Whether it’s the weekly youth meeting, a service project, party, or presbytery youth retreat, we’re familiar with the way RP youth groups are today. But what about sixty-five years ago? The Youth Beat editors decided to find the answer to this question by interviewing older members in our congregations about their youth group memories. We found a wealth of fascinating stories and information, showing that though some things have changed for RP youth, other things have remained very much the same.

Orlena Boyle, North Hills (Pittsburgh, Pa.) RPC

Mrs. Orlena Boyle grew up in the Chicago congregation, although she lived in northern Indiana with her family. With city traffic and no highways, it would take her family an hour and a half to get to church on any given Lord’s Day. Chicago was the railway capital of the nation, so long waits at train crossings also had to be factored into the weekly trek to church. Despite the distance and barriers, Mrs. Boyle cannot remember a time when the family was late. The distance of the church from home meant that her family had to stay in the city between services. In the summer, they would go to a quiet park, share a meal in the grass, and memorize the Shorter Catechism to pass the time until evening service. Sabbath meals during winter were spent in the home of their pastor, J.D. Edgar, and his family.

In the evening the young people’s groups were led by the pastor. Pastor Edgar was devoted to the youth, never missing a meeting and often opening his home to the young people for parties and other events. At that point in RP history, the Covenanter Witness had topics of study for youth groups in the denomination. So if your church chose to use the Witness topic, it was very likely that you would be studying the same thing as RP youth across the nation.

Wilbur Copeland, Shawnee, Kan., RPC

Wilbur Copeland grew up in the rural Hebron (Clay Center, Kan.) RPC in the middle of Kansas. The church was made up of Covenanter farming families who had settled in the area.

Mr. Copeland’s family lived on a farm about four-and-a-half miles from the church, which was a long haul in a lumber wagon, and later, in a Model T. They drove to both services on the Lord’s Day, as well as to midweek prayer meeting, held on Wednesday afternoons.

CYPU, or Covenanter Young People’s Union, met in the hour before the evening service. Mr. Copeland started in this group after he completed eighth grade. The group of twenty to twenty-five young people met in the sanctuary while the juniors met in the basement. The meeting was led by one of the young people, and they studied the topic printed weekly in the Covenanter Witness. When it was a member’s turn to lead, they studied the lesson in the Witness and presented it to the rest of the group.

The Copelands were the only Covenanter family in their small school. Mr. Copeland remembers being looked down on and called names for being “so religious.” The other kids thought he and his church were weird for keeping the Lord’s Day and not smoking, drinking, dancing, or swearing.

Mr. Copeland remembers first giving his testimony in the summer after his junior year in high school after he attended Forrest Park. He was impacted by a conference where Dr. Ray Hemphill preached from Esther on “For Such a Time as This.” Mr. Copeland was usually very nervous when speaking in public, but during a time for camp reports in his congregation, he spoke up and told what God had taught him during that week. He spoke for nearly an hour—taking up the rest of the report time! The presbytery camp every summer really impacted his young life.

Betty Weimer and Margaret Hall, Shawnee, Kan., RPC

Betty Weimer and Margaret Hall grew up together in the Kansas City RPC (which later merged with the Olathe RPC to form the Shawnee congregation), friends since the first grade.

Betty’s father, Paul Coleman, was the pastor of the church and the sponsor of the Covenanter Young People’s Union (CYPU). They used the topics given for the young people’s groups in the Covenanter Witness. Mrs. Weimer remembers that these studies were not written only by pastors in the denomination, but also by the youth themselves. She remembers being asked to submit a lesson. They all took turns leading the weekly meeting, held in the hour before the evening service.

Mrs. Weimer and Miss Hall started attending CYPU when they were thirteen, but the members didn’t stop coming when they were finished with high school. They kept coming through college. Even young married couples came! Both ladies remembered having parties with their youth group: picnics, swimming parties, and roller-skating excursions.

Forrest Park, near Topeka, Kan, was the highlight of the summer for Mrs. Weimer and Miss Hall. They didn’t go to any presbytery youth retreats because it was too far to drive back and forth. Forrest Park was the only time they got to see their presbytery friends. It was always a blessing to them. Mrs. Weimer said that the week at Forrest Park always made her feel like she could stand her non-Christian school for another year.

It was a blessing to interview these people. They grew up in a different generation, in different places, under different conditions, but they dealt with the same struggles and the same triumphs. They served the same great God (and still do). We would encourage you to talk to the older folks in your congregation. You might be surprised what you learn.