Posted by:
mahana
(
)
Date: April 18, 2019 03:55PM
I agree with what's been said. The church was a different place in the day. We almost always had a 1 or 2 weekly activities, and some sort of monthly activity if not more.
Road shows, gold & green ball, steak dances, homemaking, RS birthday party, temple night, baptisms for the dead, firesides, missionary splits, YW/YM's/scouts, volley ball, basketball, soft ball, ward parties, ward camp out, Christmas parties, the spring social, fundraiser dinners, daddy-daughter/mother-son activity, YW of excellence, girls camp, youth conference, pioneer treks, service activities, (babysitting for homemaking, visiting and cleaning/doing yard work for widows, picking up trash on the highway, visiting the old folks home, pushing wheelchairs at the state developmental center, making emergency kits, working at the cannery, etc).
When I was in YW's in the late 80's we went to Wyoming for girls camp, and stayed at a ranch owned by a relative of the YW's leader. A few years later we went to a different WY ranch owned by the bishops brother for youth conference. We went to bear lake & water skied once. Another time the YM & YM stayed at the mutual dell lodge in AF canyon & went snowmobiling half the night.. don't know how that one ever flew.. boys & girls sleeping in the same building, and being out alone in the mountains, in pairs no less, past midnight!
They used to have fun activities and actually did real service. As time when on the cutbacks & rules became a joke and the people attending dwindled. Only a few people would show up for service activities and it sucked to be on of the few doing work that needed many.
By the time I was a young mother RS homemaking was so boring you couldn't stand to go. A bunch of us in the ward got together and decided to have (non church related) supper club one night a month, and bunko on another night. We'd take turns hosting and leave the kids at home for a much needed break. Then the local priesthood leaders decided bunko had to go and threatened us to stop. They claimed it gave the appearance of evil (gambling) since we all pitched in $5.00 to go toward the nightly prize. Ridiculous! I think they were just pissed we were having fun outside of church and quit going to homemaking.