thread: 2007-02-13 : Exorcism
On 2007-02-13, Matt Kimball wrote:
Yep, Vincent, I remember that reaction well. Here's a story kind-of related, and maybe even on topic.
I'm eleven years old, and I'm a little geek-boy, who is also a little Mormon boy living in Salt Lake City. I like collecting board games, and I like reading the rules to board games, and I think the Atari 2600 is the coolest thing around, but I don't have one. As a boy with these interests, I see red box D&D in the K.B. Toy and Hobby in the Fashion Place Mall in Salt Lake, and think I need to add it to my board game collection, even though I kind of understand it isn't a board-game fully, but something a little different.
So, I save up my allowance, which was five dollars a week, and I don't remember how many weeks it took me to get there, but eventually I do. Now this was probably around the same time Ted Bundy was in law school at the University of Utah, and around the same time he was picking up nice young blond girls from that same Fashion Place Mall, so it seems slightly strange that I was allowed to walk to the mall by myself as an eleven year old boy, but I was. So, I walk to the mall by myself, and I spend my saved up allowance on Red Box D&D.
I bring my first D&D set home, and my mother is like, "Oh no you don't! I've heard about that game, and that box is full of demons! It will take you away from the church! You can't play it—take that back to the store and get a refund!" I probably cry, but I don't remember really.
So, my dad takes me back to the store, and I try to explain to the teenage girl behind the counter that I have to take the game back and get a refund because my mom says it is evil. The teenage girl is kind of like, "What?" but somehow she agrees since I have my receipt and I bought it the same day.
My memory of this experience is that it planted a seed in my brain that said, "Well, since boxed D&D is clearly not full of real demons, that is kind of stupid that the Bishop or whoever said it was. I mean, boxed D&D taking me away from the church? C'mon. That's not going to happen."
But, you know what? If you look at it the right way, my Mom was kind of right. Specifically, right in the sense that this whole experience planted a seed which helped shape my teenage and adult outlook on the Church.
