Public prayer was a little gay (as the term is used today), a little boring but almost every event had an invocation. It was accepted. It was natural. It wasn't that everybody was a Jesus Freak, far from it (otherwise Sunday was firmly separated from Monday), it was just the way things were done.
Maybe if they let them post the 10 commandments, at least that "thou shall not kill" part would sink in and it would cut down on the Columbines.