"I'm not that old -- 47 -- and I grew up attending small evangelical churches. I was expected to be able to sit still and quiet through a 90 minute service before I was school age."
Same here. If we became disruptive in any way, Dad stopped his sermon and scolded us from the pulpit. Now kids are just awful, and/or they're schlepped off to Junior Church. (What's up with that?) We chose our current church partly because all the children sit up, behave, and listen. It was shocking!
Been there. I was 5 at the time. He and I still laugh about it.
(It only happened once.)