Originally published in the August 12, 2015 edition of the Cherokeean
It’s summer – time for the churches to have Vacation Bible School. So let’s see what the Alto Herald had to say about Vacation Bible School.
Vacation Bible Schools are a relatively new form of outreach for churches. The first mention in the Alto Herald was in 1933 when there were two held. Each lasted a full 2 weeks and the interesting thing is that they overlapped. The Methodist school was from July 17 – July 28 while the Christian Church held theirs from July 24 – August 6. The July and August newspapers for 1933 are missing, so all we have is the preview announcement. No word about how they came out.
For those who may not remember, the Christian Church was the frame building across Highway 69 from the Methodist Church. When the congregation disbanded, the Methodists bought the building for their youth activities.
These days with so many mothers working day jobs, Bible Schools are usually held in the evening, but up through the 60’s when there was no air conditioning the chosen time was 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning On Friday evening there would be a program or an open house featuring what the children had learned or done during the week.
The Baptists usually scheduled theirs as soon as school was out, while the Methodists often waited until late July or August, perhaps because Methodist preacher changes take place in June.
By the 40’s the schedules had cut back to one week. In 1948 the Methodist Church announced Bible School with half-page advertisement in the Herald. It must have worked, because the next week they reported an attendance of 178 children.
During the 50’s, the Baptist Church liked to start off with a parade on the Saturday before Bible School week. The children and workers would march through the downtown area and end up at the Church for refreshments. The parade was often led by the Alto fire truck
The first theme-based school shows up in 1963 , a Count Down and Blast Off
Space program. Baptist pastor Charles Haley didn’t miss a trick in describing the activities, referring to the leaders as Astronauts, the grade-levels as Tracking Stations, the refreshments as Food Tubes and the final program as Splash Down. He quotes the workers as saying that “All systems are Go, and if the coffee cans and Purex bottles hold out Flight VBS will be a great success”
It was not only the town churches that provided this opportunity for their children. Many of the rural churches including Old Palestine, Mount Zion, Camp Ground and Forest had vacation bible schools. There were probably others who just didn’t get the report to the newspaper. Old Palestine Church had the distinction of offering the first evening Bible School in 1959.
Not surprisingly one tends to see the same names over and over through the three decades the programs are reported – Guynell Kennedy, Carmen Black , Genny McCullough, Otha Harrison, Jenny Halbert , Annie Ruth Nicar, Ara Pearman and Edith Stribling are a few.
It is heartening to see that this tradition is alive and well after more than 80 years.
This is the record-breaking (I assume) contingent of 178 kids at the Methodist vacation bible school of 1948. I guess the baby boom came early in Alto!