Singing on Summer Evenings, a Long Time Ago

The other evening I shelled a bucket of small lima beans that had dried in a cardboard box in the garage. This time our house was silent--quite unlike the noisy times at my Grandma's farm when our families got together to shell fresh lima beans and place them in pint jars for selling at the City Market.

Best of all, shelling beans on a hot summer evening on my Grandma's front porch was where I learned to sing the songs that are reprinted in The Golden Book of Favorite Songs. An old friend recently sent me this memory of group singing in older times:

The Golden Book was used for all the "community meetings" in Ash Rock, and every home with a piano had one -- and used it. Schools did too. Everybody was familiar with everything in it. This practice of group singing at almost every public function (not only Church) was still the norm when we moved to the country -- a remnant of pre-REA days - no radio, no TV. People entertained themselves.