Conference Memories

This Saturday and Sunday, October 1 and 2, a veritable herd of, or whatever you want to call 100,000 give or take, Mormons from around the world will descend upon the Mother Ship, Salt Lake City, for the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  This will be the 181st semiannual instance of Conference and it's an amazing opportunity to feast upon the counsel and guidance of those we believe to be prophets and apostles.  Their counsel is timely, thought-provoking, and challenging, especially for those of us who make mistakes with some degree of frequency.  To read a better description of Conference, read this from the Washington Post.

Conference played a huge role in my life growing up.  My parents went every year for as long as I can remember.  As a result, when I was a child, Conference weekends in the spring and fall meant baby-sitters, some cool, some not.  My parents would often have newly-married couples stay with us, giving them a peek into the world of having children.  This usually did not end well for those couples, but that's another post.  When I turned 12, I got to go to Conference for the first time - kind of my own first Hajj (well, not really).  My friend Adam went with me.  We flew to Salt Lake City on our own on this airline:

NOT a banana!

My parents met us in Salt Lake City and we stayed here:

The Hotel Utah

What a place the Hotel Utah was!  Steeped in history and you could sense that history in every step through its halls.  At that time, it still had the toilets with the tanks half-way up the wall of the bathroom.  Cracked me up.  What did not crack me up was sitting in the Tabernacle on the old wooden pews for one of the two-hour sessions of Conference.  My twelve year old can would have much preferred to be sitting on a cushion at that point.

When I was a freshman at BYU, Conference was a great weekend to impress the ladies - I was usually able to score tickets, good tickets, through my dad and it was pretty cool, or at least I, in my awkward, deluded 18 year old head, thought it was to take a date.  It probably wasn't.

My first weekend in the mission field after two months in the MTC learning Spanish was Conference weekend.  It was a little disconcerting to walk out of the Saturday afternoon session of the Hialeah chapel to see two alligators sunning themselves on the lawn of the church.  That was the same weekend I was introduced to the magic of the all-you-can-eat Cuban buffet at King Yayo's on W. 49th Street.

Fast-forward to 2007...I'm the father of a son who has just turned 12 and it's time for three generations of Lyons' men to meet for Conference.  The Boy and I flew out to Salt Lake City and met my Mom and Dad.  We took Dad down to BYU and spent some serious quality time together.  The highlight was the Saturday evening Priesthood session where the three of us would attend together for the only time, as Dad would be gone two years later.  Conference was a powerful source of spiritual food and rejuvenation for my Dad and it was an honor to be there with him and my son.

So Conference weekend is here again.  Take it in if you can.  It's open to all.  Go here to find out how to watch it or listen to it.  And if you happen to be in Salt Lake City and have some spare tickets, the Middle-Aged Mormon Man is looking for some.  He'll be the guy in a white shirt and may or may not be pulling a handcart. 

On Pan Am

Pan American World Airways.  Pan Am.  Ah, what the mere mention of this fabled company's name inspires!  Although the original Pan Am hasn't graced the skies since its agonizing, final flight in December 1991, just say "Pan Am" around any airline enthusiast/dork today and you'll see their eyes get a little glassy.  There will be a little catch in their throat when they respond reverently, saying, "Oh, yes, I remember Pan. Am."

How do I know about these reactions?  Because I am one of those airline enthusiast/dorks.  And Pan Am is THE Holy Grail of our kind.  We love this legendary carrier.  As a child, I remember whenever I saw a Pan Am 707 or 747, I wondered where it was going, because it was surely some place exotic.  Pan Am was America's "Chosen Instrument."  Sure, there were other airlines carrying the U.S. flag (TWA, I'm talking to you), but none could hold a candle to the mighty Clippers of Pan Am.  I was obsessed with Pan Am.  After growing frustrated with some of the decisions of their management, I applied to be their CEO.  I was 12.  No lie.

I only flew Pan Am twice, back in May 1984.  Like so many others, Pan Am would take me to Europe for the first time.  I'll never forget the excitement I felt when I got the Pan Am's storied "WorldPort" at JFK for my flight to London Heathrow on the fabled Flight 2.  I was two rows behind "Clipper Class"-Pan Am's fancy-pants business class and it was then and there as I watched the service unfold through a slit in the curtain that I decided my days of flying in the back were numbered-and I was enthralled.  Pan Am's glory days were behind it at this point but it didn't matter.  This was Pan Am.  I'm quite certain I didn't sleep the entire flight.  Several weeks later, I flew back to JFK from Frankfurt on Pan Am's Flight 73.  Another 747-100.  I remember being disappointed that Catering in Frankfurt had loaded far too much sauerkraut for lunch and I'd had it with sauerkraut after several days in Germany.  I also remember the river of wine that poured down on several rows from the overhead bins.  Some genius packed too many bottles of wine in their bag which shattered in turbulence over the north Atlantic.  Again, it didn't matter.  This was Pan Am.

So, why all the Pan Am nostalgia?  Because tonight a new television series called "Pan Am" debuts on ABC.  It's supposed to be about four Pan Am "stewardesses" (try calling one of the flight attendants on your next flight a stewardess - let me know how that works for you) in the glory days of flying in the early '60's.  It looks ridiculous and soapy.  I will, of course, be watching it.  TV shows are notoriously bad about their authenticity when it comes to air travel.  For instance, they'll show a picture of the plane flying and it'll be a 747, for instance, but the cabin shots are all single-aisle aircraft.  It just irritates the airline dork to no end.  So, knowing that the planes should be 707's, I'm going to be, well, displeased tonight when the cabin shots are of a modern-day Airbus or some such foolishness.  At least, "The Amazing Race" starts tonight.  Yeah, I'm kind of excited.

500!

It's all about the 500!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 500th post here at "into the Lyons den."  I really didn't know what to think when I started the blog that snowy day in December 2007.  Maybe I thought it was something I could do to stay warm...who knows?!  But here we are - the 500th post.  Lo, that I could be profound, but there's not been a deep well of profundity since the beginning, so why start now?

I thought I'd share some of the key stats from the first 500 posts:

• 22,368 - the number of page views since the first post
• Google is the preferred way of finding the blog
• Countries that have visited the "den" the most - the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Germany.  Apparently, the British Empire and her former colonies have a thing for this blog.

The top five or most widely-read posts so far are:

• On the anniversary of Apollo 13 - April 14, 2010
• 21 - Lucky 21 - February 16, 2011
• Heading Home - February 12, 2011
• ...and great was the fall of it - May 18, 2011
• 44 - September 20, 2010

Now, I'm not delusional enough to think that it was what I had to say that's made those particular posts so popular.  No, one need only dive into the stats (thank you, Blogger) to see that it's all been driven by search words.  So more than one poor sap that's doing his 6th grade science project on Apollo 13 has been referred to the "den."  (PS - if you are one of those saps and you based your report on the night I had dinner with Neil Armstrong, let me know what kind of grade you got.)  I will admit that I don't get why the post "44" has been so popular.  My 44th birthday wasn't that interesting.

So what have we learned in 500 posts?  Well, let's see - I like food.  I spend far too much time on planes and as a result, I do not like the Great (U)Satan of the (U)Skies.  I probably don't have the best filter, saying more than I should.  You've been along for the high points - two half-marathons, kids graduating, kids going to college, our first-born's wedding.  And you've been there for the low - losing my dad was pretty much the low point.  So I've shared plenty in this blog and highly doubt that the format is going to change. 

It's been a good run and I suppose I'm only getting started.  If you're new to the den, sit down on the sofa and enjoy the read.  If you are a follower and haven't admitted it openly, shirk your shame and proclaim that you're a follower on the side bar.  You can grab one of the blog buttons and brazenly demonstrate your adoration too.  Go for it, I dare you! 

Thanks for reading and here's to a few hundred more posts!

45

Yeah, what this is called is my age today

It's another birthday here in the Den.  And this time around, it's my birthday.

The image to the left perfectly captures my age today.  I totally remember 45's.  I still wish I had a few of them, so I could sell them on eBay.  I can't remember the songs I had on 45's, but I suspect they were, well, awful.  How could they have not been?  I started listening to music in the mid-70's (shudder).  Enough said.

It's been a good day.  The birthday salutations coming in on Facebook have been great.  Apparently, I've been a bit transparent in my love of food and finding myself all over the world, because a lot of the greetings mentioned food and travel.  I suppose they could mention worse, way worse things.  The post of the day though was this one:

Sir, I hope that your birthday is magical and that all your birthday dreams will come true.  Until I see you again, live the dream sir.

Duly noted, Cam, duly noted.

So leaving now to cap off the evening with a birthday dinner of the finest in Israeli food at the Naf Naf Grill.  It'll be a good dinner with the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML.  Would be nice if the Boy joins us but since he got his license, we don't see a lot of him.  Anyway, I'm a lucky man.  I got another year out of life.  I'm surrounded by people who inexplicably love me and I've got good, no, great friends.  Makes for a great birthday.