General Conference Memories

Conference Weekend brings back quite a few memories. It has always meant a break from regular church. Some have been on Easter, sometimes it snowed or rained, but mostly it was good weather. My earliest memories of General Conference are of home when it was a three day event. I don’t remember ever listening to a Friday session, but I was aware in high school that they happened. I think the last Friday session was during my freshman year of college. Even though I was in Salt Lake, I don’t remember listening to the session. I was probably so caught up in my classes that I didn’t realize I was missing historical event. When I was growing up in Idaho, we listened to General Conference on the radio. It was hit and miss with the TV stations broadcasting sessions. Listening to conference was like listening to a boxing match. The volume was up way loud, so my dad, who lost his hearing in World War II, could hear it. Usually my dad wasn’t next to the radio during conference like he was a boxing match, so my Mom had radios at both ends of the house and the basement. Once a radio was in the bathroom; there was no escaping General Conference.

When I moved to Utah, I learned there was conference weather, which meant snow at most April sessions. Spring is unpredictable in Utah and other Western states. I remember when my friend, Scott Pugh came home from his mission from Columbia, where it was summer. He came home to a snowy Easter. I remember seeing him sitting on the couch during a Sunday session and he looked like he was shivering. I spent quite a few Conferences Sundays with the Pughs, most of them happen to be Easter. One Easter conference morning, Jared wanted to dye more eggs, but all the cooked eggs had been dyed. So he decided he would microwave the eggs to speed up the process. Jared forgot to poke holes in the eggs and set the timer for a long time. Dad got egged as he walked by the microwave when the eggs exploded.

Living in Utah has given me the opportunity to attend conference in both the tabernacle and the Conference Center. My first General conference attendance was while I was a student at Ricks College. I came down to Salt Lake and went to the Sunday afternoon session with Cindy, a former roommate from LDS Business College. We stood in line during the morning session while it snowed and then we walked back to the dorms. It was until the early 1980’s that I attended the next session, which may have been the Saturday morning session. My mom, Jay and Laura came down to Salt Lake to attend conference and we were able to attend the welfare session, which was soon discontinued. Or the next session might have been a Saturday afternoon session with Ann, my roommate. I did attend a Sunday morning session with her also. I also attended another session with Mom, Laura and Jay before they left home for college. I remember picking up a free box lunch after two morning sessions. But most of the conference sessions I attended were in front of TV at home. While I was in student wards, I did attend a few Sunday mornings sessions at the bishop’s house. The first and only session of General Conference at the Conference Center was six years ago. John got 3 tickets for the session. We caught crowded Trax at 90th South that became more crowded as we traveled toward downtown. (At the time there was only one stop before 90th South.)

I took this picture about 11 a.m. Sunday morning, April 3rd. At 12:30 while this picture was posting I looked out and saw that the sun was shining. The snow may be gone by 4 or 6 p.m. Yesterday, it was a bit overcast as I walked to Fresh Market. There was a warm breeze and I would have been fine in short sleeves. This is typical April weather for Utah. Wait five minutes and the weather will change.