Block Program

In early 1980 the block program for Sundays was launched. Before the Block, we had Relief Society on a week-day morning, Primary on a different week-day afternoon (with a nursery for the teachers' own babies), and the Young Men and Young Women only met on a week-night, for Mutual. On Sundays, Priesthood meeting was early morning, Sunday School was late morning, and Sacrament Meeting was after noon, with at least an hour between each meeting. The Block was, of course, completely different, and we pondered the implications.

As a Primary teacher, I was staggered to learn that the Primary nursery would no longer exist. Yes, there would be a nursery program for 18 months & up, but the babies would have to be tended by their fathers. This was a radical thought back then; one NEVER saw a dad carrying his baby (and diaper bag) throughout Priesthood meeting or Sunday School. It just was not done. It was with some trepidation that I broached the subject with David.

"You know, you're going to be tending Laura while I teach Primary," I informed him. He stared at me as though I had suddenly started speaking Swahili; Laura, after all, was just over six months old. "You're going to have to be released," he said. "That's not the program," I said. To be fair, when David understood the full program, he bravely agreed, and was soon consoled with the reality that he was not alone. There was a whole crew of dads who stood in the hall with their squalling infants spitting up on their suits, bouncing them around to soothe them, juggling the diaper bags that their wives had hurriedly purchased to be gender neutral. In no time at all, David and baby Laura had reached an understanding, and he was picking up parenting tips from Ken Johnson ("for a crying baby? cough syrup").

And we all agreed that, while the three-hour block was grueling, it was wonderful to go to church just once on a Sunday.