Posted by:
Stray Mutt
(
)
Date: December 03, 2010 08:27AM
Back when I went on a mission, in the early '70s, we reported to the Mission Home that used to be on the block where the conference center is now. I remember only five things from my time there.
- Arriving and the awkward goodbye from my emotionally aloof father
- Trying to memorize the discussions in a cramped, hot, funky smelling bedroom with five other guys, and some authority figure berating us for not memorizing them fast enough
- A lecture about health matters in the basement assembly room
- Being sent in shifts to barbers in the Hotel Utah
- Being in the airport
That's it. I don't remember meals except for a vague impression of a large room that had actual sunlight for a change. I don't remember what the bathing and toilet situation was like. I don't remember what we did on Sunday. I don't even remember how long I was there. A week? A month?
But I have a big old pile of memories of everything from the airport on. Either my mind suppressed memories of my time in the Mission Home, or there was nothing worth remembering, or both.