More about the bells
I heard from a lovely woman named Kathryn Thompson who used to be a "chimer" at the Methodist Church when they still had a chime system there. Thompson said that the chimes - or what most of us call bells - were played on an electronic attachment to the church organ. She was one of four chimers who played. They each took one week a month. Every day (except Sundays), at 5 p.m., the chimes would be played from a keyboard like a piano, only just one note at a time. The songs were chosen from the hymnal, she explained, but always it began with "Sweet Hour of Prayer" and ended with Amen. Thompson says it was sometimes a little scary to be up there all by yourself and the Methodist Church janitor would arrange his duties to make sure he was around when the ladies were chiming. Thompson says she feels very privileged to have been a chimer and guesses that it's too much of a commitment for most people these days, even if the bells were still available. She recalls that the Ukiah couthouse always closed when the chimes went off and her children always knew it was time to come home when they heard the bells.