Three and a half years ago, I posted the following article at Times and Seasons — see original comments there. I’m reposting it now because BHodges (of Life on Gold Plates and Faith Promoting Rumor, and also holder of a special title in Keepa’s Best Beards in Mormon History contest) came across his mother’s 1960s-era bandlo and sent me photographs. (Added 26 January:) Commenter Left Field has retrieved his own bandlo from his mother’s cedar chest and has sent photos of the boys’ bandlos, too. You’ll be able to better understand from these photographs why the children of my generation and earlier enjoyed them so much. I’ve added other illustrations and also made some corrections to dating and other details learned since the original post.

If you (man or woman), or your parents, were born before 1960 and grew up in an active LDS home, chances are that somewhere in your family – maybe in a cedar chest, maybe in a chest of drawers – you have one of these relics of Mormon childhood. This is most likely if you grew up in the Mormon corridor, but may also be true if you lived in western Europe.

The word bandlo is evidently a Mormon-invented word (some have suggested the word was inspired by bandoleer) for that band of felt worn around the neck like a long collar, to which were affixed symbols made of felt, plastic, or glass, representing participation and achievement in the last three years of Primary.

Primary was born in 1878 in Farmington, Utah, when Aurelia Spencer Rogers grew concerned over the behavior of young boys in her town: “Many of them were allowed to be out late at night; and certainly some of the larger ones well deserved the undesirable name of ‘hoodlum.” She was also concerned about the effect of this situation on young girls: “What will our girls do for good husbands, if this state of things continues? Could there not be an organization for little boys, and have them trained to make better men?”

Primary spread rapidly throughout the church, but each ward devised its own program within the general framework devised by Sister Rogers and her successors. Beginning in 1902, with the birth of the Children’s Friend magazine, lessons were published each month for use during the next month’s Primary activities. Children were not grouped by age, and the same lessons had to be adapted to suit children who could be anywhere from 3 to 14 years of age.

The division into classes based on children’s ages occurred during the 1920s, and by 1930 Primary had assumed the form familiar to us through 1980, when another radical change occurred with the advent of the block meeting schedule.

Before the block schedule, Primary was held on a weekday afternoon, most commonly Wednesday. The youngest boys and girls belonged to mixed-sex classes; boys and girls were segregated in the 1920s at age 7, and later at age 9. Bandlos were part of the program for both boys and girls during the classes for 9-, 10-, and 11-year-olds.

From the late 1920s, the oldest boys’ classes were designated collectively as Trail Builders; 9-year-olds were called Blazers; 10-year-olds were Trekkers; and 11-year-olds were Guides. These class names were stable until the 1970s, when the Trail Builders program was dissolved, and 10- and 11-year-olds were designated as Blazer A and Blazer B.

The oldest girls’ classes were designated collectively as Home Builders until 1940 when the name was changed to Lihomas (meaning LIttle HOme MAkers. Class names were, beginning with the youngest, Larks, Bluebirds, and Seagulls until 1959 when they were renamed Gaynotes, Firelights, and Merrihands, until the 1970s when the Lihoma program was dissolved, and 10- and 11-year-olds were designated as Merrie Miss A and Merrie Miss B.

Class symbols were devised in the 1920s. The general Trail Builder symbol was a pine tree, with a hatchet representing the Blazers, a wagon wheel representing the Trekkers, and an arrow representing the Guides. The general Home Builder symbol was a house (with an updated model being adopted when the name was changed to Lihomas), with larks, bluebirds and seagulls representing their respective classes (a lighted candle represented the Lark class briefly at the beginning of the program); Gaynotes were symbolized by a musical note, Firelights by a blazing hearth, and Merrihands by a girl’s forearms embracing a New Testament.

The first use of these symbols was to decorate headgear. Boys wore beanies of green and brown felt, with the pine tree in front and the additional symbols being added as the boys moved through the program. Girls made paper or felt headbands with the appropriate symbol. The boys continued to wear their beanies into the 1940s; girls abandoned their headbands as their flapper style ceased to be at all fashionable.

These boys of the Provo 4th Ward are wearing their class beanies in 1926 (along with their as-yet-barely-begun bandlos):

The boys’ classes began using bandlos in about 1926, with felt symbols in various colors glued or sewn onto a band of green felt; I am still working to identify the significance of the various symbols shown here (left). The colors of the symbols represented the areas of focus of the boys’ Primary work: purple denoted spirituality, red meant health, orange signified service, and brown indicated knowledge.

The first girls’ bandlo (right) – although it was first called a “necklace” – came into being in about 1930. It, too, was made of green felt, on which felt “charms” were glued or sewn. The colors of each charm signified progress on one of the class “quests”: lavender denoted spirituality, pink meant health, blue signified service, and green indicated knowledge. Charms won by Larks were round, those earned by Bluebirds were diamonds, and those acquired by Seagulls were triangles. Rose-colored “honor links” could be earned by completing extra projects related to the quests, and were sewn on the necklace between the charms.

Although the “quests” were similar, the requirements for boys and girls to earn the symbols were different (boys’ requirements were more generally turned toward school and community, while the girls’ requirements tended to emphasize home).

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Girls’ and boys’ bandlos in 1942. (The color of the boys’ bandlos is not true to life, but a result of the two-color printing process.)

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Girls’ bandlos of the late 1930s and 1940s were made of maroon felt while the boys’ bandlos apparently remained green.

In the 1940s a felt or plastic house attached near the point of the bandlo was added to represent the girls’ focus on home. Plastic birds representing each class were likewise added as the girls moved through the program. The girls could also earn additional plastic symbols: the east face of the Salt Lake Temple represented progress on spiritual goals; a winged foot symbolized the Word of Wisdom and other health goals; a lighted lamp represented service; an open book indicated knowledge. In addition, the girls could earn bars of felt in ivory, red, yellow, and blue, representing completion of projects related to spirit, health, service, and knowledge, respectively. Similarly, plastic symbols representing the boys’ classes were added to their bandlos.  A scroll representing graduation from Primary was earned by both boys and girls when all graduation requirements were met.

Beginning in the 1950s, numerals were added to the boys’ bandlo to represent each Article of Faith memorized; these numerals were clustered around the class symbol of the year the boy memorized the Article. A diamond (called a “bowline”) mounted below the pine tree could be earned by a boy who passed the Tenderfoot requirements in the Boy Scouting program. The boys’ bandlo remained the same through the 1960s.

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(Added 26 January 2011: Photos of 1960s-era boy’s bandlo courtesy of Left Field.)

The girls’ bandlo retained the same symbols through the 1950s, except that rhinestone “jewels” replaced the bars of felt.

The girls’ bandlos of the 1960s were similar in spirit but somewhat different in design from earlier versions. Of pale green felt, they bore a more modern house near the point. Class symbols appropriate to the new names of classes were awarded at the beginning of each year. Round photographs a little smaller than an American nickle and covered with glass depicted a girl praying (earned when a girl learned to open and close a meeting using an appropriate prayer format and prayer language), a girl reading the New Testament (earned when a girl could meet requirements for locating scripture verses in the New Testament), wheat (symbolizing the Word of Wisdom) and the priesthood monument on Temple Square (representing the priesthood), after the girl met requirements related to those subjects. Plastic numbers 1-4, 5-9, and 10-13 represented memorization of the Articles of Faith. Rows of rhinestones represented attendance at Primary and memorization of scripture verses. Jewels attached to each class symbol indicated the girl had attended Primary at least 40 times during the year. Jewels glued to the windows of the house represented completion of an article of cross stitch, knitting, and crocheting. Jewels descending from the house represented memorization of the books of the New Testament; recitation of facts about the eight men who wrote the books of the New Testament; and recitation of a story in a girl’s own words about someone in the New Testament who “served gladly.” A white plastic scroll symbolized graduation from Primary.

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(Photos courtesy of BHodges. This bandlo appears complete except for a jewel in the middle window of the house,  and a third jewel that should appear between the house and the picture of the New Testament-reading girl.)

Bandlos were vastly more plentiful along the Mormon corridor than elsewhere, obviously. Nevertheless, there are indications that bandlos were used by Primary children elsewhere in the world. The Church Archives hold Primary manuals from the late 1950s and early 1960s which contain instructions and diagrams for bandlos. These non-English manuals appear to have been translated by Americans working in mission offices; they are mimeographed, and appear to be direct translations without cultural adaptations – the boys’ lesson manuals, for example, contain stories of Daniel Boone and Kit Carson. Nevertheless, they indicate that there may very well be bandlos hidden away in the souvenirs of long-time church members outside the United States – a nauha in Finland, a sjerp in Holland, a banda in Mexico, a Band in Germany, a Banderollen in Sweden.

When the Trail Builder and Lihoma programs were discontinued in about 1970, to be replaced by the Blazer A and B and Merrie Miss A and B classes, bandlos were discontinued. 10- and 11-year-old Primary children were given printed wall hangings – called “Blazer Banners” and “Merrie Markers” – to which symbols representing lessons learned were glued. All such trappings were discontinued by the time weekday Primary was merged into Sunday School with the block meeting schedule.

My own bandlo from the 1960s, moth-eaten though it is, but proudly complete down to the last jewel, is a treasured souvenir of my Mormon childhood.