Used to have Gold and Green balls - a big church dance.

Used to have all church softball tournament.

Used to have road shows.

Used to have regular bake sales to raise funds for RS, mutual,etc.

Why have all the fun things been killed off?

No, but good god, we had blue balls.

Dammit, that was what I was going to say. First thing that came to mind when I saw the sub line.

Get your minds out of the gutter so mine can roll by.

Damn....you beat me to the punch on that one....

Ron Burr

When I was living in Germany 2000 we had a Gruen Gold Ball and it was fun. Not sure if they have it anymore.

My mom's stake still has stake plays and musicals, as well as dance festivals for the youth.

The stake my aunt & uncle are currently in had Gold & Green balls clear up through the mid '90s. I don't know about now.

Our stake's gold and green balls cleared up in the '80's.

That's right. No more balls, no more New Year's Eve dance (instead, that lame televised fireside for white teens, their chauffeur parents, and 6 African Americans) no more RS bake sales, no more Christmas crafts sale, no more road shows, nor dance festivals, nor youth conferences in Watsonville, no ski trips to Squaw Valley (those were the best!), no YW/WM one-act plays, no girl's baseball, no talent night--certainly no more Halloween party with games, a chamber of horrors, and a scary movie. The Mormon youth went out into the community with our music, and we volunteered as "Candy Stripers" in the hospitals, helped clean up the local parks, etc. We were not as "exclusive." In California, the Mormon church was allowed to be more liberal. I think it was the influence of the universities there, and having professors as teachers and leaders.

We actually enjoyed "Mutual." I made life-long friends. I think that teenagers, like lobsters, when bored and cooped up too closely, turn on each other. The Utah Mormon teens seemed to be constantly sniping at each other, when I taught YW. They were not happy.

No.More.Fun. period optional.

Ok...our Gold and Green Ball is now called Rose Ball. The night before they have "mormon prom". I have to admit( as a closeted unbeliever)...I do still go to this one event...mostly because they actually go all out and hire this really wonderful live band. When they stop hiring that band, I will stop going. The balls we grew up with were never this good. It's a shame they don't do fun activities anymore. That was when you were really able to be yourself and have fun and get to know other people. Now it's just all about the brainwashing. Everything has to be "gospel oriented" or else you can't do it.

My stake still has all the above except bake sales, unless you include the bake a date nights every few months.

X

Roadshows are still a regular thing here. Along with the bake sale fundraisers. Oh and church dances happen like every weekend for the youth.

The fun things are all still there. But once you know the truth about the church the fun things have the light shed on them as well.

They are not really fun things, they are control techniques to keep people pacified...

The "fun" things havent disappeared, the perspective has just changed.

Why were they called "Gold and Green Balls." Were they for adults, teens, or both?

scmd Wrote:
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> Why were they called "Gold and Green Balls." Were
> they for adults, teens, or both?


Gold and green were the "official" colors for the Mutual Improvement Association, the entity that later became the Young Men/Young Women. Or maybe it was the M-men/Golden Gleaners, which became the Single Adults or whatever they call it nowadays.

In the small Morridor town in which I lived in the late 90s and early 2000s, they had none of the activities the OP listed. The last "roadshow" happened circa 1997. There's no need for alternative church dances because the area is dominated by Mormons, who run all the regular high school dances anyway. The youth don't do fun activities -- it's all geared around pestering the inactives and going to the temple.

I've heard they no longer have RS "super Saturdays" because it keeps the wimmin away from the home for too long. They also quit providing babysitting for "enrichment night" (the new version of Homemaking Night) -- which caused a huge drop in attendance and a corresponding blast of guilt from the stake. I think Enrichment Night also eventually bit the dust, although I stopped attending long before it happened (I stopped seeing the lawn signs for it and getting those annoying flyers on the door, though).

So other than boring meetings and endless callings, what the he!! do they do for fun? Accumulate food storage?

We don't have any of the other activities either. Last roadside was early 90's. Dances for the youth are once a quarter. Enrichment is gone. Because it was too divisive and clickish. We are back to the once a month rs meetings now called the "midweek rs meeting." no super Saturdays.
In a way the church shot itself in the foot by getting rid of all the social activities. The youth don't want to stay because it's the same boring shit every time they go. Adults would've been more likely to invite their neighbors when it was a social activity. Not general conference. The church tries to seem like a normal Christian church but they are just really becoming more isolated and more cultish.

No, these days they have brass balls.

The teacher asked the class how many grains of sand are in the ocean. She said the student with the correct answer would get a day off from school.

Little Johnny knew this was a trick question and came up with a plan.

The next day, Little Johnny rolled 2 black marbles down the middle aisle, right up to the teacher's feet.

Teacher said, "Alright, who has the black balls!?"

Little Johnny stood and said, "Flip Wilson, and I'll take Friday off."

I am not sure, but I think that back in the 70's the wards had more of a budget for the various auxillary organizations. Or perhaps they all had their own budgets. Now everything is correlated from SLC.

I hate to think what you've done if your balls have gone from blue to green..

Gold on the other hand could happen from an unfortunate smelting accident. Smoke and a pancake anyone?

The stake here does nothing. No stake athletics, no road shows, etc... The ward only has a couple of activities a year...Halloween and Christmas. The youth activities at the ward level are lame as well. I don't know if it's budget related. We did a bunch of fundraisers when I was a youth and we raised tons of money to pay for our high adventure trips. They ward here doesn't do any fundraising.

If it wasn't for their freakish missionary obsession, I would almost think they're trying to drive everyone out of the Church. They don't want to do activities that cost money. They drag their feet for years building temples. The only thing they seem to really want to do anymore is build their real estate empire. I wonder if they even need the religion division of their business anymore.

I'm sure Joe Smith's were gold. He was such a chick magnet.
Judging by Briggy's portraits, I'd say his were green
Not sure about other Mormons though.

Be happy to hear from any "inactive" [whatever that means] Returned Missionaries [LDS] in UK.
RH.

I don't know. I've never checked. I'm pretty sure they are normal color by now.

One shot cleared it right up.

LD$ Inc eliminated the Manti Pageant, the last one was just had, .....so what does that action indicate ???

Wow! They took away fun activities and replaced that with cleaning bathrooms! Too bad that pitifully broke church doesn't have money to make the member's lives easier. Poor church. Poor poor church.

I don't remember ever going to a gold and green ball...but come to think of it, I was probably out drinking and raising hell by then...and good Mormon girls didn't have much interest in dating me.