I Can Be a Gaynote

Sally showed us her "bandelo" (pronounced BAND a LO), which is what all the Primary girls made in the 1960's. Each symbol and jewel represented something the girl had done: memorized the 13 Articles of Faith, attendance, homemaking skills, etc.

(If you notice, Sally got 100% of every achievement that she could have achieved. This particular bandelo represents the gold standard of bandelos!) (Click on the photo to make it bigger)

I remembered my older sisters Cheryl and Cindy having bandelos when we lived in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. We had a nice ward there. When I was 9 we moved to Cleveland, Oklahoma, and we had ALMOST NOTHING. We attended a dependent Sunday School, ten miles away. The only other Primary age kid was a little girl the same age as my younger sister Carla. My mother took it upon herself to hold Primary in our home for me, Carla, and the other girl every week.

So, no bandelo for me. And none of the other fun stuff my older sisters talked about doing in those three upper grades of Primary. The classes for the older girls were named "Gaynotes", "Merry Hands" and "Firelights".

Here is the song for the Gaynote class:

First thing in the morning and all day long
I can be a Gaynote and sing a happy song
I can greet the new day and all it brings
With a cheerful face and a heart that sings.

I don't think that song would go over too well with today's Primary girls.

Oh, the rest of the story. By the time we moved to Mesa when I was in the 6th grade, the Primary program was just switching programs to keep up with the times. They discontinued the Gaynotes, etc., and the upper grade girls' classes became Merry Miss. The Merry Miss classes made banners, which had some badges and jewels similar to the old bandelos. But I got in too late to make the banner.

(And speaking of keeping up with the times, "Merry Miss" is really a dopey name and needs to be updated SOON.)