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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Kathrine Robinson Everett, January 21, 1986. Interview C-0006. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Sundays as days of worship

Everett remembers weekly "religious dissipations" on Sundays, when her family devoted its entire day to worshipping and spending time together.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Kathrine Robinson Everett, January 21, 1986. Interview C-0006. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

KATHRINE ROBINSON EVERETT:
Before we leave that let me tell you just one thing that may be a little different. On Sundays we almost had "religious dissipation." My ancestors, in fact my great-great-grandfather, Angus McDiarmid, had come over to America during the Revolution as a Presbyterian minister from Scotland. And he would preach each Sunday. He preached at three of the oldest Presbyterian churches in North Carolina, the original churches that he preached at. He would preach in English in the morning. He heard the Catechism, and then preached in English before lunch, and after lunch, would preach in Gaelic. The Scotsmen came in droves from everywhere to hear this Mr. McDiarmid preach in their native language. There were a lot of Scots in and around Fayetteville. We had some of the Presbyterian strict tradition about Sunday. We prepared for it. You were taught to feel like Sunday was a special day, and to get ready for it. You had your Saturday night bath. You put out your best clean clothes to wear the next day, they'd be ready. You had breakfast an hour later so you could sleep a little longer, and had a specially good breakfast. We always had waffles on Sunday, among other things, which we all liked. Then we'd go to Sunday school. Then we'd go to church. Then we would take a walk from church on home, which we all enjoyed. Have a very, very good dinner with very pretty china and special things and often have dinner guests. This was a special day. Then we would rest a little while and either go to a new mission Sunday school to take part, to help teach or to help them with their music, or we'd go on a long walk. Then go back at night to church. So it's so different from the way you do on Sundays today, though my family still goes to Sunday school and church. I just forgot, one thing about our Sundays when I was a child. We had a dog "Trix" and he got to be a strong Presbyterian, too. [laughter] He would go without his breakfast to get to church. As he got older, he would go early to church and get in our pew (we had the same pew the family had had for a hundred years, the family had that same pew). He knew where the pew was. He gradually got blind but he still would go without his breakfast so he could get away and we couldn't put him up to keep him at home. When my dog, Trix, heard the peel of the church bell he at once left for church and when we'd get to church he would be there underneath the pew. [laughter] Occasionally, he'd have a bad dream during the sermon and he would growl to our utter mortification but we couldn't help that. [laughter] We had a pew right near the front, about fourth from the front. Trix also enjoyed Sundays as much as we did. [laughter]