Come and Praise books

If you went to primary school in the UK, there is a good chance you will remember being handed a blue Come and Praise book on your way to assembly. If you went to my primary school, there was an even higher chance of being handed both the book and its cover, the latter having fallen off as the books were so old and shoddy.

The cover had a picture of children singing joyfully (or shouting angrily, hard to tell) and inside were mainly hymns, although there were apparently some songs within ‘for everyone’. And on page four, this might have been one of them…

Autumn DaysAutumn days, when the grass is jewelled
And the silk inside a chestnut shell.
Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled
All the things I love so well.
So I mustn’t forget…
No I mustn’t forget…
To say a great big thank you I mustn’t forget.

I ended up with a vague notion that jet planes only refuelled in the autumn months and there is another part of the song that continues:

Shoes so comfy though they’re worn out and they’re battered
And the taste of apple pie

Which we sung (joyfully) as ‘and they taste of apple pie,’ something that amused us greatly.

Did primary schools employ teachers who could play the piano or guitar, or was it just a bonus skill that was shared over coffee at break time, I wonder? Were they wannabe musicians, suddenly discovering they had a captive audience for their strumming? Or were they hastily shoved a tambourine on their way to assembly and told they must shake it in time with ‘Jubilate’?

We had both sorts in my school, an over-keen guitar player who used to bring his acoustic in and sing ‘Streets of London’ whilst tapping his sandals, and a reluctant deputy head who used to bang the tambourine crossly in a corner. The whole of the morning assembly would giggle in embarrassment if ‘When I Needed A Neighbour’ was chosen as the lyrics went ‘I was cold I was naked – were you there, were you there?’ which of course we thought was very naughty indeed.

But I liked singing in assembly, we sang songs from The Beatles (When I'm Sixty Four) and Simon and Garfunkel (Feelin' Groovy) - much of these thanks to our sandal-tapping teacher. Other songs I liked were One More Step and Kookaburra, where one half of the hall would start and then the next half start when the original lot were on the second line.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be

(sound of music teacher counting ‘one, two, three, four!’)

I wonder if they still sing songs like those in assembly?

Slight update - I just noticed a lot of people are coming here looking for the lyrics to the Autumn days song - so here they are in full:

Autumn DaysAutumn days, when the grass is jewelled
And the silk inside a chestnut shell.
Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled
All the things I love so well.
So I mustn’t forget…
No I mustn’t forget…
To say a great big thank you I mustn’t forget.

Clouds that look like familiar faces
And winter's moon with frosted rings
Smell of bacon as I fasten up my laces
And the song the milkman sings.
So I mustn't forget...
No, I mustn't forget...
To say a great big thank you
No, I mustn't forget.

Whipped-up spray that is rainbow-scattered
And a swallow curving in the sky
Shoes so comfy though they're worn out and they're battered
And the taste of apple pie.
So I mustn't forget...
No, I mustn't forget...
To say a great big thank you
No, I mustn't forget.

Scent of gardens when the rain's been falling
And a minnow darting down a stream
Picked-up engine that's been stuttering and stalling
And a win for my home team.
So I mustn't forget...
No, I mustn't forget...
To say a great big thank you
No, I mustn't forget.