Anyone ever experience this? Whenever we would attend Stake Conference, no matter how early we tried to get there, the pews would be strewn with jackets, BOM'S and anything else people could use to "save their seats". I remember my husband and I would walk up and down the aisles saying "is that seat taken?" only to be met with blank stares or averted eyes. It seemed that the elite had grabbed the good seats and the rest of us riff raf could fend for ourselves. We would always end up banished to the back, on the hard metal chairs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2011 04:07PM by freegirl10.

The back was where I always wanted to be.

I know what you mean about jackets, BOM's etc. Some people were so 'righteous' it used to make me feel like I wanted to turn round and go home. How I wished I had.

Good to be out

Absolutely. I couldn't sit with my best friend and her family, because she's Mormon royalty, with brother-in-law being a Temple President. So her entire family have always been in the front row.

I never wanted to sit in the chapel area in the pews. I always loved sitting in the back next to the stage. That way you could get a good look at the strippers and watch them work the poles.

Oh the tithing dollars I put in those g-strings!!!






We had a very liberal stake.

Sitting for 2 hours got mighty uncomfortable on the metal chairs, to say nothing about the noise from the large families who sat back there with their flocks of children!

Yikes, Freegirl, your post gave me a flashback! I remember that unwelcome feeling, too well. I was lucky to have my own special reserved seat at the organ. Big whoop.

At a farewell for a family member, two of my children and I arrived during the opening song, The usher pointed out several empty seats at the front, in the middle of the row, so we marched up there in front of everybody, tripped over everyone's knees, and half-way through our climb, we were told the seats were saved. We stumbled back out of the row, and tried some other seats further back, and they also were taken. By then the song was over. We were so humiliated and felt so out-of-place, that we just went home.

She was a scary bitch.

Unbelievable! How do people put up with this?

It was definitely a separation of the "classes" it seems. Once we got lucky and some friends of ours had actually saved us seats on the pews. We thought we'd died and gone to Heaven (shudder)

This is a sore spot for me, so I am hoping to keep the conversation going. Once a post gets moved to the bottom of the postings list, it seems to lose its appeal?

I remember many years ago in the Stake I was in there was some bad feeling cos the front rows were reserved for HC member's families. The SP's reasoning for this was their HC work kept them away from their families so much it was only right they were "allowed" to sit as near as possible to them at Sunday Stake Conference!!
Typical of TSSC, create a huge wound & apply a sticking plaster to try & fix it!
Several members actually boycotted Stake Conference for this reason.

Because my dad was a SP, I was usually forced to spend about 6 hours at church on those days.

Me too.

Wow, Kingog, that must have been miserable

when I was young, our stake conference was held in the old Granite Stake Tabernacle in Sugarhouse.

We would always sit up in the balcony. That building was so beautiful. I would study the great mural in front and look for all the items in it. Then I would count the lightbulbs in the great chandeliers hanging in the chapel. That was the greatest building. I hope it doesn't get sold off like so many others.

I had the misfortune of being born into a white trash, back pew Mormon family. So of course we were on the wrong side of the curtain for stake conference. Pews in front, folding chairs in back. For five days a week, in his working life, my father was a schmuck. You'd think he wouldn't want to add a sixth day. God, I hated those meetings.

It was very rare when I ever wanted to sit in the front. But there was this one time when Elder Bednar was coming to speak at our stake. I literally just pushed people's shit over and sat down. It was just me and my hubby at the time. Oh if looks could kill I would have been so dead :)

D. Oaks came to Charlotte (where his grandson is on a mission???). Got there early to find schmucks holding entire rows with one person sitting there. (With freakin' baby carriers. etc). I sat down on a padded seat and saved two spots for my friends who were in the choir singing for the crappy priesthood dinner session. Was asked to let someone else sit there, said "Nope-I'm saving only two. Ask those bozo's up front who are saving whole rows"!!! What a waste of two hours-
One prick named Gay stated how he was led by spirit when he was in South Africa to "Stop" one day and help a 9 year old boy who was crying on the street at 6 pm. He went on to the church where he was so important he sent his "assistant" to bring the boy to him in his office. The boy "lived" in an orphanage and had to sell a fish each day to sleep on a cot. The money fell out of his pocket and he was scared to return to the orphanage.This prick gave his assistant the $6.00 and had him drive the kid the 5 miles back to the orphanage. He acted like he had done something so admirable. Where are the LDS orphanages to educate and teach these children "how to fish" instead of just paying for one. What a way to pass the buck. But, I'm sure he slept so well in his warn bed that night. Satan at his finest!!!

I came into the church on sunday to find all , middle and sides for 7 or 8 rows 'reserved' for 'family only'. There had been a big wedding the night before and the bride and gooms' out of town and in town relatives had reserved the pews with purses, coats and etc. They didn't even start to sit down in them until 1 minute til!

Of course, I ended up in the nursing room.... a 9 X 10 with two recliners, a sink, stinky trash can, and a couple extra hard back chairs.....

why would I want to be in church that day anyway??? I'd only just handed my husband of 22 years his divorce papers the day before..... so much for 'comfort' from the sacred sacrament in the 'sacred' chapel!!

the rudeness... of saved seats....! Bleah.

Now, I'd just go in and sit where I wanted to. What are they going to do??? Physically pick me and my children up and take us out of there??????

I'd definitely do that in a ward now, if I chose to go.... sit where I damn well pleased!
And maybe act like an investigator with poor hearing so I'd have to talk loud! saying things like;;;;; my neighbor is a Mormon and said this was GODs church for EVERYBODY and He loves me! And I am welcome at HIS CHURCH ANYTIME!!!! :D!
But I have better things to do on Sundays.....

Wow this brings back memories. When I was about twelve we went early for Stake conference and all the front benches had crap strewn all over them. We picked a bench that had a few bibles on it (and not a single person on it) and sat down. Right before the meeting started some guy came up to my Dad and started yelling at him that we better move, he was saving that bench for he and his family! HE WAS OUT IN THE PARKING LOT DIRECTING TRAFFIC DOING HIS PRIESTHOOD DUTY HOW DARE WE TAKE HIS SEAT?! My Dad tried to reason with him but it was no use. My parents were so embarrassed by the scene he was making they eventually gathered us kids and my 75 year old Grandma and moved to the metal chairs in the back.
For the next few years instead of going to stake conference, we'd go up to Salt Lake to see the live broadcast of the Motab choir. It was awesome. (and only 30 minutes long!)
It was a sad day a few years later when they decided to go back to stake conference.

We had families that 'reserved' pews for regular Sunday services. They sat on the same bench every week, so they thought the seats were theirs. One man in particular would tell people to move from a particular bench because his family always sat there. A new young couple moved into the ward & sat on this bench. When told to move, the younger guy said he did not see a name plate on the pew & refused to move. Then it became a battle of wills to see who would sit there each week.

No one sat on the first 3-4 rows up front, so my family would sit there to make sure we had a place to sit each week.

The last few times I went to SC, the front center pews were actually roped off.

My family stopped attending Stake Conference for this very reason. I injured my back several years ago and sitting for two hours on metal folding chairs was physical torture.

I remember those meetings. Once, when I was in the military, we just sat down anyway. Here they came, "Excuse me, those seats are taken" almost 10 minutes later. "Oh well, you snooze, you lose" was my response. The Mom snatched up her purse and sweaters and quads and stomped off.

I was an asshole back then too.

Ron

After the saturday night session, people loaded up the pews with their stuff to save seats for the morning session.

Someone came in, cleaned off the pews and put all the sweaters, bibles, etc. in a pile in the foyer.

Lots of PO'ed people the next day.

Wow, I like that. Someone in the morg does have a brain.

How I wish I could have been there when all the self-righteous people turned up the next morning.
Hope they went into the conference all forgiving and loving as Jesus would have done, but I bet it made some feel like they wanted to kill someone. Oh the happy memories of 'all is well' in the morg. Thanks for the post its made my day.

My buds and I would take the stuff to the library, where the lost & found was located, but still sit in the back. We liked to watch people take the good seats, then watch as the "seat savers" came in and asked where their crap was, and why did they take their seats. Lots of fun!

Jesus talked about the 'best seats' being reserved in the synagogue or the self-important pharasaic elders.
So much for using his name for the mo-church.