't remember wintertime Sundays when I was a kid, but we must not have done much besides Mass because it was so blasted cold and there was so much sNOw so hard to get around to visit.

Summertime Sundays...early Mass then going to my grandparents' cottage for the day where there were lots of things to do with cousins, aunts, uncles. We all pitched in with the general housekeeping chores in the cottage and on the property. As soon as all that was done we were free to go swimming, fishing, boating.

Usually there was at least a week, sometimes two, before and/or after July 4 when we all went to the cottage and stayed. I'm going to guesstimate that there were 15-20 of us who stayed. My grandfather, dad, uncles drove to town every morning to go to work and back again every evening. Grandfather was a contractor and my dad and uncles all worked for him so they all went together. Whatever my grandmother needed from town (like a block of ice for the icebox) would be collected and brought to the cottage at the end of the work day.

Where did we all stay in a two-bedroom cottage? LOL! The "groan-ups" took turns each night getting to sleep in the second bedroom in a real bed. When the street cars were eliminated in our town, my grandfather bought two and had them towed to the lake property. They were set up in an L shape, gutted and fitted with bunk beds. When it wasn't their turn for the second bedroom, the aunts/uncles slept in the streetcars with us kids.

Long time ago! No electricity, well water from a pump, a two-seater outhouse. We bathed in the lake. Light at night was provided by kerosene lamps.

Remembering that we always had fish for breakfast, along with whatever all else. As soon as the kids were up in the morning, we were tasked with fishing off the dock, cleaning the fish and handing them over to Grandma to fry.

After breakfast we were sent out into the woods to pick whichever berries were in season and get ourselves back with them so Grandma could use them for pies for dessert at lunch and dinner. After that? There was bed-making, sweeping out the streetcars, cleaning the kerosene lamps...a lot of work that we all pitched in to do...and we thought it was fun. Wonder what the groan-ups thought?

Wow. It must have been really early when we did all that stuff because Grandpa opened his shop at 8, and my dad and uncles were expected on their jobs by 8. The cottage was a 30-minute drive to town.

When we were only there for the day on a Sunday, dinner was at noon. Early supper, then clean-up, pack up the cars, back to town.

Well. This turned into a whole precious memories essay. But thanks for the reminder @hollydolly.
 
We did the church on Sunday morning (just the kids) then in the afternoon to Grandma's, where all the aunts, uncles & cousins would gather to have a huge meal. My father took us there, mother never went. Afterwards the adults would play cards and the kids would go out to play. In winter we would go to the movies up the street.

I also remember that if, for some reason, one of us did not go to church, that child was not allowed to go outside that day. We also had to keep on our "Sunday clothes" all day and "do not get dirty." It seemed that something terrible would happen to us (or maybe the world:rolleyes:) if anyone went outside on Sunday wearing anything but Sunday clothes!
 
I think that Sunday rituals used to be more of a thing than they are today. I used to be made to go to Sunday school, while curiously my parents seldom went to church, unless Xmas or Easter were approaching. It was a clear case of ā€œdo what I say, not what I do!ā€ šŸ˜‡

Secular Sunday rituals for me involved leafing through the Sunday paper, then going for a drive with my parents to a New Jersey store chain called Two Guys from Harrison where you could buy big soft hot pretzels from a vendor at three for a quarter! Those were the daysā€¦. šŸ„Ø
 
I remember now why we didn't go visiting on Sundays in the winter. The streets weren't plowed on Sundays. (This in an area where a normal sNOwfall was between 250-300 inches a season.) Our visiting was done after supper during the week.

@Fyrefox On Easter and Christmas, our priest would greet the congregation with "Good morning all you Easter lilies (or Christmas roses, depending on the occasion)!"

We didn't go anywhere to shop on Sundays because there were blue laws that prohibited stores from opening on Sunday, except for groceries.
 
Georgiagranny said:
I really don't remember wintertime Sundays when I was a kid, but we must not have done much besides Mass because it was so blasted cold and there was so much sNOw so hard to get around to visit.

Summertime Sundays...early Mass then going to my grandparents' cottage for the day where there were lots of things to do with cousins, aunts, uncles. We all pitched in with the general housekeeping chores in the cottage and on the property. As soon as all that was done we were free to go swimming, fishing, boating.

Usually there was at least a week, sometimes two, before and/or after July 4 when we all went to the cottage and stayed. I'm going to guesstimate that there were 15-20 of us who stayed. My grandfather, dad, uncles drove to town every morning to go to work and back again every evening. Grandfather was a contractor and my dad and uncles all worked for him so they all went together. Whatever my grandmother needed from town (like a block of ice for the icebox) would be collected and brought to the cottage at the end of the work day.

Where did we all stay in a two-bedroom cottage? LOL! The "groan-ups" took turns each night getting to sleep in the second bedroom in a real bed. When the street cars were eliminated in our town, my grandfather bought two and had them towed to the lake property. They were set up in an L shape, gutted and fitted with bunk beds. When it wasn't their turn for the second bedroom, the aunts/uncles slept in the streetcars with us kids.

Long time ago! No electricity, well water from a pump, a two-seater outhouse. We bathed in the lake. Light at night was provided by kerosene lamps.

Remembering that we always had fish for breakfast, along with whatever all else. As soon as the kids were up in the morning, we were tasked with fishing off the dock, cleaning the fish and handing them over to Grandma to fry.

After breakfast we were sent out into the woods to pick whichever berries were in season and get ourselves back with them so Grandma could use them for pies for dessert at lunch and dinner. After that? There was bed-making, sweeping out the streetcars, cleaning the kerosene lamps...a lot of work that we all pitched in to do...and we thought it was fun. Wonder what the groan-ups thought?

Wow. It must have been really early when we did all that stuff because Grandpa opened his shop at 8, and my dad and uncles were expected on their jobs by 8. The cottage was a 30-minute drive to town.

When we were only there for the day on a Sunday, dinner was at noon. Early supper, then clean-up, pack up the cars, back to town.

Well. This turned into a whole precious memories essay. But thanks for the reminder @hollydolly.
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wonderful description of a halcyonic childhood..thanks, Geegee šŸ„°
 
Kika said:
We did the church on Sunday morning (just the kids) then in the afternoon to Grandma's, where all the aunts, uncles & cousins would gather to have a huge meal. My father took us there, mother never went. Afterwards the adults would play cards and the kids would go out to play. In winter we would go to the movies up the street.

I also remember that if, for some reason, one of us did not go to church, that child was not allowed to go outside that day. We also had to keep on our "Sunday clothes" all day and "do not get dirty." It seemed that something terrible would happen to us (or maybe the world:rolleyes:) if anyone went outside on Sunday wearing anything but Sunday clothes!
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Oh yes I'd forgotten about the card playing.. that happened at the aunts and uncles houses.. but not at the grandparents..
 
It seems like we did a lot of visiting on Saturdays.
Then Sundays were BBQ days. Every Sunday. Family and sometimes friends.

If we had big BBQ parties, they were held on Saturdays, and Sundays were for resting, and left overs! Fun times.
 
Sundays started out with church, lunch and then a Sunday drive, usually to a relatives. There were oodles. Dinner was roast beef or chicken with boiled potatoes and carrots. Sometimes we had company. No housework was done because it was a day of rest. Guess card playing and dancing werenā€™t restful.

If my parents entertained other adults it was mostly on Saturday night. Usually euchre followed by the little sandwiches, squares and tea so everything was over by 10:30.
 

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