Most fascinating thing Helen Whitney learned about Mormons

[_guy sajer]

I don't remember the memoirs and would love to hear them.

There were several RfM posters who came from the same neighborhood that produced Diaper Man, whom Blixa saved from certain death. I can't believe you don't know those stories, Runtu!

I was there at Exmo conference when Blixa met Wings for the first time since Wings was Blixa's babysitter. That was a lot of fun.

KA

It's interesting which persons from the past end up on these discussion boards. Over at FLAK, I learned that one poster used to be my next-door neighbor when we first moved to Orem. She was a teen-ager at the time and a good friend of my wife.

Then, recently on FLAK I met someone else who used to live in the same neighborhood in Orem and who babysat our children.

I wondering how many of my former BYU friends and students are posting anonymously on DAMU discussion boards?

If only my wife would start, then we'd be cooking!

[_Runtu]

It's interesting which persons from the past end up on these discussion boards. Over at FLAK, I learned that one poster used to be my next-door neighbor when we first moved to Orem. She was a teen-ager at the time and a good friend of my wife.

Then, recently on FLAK I met someone else who used to live in the same neighborhood in Orem and who babysat our children.

I wondering how many of my former BYU friends and students are posting anonymously on DAMU discussion boards?

If only my wife would start, then we'd be cooking!

On RfM, I found 6 people I had known as missionaries in Bolivia, one of them my zone leader and another my companion. Maybe Bolivia is fertile ground for apostasy, or something. The son of my stake president in my formative years also posts occasionally on RfM.

[_Blixa]

Here's what KimberlyAnn is refering to:

I got to RfM by sheer accident: researching the phrase "ethnic Mormon," becuase I had just run across it and was rather nonplussed. At that time I had had no contact with, nor thought much about, Mormonism in about 30 years.

I instantly recognized a friend from college I'd sadly lost touch with (so much for anonymity). Although I used a board moniker there, I did talk about about real life things and on the strength of that I got what has to be the most unbelievable email of my life.

Here's the background: My mom was very ultra protective. So much so that I was left with a babysitter only once in my life. Because it was literally such a singular experience I always remembered it, although since I was around 4 years old at the time I didn't remember much except that the babysitter had a set of dominoes. I knew how to play and liked the game, but instead, she showed me how to set them on end in a snakey line and knock them over! I'd never seen that before and was delighted.

So, I get this email titled: "I may be your exmo babysitter" from an RfM poster, "wings." She said she recognized a few identifying features from my posts and was pretty sure she'd babysat me. I was astounded! I'd only had one babysitter ever; what are the odds we'd run across each other more-or-less randomly in cyberspace nearly 40 years later?

I asked her if the word "dominoes" meant anything to her in connection with babysitting and she answered that she always carried them and a set of checkers in her "babysitting kit." That clinched it.

So we started corresponding. I've come to really love and respect her---she is an amazingly strong and courageous person (not least of all because of her later experiences in Mormon Utah: she was exed for talking a stand on the "black priesthood" issue), and I now count her among my best and closest friends.

As KA said, last October I went to the exmo conference in Salt Lake. The conference program notwithstanding, my real reason was social: primarily to connect up with "wings," who would also be in Utah at that time.

Thus, KimberlyAnn was an accidental witness to our reunion; although we'd only ever seen each other once forty years before, it was very much like a family reunion, the same emotion, the same tears, the same connection.

I almost feel like bearing my testimony here about the "truth" of the internet: my experiences with it have been nothing short of miraculous. I've managed to connect with an amazing number of astonishing people, many of whom are now "real life" friends. And I've had experiences that I would not have had otherwise. Truly I've been blessed.

[_Some Schmo]

Here's what KimberlyAnn is refering to:

I got to RfM by sheer accident: researching the phrase "ethnic Mormon," becuase I had just run across it and was rather nonplussed. At that time I had had no contact with, nor thought much about, Mormonism in about 30 years.

I instantly recognized a friend from college I'd sadly lost touch with (so much for anonymity). Although I used a board moniker there, I did talk about about real life things and on the strength of that I got what has to be the most unbelievable email of my life.

Here's the background: My mom was very ultra protective. So much so that I was left with a babysitter only once in my life. Because it was literally such a singular experience I always remembered it, although since I was around 4 years old at the time I didn't remember much except that the babysitter had a set of dominoes. I knew how to play and liked the game, but instead, she showed me how to set them on end in a snakey line and knock them over! I'd never seen that before and was delighted.

So, I get this email titled: "I may be your exmo babysitter" from an RfM poster, "wings." She said she recognized a few identifying features from my posts and was pretty sure she'd babysat me. I was astounded! I'd only had one babysitter ever; what are the odds we'd run across each other more-or-less randomly in cyberspace nearly 40 years later?

I asked her if the word "dominoes" meant anything to her in connection with babysitting and she answered that she always carried them and a set of checkers in her "babysitting kit." That clinched it.

So we started corresponding. I've come to really love and respect her---she is an amazingly strong and courageous person (not least of all because of her later experiences in Mormon Utah: she was exed for talking a stand on the "black priesthood" issue), and I now count her among my best and closest friends.

As KA said, last October I went to the exmo conference in Salt Lake. The conference program notwithstanding, my real reason was social: primarily to connect up with "wings," who would also be in Utah at that time.

Thus, KimberlyAnn was an accidental witness to our reunion; although we'd only ever seen each other once forty years before, it was very much like a family reunion, the same emotion, the same tears, the same connection.

I almost feel like bearing my testimony here about the "truth" of the internet: my experiences with it have been nothing short of miraculous. I've managed to connect with an amazing number of astonishing people, many of whom are now "real life" friends. And I've had experiences that I would not have had otherwise. Truly I've been blessed.

See... whenever I read things like this (although I don't want to make it sound like I've read a lot of things like this; that was a truly exceptional story), it occurs to me that I likely underestimate the power of Internet message boards. I should probably take them slightly more seriously rather than just looking to them as a form of casual entertainment.

Thanks for sharing. I'd like to hear more.

[_Blixa]

Its not just RfM, either Schmo. I've had enormous good fortune with the Internet in this way. I would say that at least 10 of my current closest friends are people I first met on bulletin boards (and I'm talking here only about those I've met in real life and spent substantial time with). This has led to not only great friendships and amazing personal experiences, but all kind of connections in terms of my intellectual/scholarly life and work: ideas about things to research and write about, contacts for publishing, etc.

It's one reason I now teach all my students in every class some basic fundamentals of interenet research (beyond Google and Wikipedia, which are formidable in their own right). When I return from sabbatical next Spring, I plan to start working on developing a new course in "research" (both analog and digital ;) ) that I think will have not only interdisciplnary usefullness but an even more important potential for students post college. Ideally I think such a class could/should be as fundamental as Freshman Composition (which is often badly conceived and taught, but in general a good thing).

[_Blixa]

Thanks for sharing. I'd like to hear more.

Did you mean more about internet "blessings" or the memoirs that I know runtu read but, ahem, can't remember?

I'm not sure about posting either, really, maybe down in the Old Testament basement? Only my first "memoir" essay really references Mormonism much (its kind of an "exit story" of someone who barely "entered"), the other two are stories about the area of SLC I grew up in, a nieghborhood that produced a rather high number of "apostates," apparently ; )

[_KimberlyAnn]

Thanks for sharing. I'd like to hear more.

Did you mean more about internet "blessings" or the memoirs that I know runtu read but, ahem, can't remember?

I'm not sure about posting either, really, maybe down in the Old Testament basement? Only my first "memoir" essay really references Mormonism much (its kind of an "exit story" of someone who barely "entered"), the other two are stories about the area of SLC I grew up in, a nieghborhood that produced a rather high number of "apostates," apparently ; )

Post them on this forum and Dr. Shades will move them if necessary. I think everyone would love to read them, Blixa.

[_Bond...James Bond]

Post them on this forum and Dr. Shades will move them if necessary. I think everyone would love to read them, Blixa.

Me too....toss them in the off Topic bin (or better yet start a blog and post them there if you have quite a lot of things to post so they don't get lost quite as easily.)

[_Blixa]

Hmmm...an MD blog may be the solution. I'd have to tinker with them a bit because I wrote them for another audience, but I'll certainly think about it.

[_Seven]

Hmmm...an MD blog may be the solution. I'd have to tinker with them a bit because I wrote them for another audience, but I'll certainly think about it.

I would love to hear them too. That was a really cool story about "Wings." It really makes me wonder if I have ever interacted unkowingly with a former friend or acquaintance.