I did not watch conference as a youth or teen. Not a requirement in my home ever. I attended the first time with a boyfriend in high school, and we did a lot of talking during the long, boring Sunday morning session, and couldn't wait to leave and find much better things to do for the rest of the day.

I have noticed through the years that many Mormon church goers regularly get cabin fever at Conference time and a road trip suddenly happens on this very weekend.

I think, as a youngster, I would have headed out the window if I had been made to watch or attend conference.

What happened around conference time in your youth in your neck of the woods?

Not a road trip but lots of fun. Non-Mormon here but live in Utah county. A friend used to live next to obnoxious TBMs who would play conference loudly on the radio out the window for all to hear. So he invited never Mormons and ex-Mormon friends over and introduced us to the conference drinking game. It was a lovely spring day and we sat on his deck enjoying our adult beverages. I guess the neighbors caught on after awhile because the turned down the volume.

Blaring conference.....how obnoxious....just about as obnoxious as conference is. Love your counterattack.

Story.

This happened in 1986 or 1987. I think I had my driver’s license. I think. I’m not 100% sure.
The so-called "stake center" was being remodeled so a different building was being used as the SC. It was at the far end of the boundaries of the stake. The "ward" we went to was at the F A R other end and our house was at the tippy tippy tip of the boundaries.

My mother was a rabid TBM of the highest order. We went to each and every ward event, be it Sunday church or a wedding reception in the gym. There was no missing anything. Church attendance was MANDATORY. It wasn’t up for negotiation at all. We went. Period.

So conference rolls around. It's Saturday and we go the a.m. show, go to lunch and then stay for the p.m. show and then of course, I have to go to the penis show. Disappointed though I was.

Sunday. We drive all the way (about 18 miles) to the temporary SC. We watch the a.m. show and then my mom certainly isn't going to go out to eat on a Sunday, but she doesn't want to drive all the way home just to turn around and drive back to the building. I put up a fight because I'm really sick of it at this point. My Ultra Mega Lord TBM Aunt is there too and just about when I had my mom ALMOST thinking about bagging it for the last session, she pipes up and says "Liz, you stay. If he doesn't want to stay, let him go". (IIRC, I might have had my driver’s license and I was campaigning to my mom to let me take the car home and she would then get a ride home with Debbie. It seems to me, but this was forever ago, so I’m not exactly sure)

So she decides to stay and I start walking home. I have a VERY VERY VERY lousy sense of direction. This was a building that we never went to. I got lost twice, but walked the entire way home. I remember passing store after store after fast food joint and the like. I don’t think I had any money with me. If I had, I think I might have taken the bus. I walked the reverse of the way that we drove there. Damnit, because my mom drove the grandma way. I didn't get home until 7 or 8 at night and boy, was she pissed. Along the way, while walking up Admiral Way, Uncle Pervert pulled up and told me that I was in trouble and he would drive me home. I said no, because I had come this far and at this point I wanted to walk the distance.

I was proud of myself. I stuck to my guns and made a point.

OMG, I hated being a Mormon.

Edit - this was the Seattle stake. The temp building was the Normandy Park building and our house was at the very tip of west seattle. Goddamned that was a long walk!

I choked on my bagel laughing, Levi, especially at your coining of "penis show". Great story and writing.

Your naming the different conferences am, pm or penis shows is very funny and spot on,and it got me to thinking how Mormonism is one-big-long-overbearing-SHOW.

As a member you are indoctrinated to SHOW up and you must SHOW up in the right color shirt and number of earrings, you must SHOW (impossible) that you are relishing the message, and you must SHOW at that SHOW you are at, by singing, by closing your eyes for the prayer and for sure saying amen with Gusto!, that you are so proud and happy to be part of the SHOw.........

the one they keep trying to convince you is the Best Show in town.

Hey, I prefer intermission anytime.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2016 03:10PM by presleynfactsrock.

I started to link TBM visits to conference. They would stay at our house and put the TV on in the living room and then go to sleep in one of the back bedrooms. If we turned the TV off, they'd come out and turn it back on.

If you have a lot of duties in church, the only time you get off is during conference (or so I think.) So that would be the time to visit.

I found RFM when I was looking for the conference schedule.

I've noticed a lot of mormons pick conference weekend to go on weekend trips. I know my inlaws do. I think it's because they record conference, and don't have the responsibility of their callings to feel guilty about abandoning, so they make a break for it.