I’ve always liked Mormons, although my encounters with them are, as far as I know, fairly infrequent. Three things I like about them:
1) They tend to stay out of other peoples business, moreso than most other religions. I’ve never read about Mormons blowing up gay bars, burning down abortion clinics or standing on street corners yelling about how Im going to hell for buying a copy of Playboy.
2) Young Mormon chicks are almost invariably hot.
3) They have a self-sufficiency ethic that really appeals to me. Between the we-take-care-of-our-own church welfare system, mandates to keep food and supplies, and the usually rightist politics I find myself feeling very comfortable around them.
Anyway…. Today I finally wrangled an invite to go to the local Mormon cannery. How it came about, though, seemed like something some folks might find interesting since I am sometimes asked “Hey, how do you meet fellow like-minded individuals without coming off like a whacko?”
Tell you a story…
My night job has me working with a few other people. New guy, lets call him ‘Awesome’, gets hired. Me and Awesome are chatting one day about where we grew up. He tells me he spent some time in [where I grew up]. I asked him what he was doing there and he says he did his stint as a missionary there. Ok, we’ve established he’s a Mormon. Being me, I tell him a few of my good Mormon jokes. (“What do you get when you cross a Mexican with a Mormon? A guy with a basement full of stolen food!”) We trade jokes and he tells me he’ll have to tell a few of those to “Mad Max”. Mad Max is a big, burly, bald, evil looking truck driver who’s a very nice and harmless guy. So..we’ve established that Mad Maxx is a Mormon. Time goes on and when I see Mad Max I say hello and we chat. Sometimes one of us will be reading the paper and we’ll comment on the absurdities in the world. Mad Max agrees with me on most of my comments on the political stuff in the paper and says all the right things…this or that is unconstitutional, the Democrats will raise taxes, people today just don’t want to work, government isn’t the answer to every problem, etc, etc. Hmmm…not bad. Politically on the same track as me and the other LMI. But…you can have similar political beliefs and belong to a religion that has preparedness among its values and still not be bunkerific, if ya know what I mean. So flash forward a few months. I say hi to Mad Max and chat when I see him. Lotsa good natured ribbing, jokes, how-was-your-weekend, that sort of thing. I was dropping off a copy of the Mountain House price list to an LMI who also works there with me and I thought this might be a good opportunity to see if Mad Max plays for the same league as me and the LMI.
“Hey Max, you do any backpacking or camping?”
“Sure.”
”Ah, well then maybe you’d be interested in some of this stuff”, I say handing him the pricing information. “Good for hunting trips, camping, that sort of thing. Maybe keep a few in the truck.”
“Great! I could use a bunch of this stuff.” Hmmmm…but for what would he use it? Lets push and see what happens.
“Hey, you ever go to that Mormon cannery out near the airport?”
“Oh sure. As a matter of fact I need to go out there again. Basements starting to get a little empty. You know we’re supposed to keep stocked up on food.”
“Cool. These”, pointing to the price list,” should be right up your alley then.”
“Yup. I’ve got a couple friends who’d be be really interested too.”
“Is that cannery open to just church members or can anyone go? “
“Its open to anyone….”
“I’ve always wanted to go up to that cannery but I never knew anyone to go with.”
“Well you do now!” Big smile.
“Great! If you could give me a heads up next time you go I’d be really interested in going. Be happy to pay ‘em whatever they want or volunteer some time there or whatever. Hey, that order on the Mountain House stuff is going in on February first so if you or your buddies want anything get back to me before then. And, like I said, if youre going to be heading up to that cannery sometime I’d sure be interested in going.”
“Sure, I’ll let you know.”
So, in a slow and somewhat roundabout way, we’ve established that Mad Max is probably one of the LMI. Won’t know for sure for a while but in the meantime it looks like we could both be of some use to each other in our respective plans for preparedness.
Historically, I’ve met all of the LMI through either politics or guns. I discover that a person shares almost identical politics with me and has similar interests in firearms and the next thing you know I’m discovering that theyre keeping an eye on the way the wind is blowing.
Take Capt. Insano for example. I suspected but what tipped me off were the types of guns he owned and, more interestingly, the fact that every one of them was owned in pairs. As in “one is none, two is one”. From there its pretty easy to gradually turn the conversation to preparedness and – surprise – you discover your shooting buddy has a basement full of guns, ammo, food and fuel.
I should point out that having a healthy interest in guns isn’t an exclusive indicator. There are a lot of guys with an AK, a couple cases of ammo and a buncha MRE’s who say “Im prepared!”. And, as we know, theres a lot more to being prepared than cammies and Ka-Bars.
Anyway, I thought sharing my experience today with Mad Max might be interesting to some and answer that infrequent question “How do you meet these people?” Theyre out there and I’d bet that theres quite a few you already know who are so low-key you’d never guess they’re geared up and taking responsibility for their future safety.
