Remember when a couple of months ago someone asked a question about losing something and finding it again? Well anyway, I’d lost this hymn book I had as a child, then found it again. Then lost it again and then found it tonight. Weird, innit?

But my question is something different. Looking through it I realised it was not originally mine as I had always thought. I thought I got it at school in England or something, but today I saw that it has the name and address of a little girl in Lancashire, Pa, and must have been much older. It probably ended up at my parents’ school somehow (maybe the girl was a student there?) and I guess that’s how I got it.

Now, trying to figure out how old this book is (I always assumed it was from 1970 or so) I only found two copyright notices: one was from 1928 and the other (for the particular reprint) from 1947. But the book itself is colourful and seems too fancy for a post-war publication.

My only other clue is that it cost 25c at the time. It’s a Walt Disney publication by Golden Press, New York, and belongs to the “Golden Books” series. It’s just entitled “Hymns” and has 14 Christian Hymns with colours and pictures and so on.

I don’t expect anyone to have a copy, but could this book really be that old? Where could I find that sort of information? Does anyone remember the time when little coloured books like that would cost around 25c?