Reporter recalls decades of general conference coverage

I

don't recall when I started covering conference twice a year. Sometime

between June 20, 1951, when I was hired by the Deseret News as a copy

girl (read that \"errand runner\") and this weekend, I got the semiannual

assignment and I've missed very few conferences since. Inevitably,

there will come a last Mormon general conference I'll attend as a reporter. But I hope

it isn't this one.

Over the years,

memories have become mooshed up in my mind. I'd be hard-pressed to say

which memory belongs with what year, but some of the general

impressions are consistently roused with each annual or semiannual

gathering of the Saints.

Some things

have changed. I remember writing once years ago that the annual

gathering made Salt Lake City temporarily \"the white shirt and tie

capital of the world.\" This week, I can't help noticing how much of the

world is bringing its white shirts and ties to Temple Square and

environs. I revel in walking through the square and trying to guess

where all these people come from. Many countries, no doubt, a living

commentary on the improvements in transportation that carry us thither

and yon and to conference and on the rapid rise in LDS Church membership.

Talking

with conference visitors has been one of the very satisfying elements

of the assignment. I can honestly say I never found, picking people

purely at random from the crowds, any person who didn't have a story