Remembering Sunday

When I was a child, Sunday was a different type of day, set apart from the others, and seemed to begin on Saturday evening before bed when I prepared for Sunday School by reading the lesson that was in my quarterly. While I did not have strict or overly “religious” parents, we did follow the protocol that the Christian culture set. Dinner was served after church, the kitchen was cleaned, and in the evening was a light supper requiring little work. In the afternoon, we played and socialized, visited with neighbors or friends, played Scrabble, or read, and enjoyed the day. Shopping was not an option since the stores were closed, allowing the employees to observe the day of rest, and if we wanted to do something, we always first considered how it would affect others. Over the years, Sunday has gone from the Sabbath, a holy day and time of mental and physical refreshment, to Sunday, to a weekend day that we hardly differentiate from the other six. I remember when my mother and I, guiltily first went to a movie on Sunday. Change can happen so slowly that we hardly notice. We just look back and wonder what happened.