After seeing a few posts lately I started thinking about my brother, who converted at about age 18; he moved lock, stock and barrel into the whole tribal adoption thing and talks about the handcart pioneers and all that jazz like he was there, when in the mid-1800's my entire family were safely upper middle class protestants in New England, probably making fun of those silly Mormon upstarts.

I mean seriously, I have an interest in the Napoleonic Wars, but I don't talk about "my people" trudging through the snow during the retreat from Moscow.....

I don't know your brother but this just made me laugh. I can picture people I've know who act the same way. Maybe they should go into acting or theatre where they belong!

Reminds me of the scene in the movie, Tropic Thunder, when the Robert Downey Jr. character, who is white, but is so stuck in character as a black man, truly believes he is black, grabs the real black guy and holding his in his bosom says in his soulful "black" voice:

"For four hundred years, that word has kept us down...Took a whole lotta tryin' just to get up that hill. Now we're up in the big leagues, gettin' our turn at bat. As long as we live, it's you and me, baby..."

Too funny.

I don't know if I've seen anyone do quite that, but it does remind me of the general phenomenon when people adopt a culture with sometimes comic results. I'm thinking of trekkies, or Goths, or that white bread suburban kid who loved karate and decided he was totally Asian.

I think it's a normal human behavior, especially for adolescents and young adults who are still trying to define themselves, but your brother's case is kind of funny.

My weirdo freakazoid aunt by marriage is the same way because she married into my mom's multi-generational BIC family. She's a convert from the South for chrissakes. How she lost her accent I'll never know.

Don't know your brother, of course, but this points to the existence of social levels in TSCC, and how important being of pioneer stock is. And it's sad.

Well, converts or not, none of the Mormons who are alive today were there or went through it so I guess your brother has as much right to be over-dramatic about it as anyone.