M. I. A.

This morning I remembered a dream! I don't remember my dreams like I use to and like Tevia does, but this one I remembered, maybe because it was so nostalgic.
I was in the cultural hall in our old church building. I really loved that building, had a lot of good memories. (more on that later). Well I must have been about 15 or 16 years old and we were having a dance. Side note: Back in the day YW was called M. I. A. ( mutual improvement association), not sure why the church changes the name of organizations, probably to make the members feel like we're keeping up with the times but not really. Back to my dream, there was this guy that I had a crush on and he had asked me to dance the first dance and of course I said yes, which by the way never happened in real life except if you lived in the early nineteenth century where you were asked in advance. I had on this long dress cuz back then that was the fashion and this other guy came up and pulled on my tie in the back and lured me away from the group. We started playing that "trust" game where you fall back and someone catches you. It felt really cool to fall back and be caught like that, over and over again. My hair was really long and I could feel it drop back as I fell backwards. I started to worry about the other guy cuz the music was starting but I just kept wanting to spend time with this guy. That was the end, weird huh?
Back to the old church building. That was the coolest place ever. It had a basement and a room under the stage, lots of grass and yard and bushes and trees. Every 5th Wednesday for MIA we could have a dance and even the scouts and beehives were invited to practice for the stake dance which I thought was a good idea and don't understand why they don't do that anymore. We also could roller skate in the cultural hall to records, my favorite song was "hitchin' a ride", or if the weather was nice we would go outside and play group games, like flying dutchman or steal the flag or two deep. All the youth would play from the laurels and priests to the scouts and beehives. My favorite was flying dutchman. We had a lot of non-members come on Wednesday nights to participate, it was kind of the place to be.
I remember this one guy named Mark (can't remember his last name) he would hide in the bushes and jump out at me and try to kiss me almost every Wednesday. He never did accomplish that , WHAT! WHAT! What was I thinking? I think because he was shorter than me and couldn't quite reach, but that didn't stop Lawrence Pacheco. Hmmmm Mark was blond and short and Lawrence was dark and short. That's funny now that I think of that.
I sometimes feel sorry for the youth now a days because they don't seem to have that same type of experience I had and the church has quit doing some of the activities that brought us all together a little more....or so I think. Maybe with name changes come other changes. The youth now are a lot stronger and more noble than I think we were, so that could be it. Anyway just a jaunt down memory lane, that dream triggered a lot of food for thought. Good Times!