Jump up, click our heels together, and clap your hands, this is NOT a long winded story, It is short and I think it is amusing.
About 1946 or 1947 our family of five (I was 12 or 13) visited the Salt River Indian Presbyterian Church at Fort McDowell Reservation northeast of Scottsdale about this time of the year.
By the time we got the cows milked, calves fed, etc., picked sweet peas, and picked up our minister’s wife, we were late for the start of the service. It did not matter because some Native Americans do NOT go by clock time but by Indian time. There were no freeways at this time so travel was slower. Our minister and his wife were missionaries on the reservation so this was a homecoming for her. She sang a beautiful solo, SUNRISE TOMORROW.
Upon entering the small sanctuary we all took the first available pew. We noticed the ladies all grinning. Later we were told that the native men and the women do NOT sit together during the worship service. The men sit on one side of the aisle and the women on the other side. There was NO boy/girl holding hands in this service. But we did not get thrown out the door, and it was a good day and it’s one of my many memories.