Church

My mother was not religious, but we lived in my grandparents summer-house who were - so religion it was. The town of Song Lake proper was on the north side of the highway and Milwaukee Road railway tracks. On the south side on the highway, was the gas station by the channel to Mud Lake, and the church about a quarter mile towards the west.

The church was on a bluff that overlooked the highway - Lutheran and the only church for many a miles. It was originally a more or less New England white church with steeply pitched roof, eave overhang, belfry tower with bell, casement windows with leaded panes, smoothly plastered high ceiling with carved very dark wood beams and simple ornament, choir side annex, and cry room, church pastor's office opposite the choir annex. Upstairs rear, a choir balcony and below the church basement with bathrooms dining room and kitchen. And it included a home for the pastor across the parking lot west and across a broad field.

But while I was still in late grade-school, they held a fund-raiser with a thermometer on a telephone pole down by the highway showing how much money they'd raised, to put an addition on the back in a T shape, two stories, small rooms left and two large and long on the right for lectures and like that, informal gatherings not so suited for the church sanctuary proper.

Two services Sunday morning nine and eleven, and simultaneous to the first service - Sunday-school in the basement and later the additions. We had to go to Sunday School and then church service taking up the whole morning, and then go home to Sunday meal with gravy.

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