There were lots of things to join -- there was the Band of Hope, here you had to get the special card stamped to show if you attended on a regular basis and this ensured treats the following summer.The Magic Lantern evening was very popular with shadowy pictures reflected on the wall.
Then there was the Drama Class. Each winter, dedicated ladies coached children to act, sing, dance and recite. There would be others who would help to create the backcloth for the different scenes.
We started to practise in the autumn so that we would be perfect by winter time. The concert would first be performed in our own church hall and then in other church halls in the area.
On one occasion, my gran had made me a lovely white lace dress. When I was ready to leave the house , my mother saw a wayward curl at the side of my head and thought she would snip it off, but I suppose I didn't keep very still and she snipped my ear as well. After the tears and the blood had been mopped up, I was ready to go.
I couldn't remember which was my left hand so one of the ladies had to make a mark on it so that I could make the right moves when my turn came. I had to recite the poem Hiawatha and I was very nervous, but it merited lots of applause. I was so shy that I nearly fell off the stage.
The added treat was that bedtime was a much later on these occasions. When we were booked to appear in other church halls, children and adults had to walk the two or three miles as there wasn't any transport at that time in the suburbs.
Although the war had been over for a few years, the transport was still mainly horse-drawn. My father always took the props and me in his horse and cart. The pony and pony cart wasn't big enough so it had to be the big horse and cart. After the horse had been harnessed and put in the shafts, the lamps had to be lit on the cart. These were fat candles set within the lamps. This was a dim light, but there was very little traffic at night.
On cold and wet nights, my father wore an ex-army coat and had his cap pulled well down over his face and he wrapped me in an ex-army blanket and a piece of tarpaulin to keep the rain off and the cold out. Later, he cured some rabbit skins by stretching them over a frame and scraping them and then they were made into a muff for me so I was very cosy on these trips.
Special scenes were created for Christmas, but these events were performed at our own hall because as the winter deepened we stayed closer to home.