Conversation with a TBM female at the grocery store:
TBM: I drove by your place the other day. Me: Did you ring the door bell? TBM: No I just drove by. I wanted to see where you lived. Me: Was I out in the yard at the time? TBM: Yes, you were out mowing. Me: You should have stopped and chatted. TBM: I just drove by. Me: I live pretty far off the beaten path. Why did you drive by my home yet not stop in? TBM: I wanted to see how you lived. Me: And did you relay your experience to anyone in the ward? TBM: I told the SP.
At this time, I had reached the register and was ready to check out.
She needed to know HOW I lived? Really... these people have nothing else to do but to do a drive by and report their findings to the SP? I hope the BP received the description, also. We wouldn't want him left out!
There have been several people from the ward that have done this to me. I live on a dead end. They have to drive past my house to turn around. I can watch them from my living room window. One guy rode his bike about 5 miles just to get here. What a bunch of wacko's.
We put up a gate with a key pad. No more drive by's.
Since how you asked, no, although it registered well on the creepiness scale and got a very temporary blip on the intrusive scale, the incident desperately lacked in dishonesty and deceitfulness (LYING) which is a the premier MORmON specialty.
Not really if you remember back when we were TBMs; wouldn't we just wait til the last day of the month and drop in to see families just when they were either eating or putting kids to bed... just so we could complete our home teaching/ visiting teaching obligations???
We just didn't think.
Often we would drive by inactives or widows to see if their lawns needed mowed or if they even still lived in the same house/ward area-- To see if they had moved without letting the ward clerk know.
So I assume the point was to make some irrelevant and not even accurate assessment of your economic status by viewing your property? As in, damn, they had a huge house and ten cars? Or, nanny nanny poo poo, they had a tiny little home and only one car, hahahaha?
Judging people that way is ridiculous and relays no information about them at all. My FIL discovered a large amount of the oil in Saudi Arabia as a geologist, and yet he likes to live in a decent but modest home and only has ordinary cars, one for him and one for my MIL. He has also his old rusty farm truck ½ ton sitting in front of the house that he drives out to his land when he’s going out to check on his hay fields. You might mistake him for a hillbilly if you didn’t know better. The guys worth millions; it’s just his MO not to flaunt it.
Meanwhile, some young people have big huge fancy homes and drive multiple expensive cars, yet it’s all owned by the bank. Posing like you’re wealthy doesn’t mean you necessarily are. So, what did they expect to find out about you by stalking your property anyway? And I haven’t even mentioned character being worth far more than your bank account; at least that’s how I size people up (in the few cases where I even bother about ‘sizing people up’ at all.)
Anyway, I already know from my neighbors about how money is status to some Mormons. You should see all the boats and cars and motorbikes and quads they own. I just wonder when they ever get a chance to use them with all the church requirements they have upon their time. I think it’s all just for show. They’re always pulling the boat out onto the street, then its back in the backyard, and then it’s back out on the street again; back and forth and back and forth. I don’t think it ever actually goes in the water; it’s just for show apparently. It doesn’t impress me though. I see how they live; their grumpiness betrays them constantly.
Thank you for your post. You are correct: Judging a book by its cover is not give a person even a glimpse of what is contained inside. She could have just googled our address, pulled up the "street view" and not have had to travel from her home to ours.
After we moved into our dream home in '84 lots of Raymond Mormons would take a detour to drive by and gawk. And, if I happened to be in the front yard I'd flip 'em the bird. That sped 'em up.
(If you appear to be doing well): "Satan is tempting Pixie Dust with the things of the world. Let that be a lesson to us all of what happens if we fall away."
(If you appear to be doing poorly): "Pixie Dust is enduring the bitter fruits of inactivity. Let that be a lesson to us all of what happens if we fall away."
I have to admit, my initial reaction to this post was a chuckle, but then it brought back the memory of the last time we were visited by someone from the church. I started writing about it and got angry at the church all over again.
It sucks, too, because I truly believe most church members have good intentions and don't see how their creepy, intrusive, and ultimately divisive behavior is wrong. I hate feeling this way about people who probably mean well.