The most famous garment check is done at the church schools, by sweet young sisters looking to make sure that the young man chatting them up is an RM, because if he isn't, he's wasting their time.

The true test, because a t-shirt under another shirt mimics the top of the garment, is done when the young man sits down. That is when the seam at the bottom of the legs becomes visible under his slacks.

And you can see their eyes widen, and their respiration rate go up, and their lips pout and their gaze locks on yours and you can see that you've become the center of their universe. It's a very potent and mind-altering experience if you were a bit of a dweeb before the mission.

Now I didn't go to the Y before my mission, so I can only imagine how soul crushing it is to look a bit older, gain an audience with a sweet young thing, and then finally sit down and watch her suddenly deflate as a human being, then excuse herself and stumble away from, like someone adrift in the Sahara desert, looking for life giving water.

Even Mexicans with the sacred seam had their egos swell, because once the sacred seam was authenticated, every Nephite female not of royal mormon blood treated you like a young ghawd.

Mine will not be the only testimony about the "seam". Which I say in JeseeClesee's name, ah phooey.

After I had all of these "Cougars" patting my legs, I figured out what they were checking for. Future RM husband material for daughters, nieces, grand-daughters, etc... to set me up with.

I must admit most of the girls (Young women) my age simply did the upper arm check; if it got more serious (2nd date) it was "show me pictures of your mission" because I guess they had been fooled by T-shirts and long boxer shorts before.

HAHA. Classic description, elderolddog. Made me laugh. I was at BYU early seventies and my thigh was nearly rubbed raw from garment check, although a lot of the girls would just come right out and say, "Where did you go on your mission?" without having any idea if you actually went. Return missionaries did get a lot more plates of cookies back then which was nice since I wasn't interested in the girls.

I became exmo while at BYU but kept it under the radar until I graduated, so the garments were still on. I chucked them out of the car somewhere around Point of the Mountain as I fled Provo for the last time. Please don't harp on me for being a litterbug because the side of the road was definitely the proper place for the G's. (I was already used to taking my garments off while driving on my way to the gay bar.)

Anyway, I went to a friend's wedding reception (gay guy marrying in the temple of course) back in Provo shortly after that, and, because the rumors had been flying about me I got garment checked like there was no tomorrow by about everyone in the room. I never sat down so there was no easy way to tell, and I ended up nearly battered and bruised from the groping. One girl did it and then immediately returned and reported to her friend. Great fun!

They weren't looking for a return missionary this time. They just wanted to confirm the "dirt."

"I was already used to taking my garments off while driving on my way to the gay bar."

And they complain about using the cell phone while driving...sounds dangerous, but definitely sexy!

Haha. You made me laugh because nowadays I am one to complain fervently about the texters more than anyone.

The garment change while driving certainly wasn't one of the more sensible things I did. I never took my eyes off the road though.

when ppl (men) were wearing the one-piece, there was a seam just above the waist in back; TBMs used to give you the 'pat on the back', but slightly lower to check.


Correct on the seam which is usually a bit above the knees; I never did it (didn't care), and if I was in romantic situation with a gal.... well, you know what happened with the G's....

Yeah I know a nevermo transplant from California who lives in the morridor. He has been garment checked several times and it royally pisses him off.

He also had a guy show up at his door to tell him he was "His Bishop". It was during the bitter cold winter, so my friend threw on a jacket and went outside to talk to this presumptuous fool.

The Bishop suggested my friend invite him inside, but my friend said he was happy to talk outside. The Bishop was lightly dressed and freezing, so he didn't stay long.

Never had it happen to me...and never got to the garment wearin' stage but anyone checking would have needed an ambulance.

RB

My mother-in-law loves to tell the story of getting endowed, and how she wore her "most sheer blouse" so everyone could see her garment lines in the back. Gag. No need for a garment check there!

After a branch council meeting, years ago, I had some odd ball come up to me and rub my bicep up and down then walk away without saying anything. I never knew if he was checking if I had garmies on, awkwardly trying to come on to me, or saying "hey I'm a bigger guy then you are."

A few years after that, after my wife and I were inactive for a couple years, we traveled with my in-laws to attend our nephew's Marine Corp graduation. The one morning my crazy mother-in-law shoved her way into our hotel room. She walked around scanning the floor with her eyes. I'm pretty sure she was checking to see if we still had garmies.

A coworker told me that she knew right away I wasn't Mormon.

Really? How?

I could tell you weren't wearing garments.

.........You checked out my underwear? (Only a Mormon doesn't think that's weird!)


Although, I garment check sometimes myself. I smile whenever my convert DD posts a picture on FB where she is clearly NOT wearing garments.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2015 10:50AM by caedmon.

And I knew immediately of one time that I had someone garment check me.

My "ex" and I had gone inactive because he is gay, was cheating, I wanted the fallout to be private and I also have seen how divorcees and their kids are treated in mormonism. I was treated much better in mormonism while married to my ex than I ever had been. My ex knows how to play the mormon social games. No way in hell was I going to put my kids through what I went through growing up.

So--my husband had just left me a few days before, pulled out of the driveway with his boyfriend one night. I took my kids and my niece to SM for the first time in months. Even bought them all new clothes. The bishop my ex had been ex. sec. to (and who adored my husband) came up to me and put his hand on my upper back and asked where my husband was. I haven't a clue what I said. I probably should have said, "He's on his way to California with his boyfriend." But I didn't.

I hadn't thought of that in years until someone mentioned garment check. You bet this man was doing a garment check.

There was some other weird old pervert who tried to hug me once at a ward activity. Definitely doing a garment check.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2015 11:26AM by cl2.

Had a former Bishop check me about 5 or so years ago. I had just come out of the pool where my boys and I had spent the afternoon. We didn't have time to run home and change before I had to drop them off for Mutual. I was in flip flops, a swim suit that could have passed for regular BB shorts and t-shirt. I had to go in the building for some reason and the Bishop caught me in the foyer. He shakes my with a fake how-ARE-you smile and then with the other hand he grabs my arm just around the triceps. But then as we make small talk, his hand sneaks up to my shoulder and he starts rubbing his hand back and forth and then all the way to the back of my neck. It was blatantly obvious what he was doing, but I was more or less shocked and did nothing. Of course there's all the hind-sight things I should have done, but there ya have it.

EEEwwww......what a jerk? I'd done something actionable in that situation. So blessed to have never, ever wanted to wear garments.

RB

I am aware of the groping check but have never experienced it. I am much more familiar with the eye check. I'm very self-conscious around my parents because I know that they are trying to see if I'm wearing garments. My mom has been known to tell me about when my sister was and was not wearing her garments.

Oh, the fun that could be had now tormenting those sweet sisters with a white undershirt and some boxerbriefs. :)

You better believe it!!!

Wow, I have never had that done to me. I wear an undershirt when I wear polo shirts or dress shirts but not because of garments. It is convenient that they look like garments however. If someone was to start groping or feeling me up they would get a nice punch.

When I was a NOM and still wearing my garments, my boss asked once if I was a Mormon. This was right after I bent over to pick up a box, so I knew exactly what she has seen. I told her yes. She just replied with "I could just tell."
It's funny, TBMs think that means that the world thinks they give off some radiant countenance... but they are just too nice to say "I could tell because of your God awful underwear."

I posted this to a similar thread -- Sept 2014


Oh ya, the garment check was alive and well when I was a member. I didn't catch on for quite awhile though. Nobody mentioned it.
Usually it's men, but women do it also.
Often it's a hand across the upper back as they shake your hand if they can't see the garment line through your clothes. I never wanted any part of the garment to show so I often wore clothes that hid it well. Mine were all tucked and held in place, not like many women who always had a piece of lace showing around their tops.

The gals would check the guys pants leg to see if they could see or feel that garment line. (Never happened to me though.)

With men, many of the white shirts were so thin the "smile" was clearly visible. When garment styles changed, the "smile" was gone as the garment was a reg. undershirt.

This is a religion with strong traditional, generational, cultural behaviors with little to no boundaries as seen in most societies. And very few manners.

Oh now, Cold-Dodger, you're telling me you've never gotten the garment feel-up at BYU-I? I'm not going to believe that. A little upper arm grip here, a thigh squeeze there, a friendly pat on the back. I'm sure you'll remember if you think on it long enough. ;)

I was at BYU and never got the garment check (though I was openly atheist, so they may have come to the reasonable and true conclusion that I wasn't wearing garments anymore).

I was wearing a short sleeved, seersucker, maternity blouse. Auntie grabbed the edge of the sleeve and kept wadding it into her hand til she reached my (bare!) shoulder.

"What is this fabric?" she asked, feigning innocence. "Cotton," was all I said. Thank whatever one thanks, the baby I was carrying has had nothing to do with mormonism his whole life. We had already left when he was conceived.

Fresh off my mission, with a few months to kill before heading off to BYU-Hawaii, I worked in a women's shoe store in a mall back east.

Two girls, mid to late 20s I would guess, came into the store and I waited on them as they tried a number of shoes just for the fun of it.

They start asking me questions and reveal that they are from Utah and are just passing through the area.

I tell them of my school plans and they immediately point out my garment hem lines showing through my pants legs and start giggling or squealing with delight, saying, "Oh, yeah, he's an RM!"

That was my first and really only experience (that I'm aware of) with this. I had no idea that it was a common practice until reading of it on RFM.

If I had known, I would have said something like, "Hey, ladies, my eyes are up here!"

patted on the shoulder by a bishop or a priesthood holder as they shake our hand. It happens ALL THE TIME.

A male non-mormon friend at BYU used to put a large rubber band around his legs where the garment lines usually could be felt to convince girls he dated that he was a return missionary. My SIL once asked me if I was wearing garments after I had decided to ditch them. I thought it took a lot of nerve to ask about my underwear. She asked right after a hug full of gropes.

The garmmie-feel is a bit like two ants rubbing antennae together:

"I'm from the nest, are you from the nest?"

I'm nevermo, live in UT, and several have had mormons when shaking my hand, feel my shoulder with their left hand. Another version is if you have met before is to greet you by coming up from behind and "pat you on the back" and ask "how ya doin'?"

"look closer" like @ 1:10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LA_Eusla4o

my one friend told me that at Ricks college at one time, it was a big thrill for some pre mission guys to get a big rubber band and put it around their legs under their pants to simulate the garment line on their legs, wear a tee shirt under a regular shirt to keep the issue confused in the shirt area, and then strut around campus and see the reaction they could get from RM crazed co eds. ......does not that say a lot about how screwed up that MORmONS really are.

I, on the other hand, was not much of an RM even when I had earnestly attained the status. Me and my younger brother attended BYU at the same time. The speculation was that my younger brother was an RM, while I was not. They also incorrectly thought he was older than I was. That suited me just fine, because I already had a big head start on hating MORmON culture that a mission gave a big booster shot to and that attending BYU ASSisted even more. That incorrect evaluation of me in my student ward was corrected when a sister mish from my mission moved into the ward for second semester. I only found out about my incorrectly assigned NON RM status with in the ward because she finally reported to me on the numerous times when people had attempted to "correct" her when she referred to me as an RM. She had been frequently compelled to inform them that she had first hand knowledge of me as an RM since both of us had been serving in the same mission at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAWSGQMCM0U

That's what it was called in my day. That U-shaped loop visible under the white shirt.

I got the back "check" when I ran into an old boyfriend in an unlikely place. That swipe across the back, the sudden drop of the hand and the confused look on his face.