STORY
Gladstone Sunday Church Routine and Social Life
Gladstone Sunday Church Routine and Social Life
- While growing up in Gladstone, Oregon, Sundays followed a familiar family routine: my mother, Retha Schwartz, would take me and my two brothers, Ron Schwartz and Russ Schwartz, to church every single Sunday.
- My father, Ray Schwartz, never joined us. While we asked him on occasion, he flat-out refused, though his absence was never a major source of household contention.
Surveying Gladstone Churches
- Over the years, my mother sampled five or six different Protestant congregations in Gladstone—including a brief period attending a Seventh-day Adventist church.
- We ultimately settled in at Gladstone Christian Church, a non-denominational congregation where our family attended regularly for about three to four years.
A Crucial Social Outlet
- For me, Gladstone Christian Church was less about strict theology and more about community and friendships during my junior high and early high school years.
- It provided a vibrant social circle where I connected with friends from my school grades, including Vicky, Ellen, and Tammy.
The Move to Colton and the End of Churchgoing
- When our family moved 26 miles away to rural Colton between my 9th and 10th grade years (around age 13), we stopped attending church altogether.
- That relocation marked the natural end of my childhood churchgoing and religious participation, shifting my focus entirely into self-taught computing, software design, and high school electronics.
- See Gladstone and Colton School Days.
What links here
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.