Playing basketball on carpet

[A New Name]

Fun article here in deadspin on the history of Mormons playing basketball on carpet in their churches.

[LSOF]

That's strange. None of the chapels I've ever been in (excepting one in Utah) has had a carpeted gym.

[Bloodhound98]

In CA my church had a carpet gym. Wicked rug burns!!!

[moksha]

I remember how much harder it was to dance on carpeted multi-purpose room floors. No graceful gliding there.

[document]

I grew up in a chapel with carpeted gym floors. I thought that was normal for churches.

When I was about the age of a Deacon we switched to a ward that met in the stake center. That church had two things I wasn't used to, a pipe organ and a traditional "school" gym floor. For years, I assumed it was that chapels had carpeted gyms and electric organs and stake centers had traditional gyms and pipe organs.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

Current church has a carpeted gym covering an old hardwood floor. Sad that beautiful wood is covered up like that.

[Spicy McHaggis]

Carpeted gyms in the 80s were the multiple wives of the 1840s. They both eventually went out of style.

[deacon blues]

I remember how much harder it was to dance on carpeted multi-purpose room floors. No graceful gliding there.

Yeah, sad how basketball muscled out dancing as a recreational priority.

[achilles]

I grew up with a carpeted gym. The building is from the early 80s.

You know, an anthropologist 1000 years from now, excavating one of our buildings might be forgiven for thinking our religion worships basketball. The basketball courts form the heart of most of our churches.

[Newme]

I remember how much harder it was to dance on carpeted multi-purpose room floors. No graceful gliding there.

Yeah, sad how basketball muscled out dancing as a recreational priority.

That's what I was thinking. I didn't know if it was just me, but it seemed like there used to be a lot more Stake Dances, road shows, trips - more fun for YM/YW teens to mix than there are now. I wonder if the church is specifically trying to postpone dating until even later.

[mooseman]

I remember how much harder it was to dance on carpeted multi-purpose room floors. No graceful gliding there.

Yeah, sad how basketball muscled out dancing as a recreational priority.

That's what I was thinking. I didn't know if it was just me, but it seemed like there used to be a lot more Stake Dances, road shows, trips - more fun for YM/YW teens to mix than there are now. I wonder if the church is specifically trying to postpone dating until even later.

Not postpone, speed it up. limit choices and decisions are easier after all it probably has more to do with liability and false doctrine creeping in. It's harder to control what's being taught if roadshows are co ordinated, and intersex activities can lead to hanky panky, and we can't have that being tied to the church in anyway.

[Newme]

Yeah, sad how basketball muscled out dancing as a recreational priority.

That's what I was thinking. I didn't know if it was just me, but it seemed like there used to be a lot more Stake Dances, road shows, trips - more fun for YM/YW teens to mix than there are now. I wonder if the church is specifically trying to postpone dating until even later.

Not postpone, speed it up. limit choices and decisions are easier after all it probably has more to do with liability and false doctrine creeping in. It's harder to control what's being taught if roadshows are co ordinated, and intersex activities can lead to hanky panky, and we can't have that being tied to the church in anyway.

Probably. Well, I know some hanky panky did go on behind stage and other parts of the church - but for the most part, it was innocent fun!

[Corsair]

I grew up attending an LDS building that was built in the early 1970s and had a very nice wooden basketball court and a stage with curtains along side it. The stake put on plays during many years including Fiddler on the Roof and Saturday's Warrior. The stage was also liberally used for ward activities.

Then the basketball court was carpeted and the stage got carpeted also since it was an identical varnished wood floor. The faithful stake music guy was pissed. This guy was also my high school music and band director and he loudly complained that you can't have dramatic productions on a carpeted stage because it absorbs all the sound. No one sitting in the back would be able to hear. But he was just a high school teacher and not the stake president needing to contain costs.

My current building has carpet and no stage, but luckily the stake center has the full wooden floor and a wooden stage.

[Meilingkie]

Basketballcourts in Church, WTH???
I remember our stakecenter had one hoop and thought it stange, but after reconstruction 8 years ago it disappeared.
It's the only Dutch building where I ever saw that.