Perhaps there was a curtain drawn between the hymns sung in Sunday School/church, and everyday life? i.e. Sunday was for church and whatever went with it, the rest of the week was for work, and never the twain did meet. In my experience growing up in a country town in NSW in the late 50s-early 60s Sunday was never allowed to impinge on the rest of the week, and vice versa.

I attended a youth fellowship in a Presbyterian church in my mid-late teens and we considered ourselves very daring when we sang the 23rd Psalm (King James version) to the tune of "The Gypsy Rover", accompanied by guitar.

Cheers
JennieG