I am confused what was the LDS church like before the 3 hour block? I am sorry I was a convert and actually thought it was always 3 hours on Sunday. I found out in 1980 that is when it became a 3 hour block

two trips to church; somewhat OK for people in SL, but outside ('mission field') who sometimes traveled a Freakin' HOUR to get to church... it meant either:

a) only attending one of the sessions
b) being Holed Up at some 'friendly' members place in between.


message: LDS Goodness can't reach you if you attend another church down the street (outside SL, that is) once in a while.

It happened back when gas was much cheaper, btw---

I was quite young when they changed, but I remember going to primary on Wednesdays.

It's a vague memory for me, but I do remember attending the first part of church, going to my friend's house for lunch and then going back again for the second part of Sunday services.

PM was held in the morning with SS right afterwards, then you went home and came back in the afternoon for SM.

RS and primary were held on weekdays.

Sunday was

Priesthood at an ungodly early hour, got the men out ofnthe house while women got themselves and the kids fed and dressed for sunday school.

Then a 90 minute or so sunday school, kids went to junior sunday school. First was a general gathering where the sacrament was passed followed by the dreaded 2 1/2 minute talks, then a break to class. Junior sunday school was the same format different room.

Then anywhere from 1 to 5 hour break before sacrament meeting.

Except on fast sunday when sacrament meeting followed sunday school so you sometimes did not get lunch until 1 or 2 pm

Relief Society was held on a week day morning, few women worked at the time. Later they added an evening relief society for the women that worked.

Primary was after school for elementry aged kids. During the summer it was held same time as relief society.

Mutual/scouts was held on a week night.

I do remember that we were told the three hour tour errr block wouod save time and money because no meetings would be held during the week.

Priesthood Meeting was very early. Then there was a break in our Stake in Bountiful, for everyone to go down to the Spudnut shop and get their coffee and doughnuts. I worked at a two restaurants in High School, and we always had a big coffee rush on Sunday morning when Priesthood meeting let out.

One thing people don't talk about much now is that a lot of the "greatest generation" did not live the word of wisdom at all. A lot of this came from being shipped off to Europe or the Pacific in the war. You ate what there was to eat, and drank what there was to drink, which meant a lot of our fathers drank coffee and tea with no hesitation or guilt.

We used to watch the Ed Sullivan show after Sacrament Meeting and would always be starving ... sandwiches in front of the TV ... I remember eating roast beef and potato chips and watching the Beatles first time on TV when I was small.

We shared our building with another ward so there were two schedules and they overlapped. The wards would trade schedules every year or so.

One schedule was -

Priesthood - 8:00am to 9:30am
Sunday School - 10:00am to 11:30am
Sacrament Mtg - 2:30 pm to 4:00pm

The other schedule was -
Priesthood - 9:00am - 10:30am
Sunday School - 11:00am - 12:30pm
Sacrament Mtg - 4:30pm - 6:00pm

It sucked pretty bad. I remember as a Deacon going to priesthood, sticking around through Sunday School, then going home for lunch, and then coming back to church for Sacrament Meeting. Ugggghhhhhhhh.

For Sunday School, everyone age 12+ met in the chapel. Younger kids went to Jr. Sunday School. In the chapel the Bishop would conduct ward business, there was a "practice" hymn that was sung each week for a month, two "2 1/2 minute talks" were given...usually by the youth, the sacrament was passed (the kids in Jr. Sunday School had the sacrament as well), and then you were dismissed to go to class.

Every meeting was so long and horrible. And your Sunday was TOTALLY shot. The three-hour block was a welcomed relief. A piece of cake.

Before the block of meetings started, the time in between meetings was an opportunity to sit in the foyer and flirt with the girls from the other wards. The block meeting schedule changed that. But at least the whole day was not consumed by church once the block meetings started.

i hated it then as I hate it now. We didn't like how we lived as Mormons and welcomed the change, but you have to be careful what you wish for. In many ways it's so much worse now.

for starters it was the days before correleation and the church was a nicer place and we had bishops that would be your bishop for 10-15 years, for good or for bad. They even had to to to SLC to be ordained to the office of bishop and it was a very serious thing.

On sundays we were typically up with the chickens for priesthood at 7am or so. I once had priesthood meetings at 6am in one place and it was held without the teachers deacons, or priests because they wouldn't show up that early.

you'd come back for Sunday school, usually between 9-11 depending on your building and any sharing you had to do. SS was 1.5 hours long and included sacrament and talks. the SS president was like a mini bishop, in charge of classes, finding talks, getting sacrament taken care of and all that.

Normally sac. meeting was in the evening like at 5pm, again depending on your building. we once had a ward that began sacrament at 7pm, too late to watch Disney which disappointed a ward full of families because Disney was the only show the church approved of watching on a Sunday.

It filled the day if you did all of it. On the other hand it was not the nasty and hateful affair that it is today and we had plenty of other things that were fun. we had to raise our own budget money and that made us look like other mainstream churches who have to raise their own budget money. we had car washes and bazaars and dinners to raise money but each ward seemed to find its own special thing that was different from other wards. can't think of any good examples now. And we had a lot of sports and kids would come from all over to participate. I think that this is why the church grew in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, and that made Mormons feel that it would grow forever. now no one is interested, but is it any wonder? Sports are out, budget programs are out, bishops are nowhere near what they were expected to be back in the day, and wards and stakes have lost all identity and autonomy that they once had. They don't even have a janitor who, in my day was usually a guy in the ward who had lost his job and was paid at least part time to do the janitorial work while receiving actual church assistance (this would be my dad, for instance). even that experience is now almost a sweet memory of a bishop that took care of our family during an emergency and gave us a certain amount of dignity. We looked forward to the weird products from Deseret whatever that arrived in enormous cans. Enormous cans of mandarin oranges, enormous cans of stewed tomatoes etc. Helping dad buff the floors of the halls and the gym was fun (today it's largely cheap indoor/outdoor carpet).

You really got me started. sorry.

I hated Sundays back then. We'd come home from Sunday School and have our big Sunday dinner (lunch) and then we had 3 or 4 hours to kill before we went back for Sacrament Meeting. We couldn't go outside and play with the other kids on Sunday, couldn't turn the TV on (until evening when we could watch Disney), so we had to take naps. Even well into late elementary school I remember being forced to nap. Couldn't just lay in bed and read a book, we were supposed to sleep. Sometimes I accidentally fell asleep, most of the time I just pretended.

But as Somnombulist says, it was a kinder, gentler, fun church back then. Especially if you discounted Sundays. We had the same janitors and grounds keeper for years and they took so much pride in the church building and grounds. There were many kids from inactive or part member families who never graced the church on Sunday but participated in all the activities, Mutual, Seminary, etc. Some of them are very active today. But that's back when fellowshipping was a big thing. Doesn't happen today. I remember people playing a lot of different instruments in church for special musical numbers--trumpet, flute, cello, violin, harp, even guitar. And we had a dance from 8:30-9:00 at the end of MIA every Tuesday. There was something there for families. There was a reason for people to overlook the crazy doctrine and join.

College ward. Couple lived 15 miles out of town in a small town with no Mormon church. They made a day of it. Came into town, went to Sunday school, then ate a sack lunch, then Sacrament meeting and went home. VTs refused to drive out to see them, too far they said, but wouldn't invite them over or visit when they had their long lonely Sundays in the Chapel waiting for people to come back after their warm home meal.

RS President refused to have RS meetings on Sunday when it became alright, told my School Teacher MIL she could come on Thursdays (10AM) because women shouldn't be working outside the home. MIL's children were all grown up and living away from home by then!


I would get my SS class of 12 year olds all settled in and the Priests would open my door to get two more Deacons to pass the sacrament in Jr. Sunday School. The Deacons' president would have a friendly argument with a few of the guys before it was settled who would go.
I brought it up at the Teachers In Service meeting and asked couldn't the Priesthood leaders please make the assignments before class because I was getting interrupted. Someone sure looked embarrassed, I never had interruptions again.
But really couldn't the Priesthood meeting before Sunday School have taken care of it??

The "In Service" was after Sunday School, lasted an hour, and was for teaching teachers how to teach. It also covered administrative concerns. Instead of four hours between SS and Sacrament you had 3 hours. I'm sure a lot of people didn't eat much....hey, they don't now either.

Stamina, its all about stamina.

The reason for the change was the price and unavailability of gasoline.

somnambulist, thanks, glad you "got started". Buffed floors are a memory... as are many of the other things you mentioned. And the stories were fun too.

Those were the days. However, as most already know, thinking outside the blox, there are much better days, and nights, outside of the BBC.

Thanks. The buffing was hard at first because I didn't know how to control the damn thing and it would crash back and forth in the hallways and hit and scuff that linoleum floor molding. I eventually got it down to an art with the machine humming and almost floating in the air back and forth and back and forth. I didn't even mind when friends would walk through and see me because I felt kind of adult by knowing how to do it. and I got a bit of a pleasant high from the smell of the floor wax like sniffing markers or mimeograph paper. I'm sure you have no memory of sniffing mimeograph paper but certainly someone here rememers it. i usually make like I'm not that old and sometimes give a false age but this time I'm letting it hang out there.

Ha ha! I've been an elementary school teacher for many years - I remember the smell of mimeograph paper...

Somnambulist – thanks for bringing back memories.

My grandmother was the librarian in our old church house, and I loved helping her make copies using the old mimeograph.

Our sacrament meeting was always at 7pm. My parents were not very strict when I was younger, and since we had already had the sacrament during Sunday school, mom would let us stay home and watch Disney. It was probably easier than keeping 8 kids quite in a boring meeting.

I have equally fond memories of teachers yelling at us for sniffing the mimeographs they handed out. only coffee smells better.

I remember doing that sacrament excuse, too. I think it was common because then you could go to a relative's house or something instead of going to sacrament meeting. and having a 1.5 hour meeting at 7pm every sunday is actually a hardship. But it was nice to sing 'Now the Day is Over' at the end. It was a pretty hymn and now your day was finally over. next Sunday you would do it all over again.

Before the 3-hour block, we had the 3-hour block in Hasselt branch, Belgium. The distances between the members and the chapel were so large, that it just wasn't feasible to drive that far twice a day.

So I call dibs on the 3-hour block in the name of Hasselt branch, Belgium way back in the 1970s.

The same meeting schedule arrangements were used begining in 1970 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

...in 1973 or so. We were told that it was a pilot program.

This thread reminds me of my favorite Sunday School memory ever, when I was probably 6-7 years old. We had a pretty, young teacher who was a recent convert. One Sunday, the weather was so nice that we had class outside. Our teacher, Rosie, apparently didn't have much of a lesson planned that day. So she walked us down to a drugstore a block away and bought all of us a popsicle.

I assume that somebody later told her that it was against the rules to spend money on Sunday, because she never did it again. But that was one good memory.

MIA was fun. We had good teachers and there were a lot of us. We'd have a dance at least once a month. Heavy but innocent make out sessions behind the Jr Sunday School.

Dad and us boys would head into PM...then Mom would drive in for SS...then home for a big meal and play (no Sunday restrictions on play at our house...we're farm boys), then back into town for SM, then home just in time for "Bonanza".

Ron Burr

Basically, Sacrament Meeting was in the morning. You went home, ate lunch then went back to Sunday School. This was very hard on members who lived far from the church. RS, Primary and EQ was held on a weekday.

Remember the "Sacrament Gem"?
Some poor scared to death little kid had to get up in Sunday School opening exercises and read a "gem" and then the congregation repeated it back in unison.

Often, one of us kids would remember while riding to church that we had been assigned a 2 1/2 minute talk for that day. So my mother's standard operating procedure to fix that problem was to pull out a little missionary business card from her purse that had the articles of faith printed on the back, which we were told to recite in 2 1/2 minutes. The articles of faith got repeated over and over and over again in my childhood.

When did they stop using mimeographs?

After I started farming, Sunday was just an other work day if I was seeding, spraying crops or harvesting. Dad never questioned that although he didn't generally work on Sunday except for caring for his livestock. We combined on Sunday a few times when it was late in the season.

Ron Burr