Where I'm from, the majority of churches have playgrounds for children. The only ones that don't, usually are very small. I wondered about this awhile back but why don't church buildings have playgrounds?
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Some of us are old enough to remember pre correlation. Some ward buildings did have playgrounds. It wasnt consistent, some did, some didn't. They all got ripped out though. I was a Mormon kid in the 70s in Utah, Oregon, New Jersey and Nebraska. Wards were a bit more "self determining" as were buildings. But, the homogeneous aspect of correlation makes it pretty much the same everywhere now.
There are numerous reasons given. Some are probably true. The biggest one is that the building is for worship, not social. That concept is a big change. For decades, the church building was looked at as a hub of local social activities. No longer. Now, the church building is for worship activities only. Every activity must have a worship component. So, all of the social activities are gone. The "fat has been pared away". Liability might be given as a reason, but it's not the primary mover. Faith is.
Wow that sucks, it sounds like it may have actually been somewhat fun back then!
I thought so! Of course, I was a kid, so I'm kinda biased, but yeah, being in the regional dance festival in 1985 (our ward/stake did the dance of Estonia....costumes and all) and in ward talent shows and Christmas parties and on and on and on. (Lots of room for reminiscing here)
Growing up Mormon in the 70s and 80s was a very different world than it is now. I try and have this talk with my brothers who all had this same childhood, but their kids do not.
Being a "not Utah" Mormon in the 70s and 80s, you were a very unique individual. The Church was central to your world. It was your social life. When they removed all of the social aspects of Mormonism, they really crippled the people outside of Utah.
It's interesting because I've seen old family photos from my husband's family dating from about the 70s and you're right, the cultural stuff, putting on shows, etc never happens anymore. It's really sad.
I wonder if the higher ups even realize they had it good and now it's so stale. I wish they would work on un-correlating lol
It's a "focus" thing. I mentioned it earlier. They know. It was purposeful. Prior to the 80s, it could easily be argued that many things did not have a full gospel purpose. I remember that specific sentence being uttered. "Ask yourself, what is the specific spiritual purpose of this activity? Will this draw souls unto Christ?" Prior to 80s, the purpose was Strengthening Members, or Building Fellowship, or Ward Building.
Very different focus.
When I was a little girl, my dad was I guess in young men’s’ leadership bc he would go to “Mutual”. I got to see and /or hear about the fun stuff they got to do and I recall looking so forward to when I was old enough to participate. We lived right across the street from our meetinghouse in Mesa. There was a vacant lot a few houses down from us and the adults got permission from the land owner (most of the neighborhood was one flavor of LDS or another) and they had a MUD dance on that lot. I saw some of the behind the scenes and even got to watch some of it with the music blasting and the kids dancing and making human pyramids covered head to toe with mud. I cringe at the liability issues with this lol, but at least it made me want to participate someday! I had a very questioning spirit (user name checks out lol) and tried to miss my own baptism by “losing track of time”during a bike ride so the youth activities, big church volleyball tournaments, softball etc were definitely more likely to keep kids who may not have been 100% sold on the testimony part attending and maybe moving forward in the church. 🤷♀️
Woah, human pyramids have scared me since I was 16. One night in youth group of my Lutheran Church (a night I didn't attend) some high schoolers did a pyramid and a 15 year old boy was severely injured - broken neck, for which he had to be in the hospital for weeks. Today he is around 59 and still in a wheel chair. He became a college professor. His parents were active members and I'm pretty sure they never tried to sue anyone. But I'm sure there was plenty of guilt to go around. I know the youth director experienced it, but I wonder about which ever kid came up with the suggestion. 😥
That’s so sad! What a tragedy. Sounds like he made his very best life despite having that accident. I’m basically a chicken. I wouldn’t have done it had I been old enough to attend lol. Also, I’m generally more neurotic than the average person so while it all looked fun as a kid there would be a huge ick factor for me between the mud and anything that could have been in the mud. But the kids seemed to have a great time. I’m sure it would have given the church’s law firm a few heart attacks lol. I try to remember that during this same era our lap belt type seatbelts were always tucked under the seats or in some other way inoperable and no one seemed to give a damn (incl my parents). 🤷♀️
It was definitely very sad. And a few years later his father died in a small plane crash. But yes - he has definitely been a strong person.
You sound like me - I was never very physically coordinated and wouldn't have wanted to get on a pyramid. I'm very short and wasn't heavy back then, so would have been in the topic. And I wouldn't even get in the mud bath of a spa I went to once - ick. 😆
Yes indeed! I wouldn’t do a mud bath either!
Mormons in the 70s and 80s had the Osmonds to look up to. They were the most recognized members of the church, so we played up our performances. If people are laughing and smiling at you, they're not persecuting you.
I'm a nevermo who had a couple of close Mormon friends in high school. I grew up Lutheran and it seemed I gravitated toward other religious friends without even making that a priority. We were also mostly good students.
Anyway, I graduated from HS in 1982 in southern California. I don't know what year it was but I went with my one friend's parents to see her in a HUGE dance festival put on at the Hollywood Bowl. The amount of kids in costumes and dances was incredible.
My friend was constantly engaged in some social activity with her church. Having my own church, we seem to have an unspoken agreement against trying to convert each other, although both churches would have liked us to try. Sometimes we talked about our respective faiths but mostly we stuck to topics we agreed on. We were really emotionally close and I expected we would be close friends for life, but now we're just casual Facebook friends.
Our birthdays were only a few days apart. For my friend's 16th birthday, her family planned a surprise party, and asked for suggestions of friends to ask. So I came up with some shared friends and a few school students who I knew she was friends with. What I didn't know is that it was going to be a surprise party for me too. It was nice but kind of awkward because she had at least twice as many friends there. A few even gave me a gift too, which was kind. But after cake and presents we ended up going to a ward (or stake) dance for high schoolers, which was more awkward. I didn't expect to be roped into an LDS dance with mostly strangers for my birthday. I was pretty shy and don't really remember if I even danced or not. It was a disappointing evening, although I tried to think of it as just her party so I didn't feel too strange about it. I mean - I hadn't expected anything for myself that evening.
Do you remember when these were removed? I'm assuming around 1980, but none of my local buildings had playgrounds, so I don't have a good feel for this. It seems like coorelation hit 5th gear in about 1972 and by 1980 it was cruising at 70 mph.
That's about right. Removal would have happend in the mid 70s. In the 70s, the High Priests were grumbling every single week about correlation ruining the Church. In the hinterland (mission field...we literally referred to anything not Utah as the Mission Field) it took a bit longer. I served a mission in Virginia in the 90s. There were still some remnants of independence out there.
I remember playing on a metal play structure in AZ in the late 80's (from what I remember, the nursery room had a door that opened to the outside and the play structure was under a large tree). Unfortunately, they took it out when they renovated the building. (Probably in the early/mid 90's)
None of our buildings had playgrounds but the stake centers had softball fields. I played softball all the way through my senior year… I hated going to church but looked forward to softball. This was mid ‘80s
But wards hold social activities all the time. Or they used to before COVID. My ward is getting back to it.
I hear ya. And that is true. I'm not saying NEVER or NOT AT ALL. Just considerably less than. My personal opinion is the "pendulum swung a bit too far" and the social aspect of Mormonism will be returning. Probably not to the same level but to a greater extent. We are, in essence, social creatures. Man may not live by bread alone, but he also can not live by faith alone. We need each other. We need to be around each other.
Exactly. Besides, food and socializing go together in our church.