Books that Bring on Memories

(Before It's News)

I found an old book on my shelf which brought back a memory of something that I had long forgotten. The book is a small thin red coloured hard back, called “Golden Bells, Hymns for Young people” and in 1957 more than four million copies had been distributed. I got my copy from the London City mission at Fiveways in Poplar in 1957 for regular attendance and good conduct, but so did every attendee.

Fiveways held a Sunday School and when I was eight I attended it. There were three what I then thought were every old ladies – missionaries – who ran the Sunday school. The leader was Miss Bonney, and she was supported by the Misses Sweet. I t did me no harm to be preached at and to say prayers and sing hymns when I was eight and I still have the book containing 737 hymns which  was the first book that I owned.

Fiveways was a crumbly small Victorian red brick and slate roof building in Poplar, located where five roads met, hence the name. One of the Miss Sweets played a pedal organ when we sang hymns, and I think Miss Bonney did the preaching while the Misses Sweets did the encouragement.

Later that book was to be joined on my shelf by several others, so by the time I was thirteen or fourteen I had a dozen books, mostly Penguin second hand paperbacks, and a couple of Frank Richard Billy Bunter books. I knew all my books intimately. Poplar Library was a delight of a place holding may be several thousand volumes.

Today things have changed and we have all acquired many possessions most of which we do not know. I have many books on many shelves and many more books held in computers and electronic storage. The books that I hold digitally  I do not think of as owning, even though I am technically the owner. I will not find my electronic book evoking a memory of times past in the way that Gold Bells reminds me of that crumby mission in Poplar, Miss Bonney and the Misses Sweets and singing hymns on Sunday afternoon.

Filed under: climate change Tagged: Fiveways, Golden Bells, hymns, Hymns for young people, Londo nCity Mission, Miss J Bonney, Miss Sweet, owning books, poplar, Sunday School, the Misses Sweet

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