Thursday, August 25, 2005

On Devon Call

People who know lots of my friends may be surprised that I probably laugh the hardest when I remember activities of Devon Call. He wasn't your typical class clown, or the guy with all the witty come-backs. Here are two scenes that illustrate for me why Devon makes me laugh.

One thing that is absolutely essential for you to know about the Call family is that they are always on the serious cutting edge with regard to telephony technology. For example, they had conference call before the rest of us even had such a concept. An entertainment activity Devon would do went like this: He would call up two people, sometimes they were boyfriend and girlfriend, sometimes they were a couple that had recently broken up, sometimes they were strangers that maybe had heard of each other. Devon would get one member of the couple on, and immediately say: "Oh, sorry, one second..." Then he would get the other member on and immediately say: "Oh, sorry, one second..." Then he would patch the two together and we could listen in on a muted phone. It was usually awkward (in an entertaining way) for the couple to start talking, neither daring to ask why the other called. And it was entertainingly awkward for either to say anything like: "Thanks for calling." Because the other would say, "Wait, did you think that I called you?" etc.

*****
At his welcome home from his mission to Australia, Devon shared the meeting with another returned missionary, Twila Newey, who had recently returned from Hawaii. Twila was the first speaker. How did she begin her talk? Of course you know: Brothers and Sisters...Aloha! And the congregation responded in unison: Aloha! And as I recall, she gave an impassioned and spiritually uplifting talk.

Then it was Devon's turn, he got up and said: "Brothers and Sisters...G'day!" Most of the congregation shifted in their seats, then maybe 10-15 members hesitantly and questioningly responded: "G'day?"

12 comments:

  1. oh ben, i laughed sooo hard...will you please send more devon call stories?
    i have a good one about you and chris (as told by chris on my recent blog)
    "Ben Blair and I used to jump off the family room chimney onto the trampoline! And then we would try to see if we could bounce high enough to grab the phone line. Were we retarded?"
    yes...

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  2. Wow! Both of those stories made me laugh out loud. There ought to be a blog with rad stories of people growing up.

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  3. He also said in his homecoming address:

    'I love the chooch with all me 'art"

    Like, with an Australian accent.

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  4. Stephanie: I can't tell you how formative the Clark trampoline was to my growing up years. Everything changed when the Clarks got a trampoline. I think Paul Gardner, Chris and I could play 3-thing for maybe 3.5 hours straight. Then we would play add-on.

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  5. Salem: Yeah, I would love to tell lots of Stanley (and affiliates) stories, but I'm afraid I'm not a good source. But man, you got dood nothin'!, 2 Wendys Hamburgers, thigh cream, and you are already a ways down the road.

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  6. Maybe this one is a bit irreverent. I peeked in on Devon's ward (the 4th ward) when Devon was at the sacrament table. The bishop was doing some sustaining. Devon didn't know anyone was watching (i.e. he wasn't trying to be funny), when he raised his hand, he held his hand in the vulcan "V" shape--you know, the one that means "live long and prosper." The part I admire is how naturally and un-self-consciously he did it, like this is how Mormons sustain their officers.

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  7. dear ben,
    just so you know, devon call actually jumped on the tempoline and jumped a whole right through. I remember it clearly. i think it hurt his feet...anyway, we had to get another one--which was not nearly as bouncy becuase it was years worth of all that jumping you did (3 thing, add-on and so forth)
    thanks a lot DEVON CALL!
    i totally remember you playing on the trampoline...you always had your socks on.

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  8. Anonymous10:18 AM

    So I check your blog every few days and lately I've come up empty handed. I know you are busy, its just......well, if you don't start writing soon I'm going to have to take you out of my rotation.

    thanks,

    jordan

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  9. seriously, benji. New blog.

    love, Cal Apone

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  10. Nah. Noone likes my blog. I know, it's lame. It's just a bad blog. Name one good thing about it. See? Noone likes it.

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  11. Oh come on, Ben?! I like it! Please. Please keep posting!

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  12. Right. One person likes it. Come on, what's good about it? I don't think anyone else likes it.

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