This week’s post on the 1960s “Era of Youth” section of the Improvement Era reproduced a particularly poor issue — in my opinion — of a mini-magazine aimed at the youth of the Church which was representative — in my opinion — of the fluff constituting many “Era of Youth” sections, especially in the early part of the decade. Other issues had much more substance, especially as the decade went on.
The pages posted below are the full October 1968 “Era of Youth” which represents — in my opinion — one of the better issues, one that foreshadows the New Era that would follow in 1971:
There is a nicely illustrated article about the Hill Cumorah Pageant, stressing the participation of young people; the report of an extraordinary service project, again involving youth; a “fluff” feature reminiscent of the issue posted earlier, but confined to two pages so that it might tickle the interest of teens without crowding out all substance — dig that “Boys are for leading; girls are for loving” bit!; an article highlighting the negative social consequences of smoking; and a few pages of short news items about young people in various parts of the Church (check out the item on the last page, showing that handcart treks are not such a recent phenomenon as we might think).
While I stand by my earlier remarks about the “marshmallow fluff” of some issues of the “Era of Youth,” including the sample pictured in that post, providing virtually nothing to challenge and feed the young people of that generation, I don’t like the impression I apparently created that the magazine never offered anything of worth, or that its editors were incompetent. I hope this sample balances that first impression.
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Continue reading at the original source →