Last week Shelly and I had a visitor in town, our friend Amanda. As we were taking her around Boston (you can’t come to Boston without going to Mike’s Pastry for some cannoli, and we make sure no one does on our watch), we were standing in the cold at Faneuil Hall. We were approached by a middle-aged man with a crew cut and a Boston College jacket. In a thick Boston accent, he explained that he and his fellow veterans were collecting donations for disabled veterans. I kept him talking, because Amanda had been in Boston all day and hardly heard The Accent yet.

After I gave him a dollar and we were good friends, he asked me, “Ah you from Utah?” I got a confused look on my face, because I wasn’t wearing anything that would indicate my state of origin, but I said, “Yeah. How did you know?” “You ah?” he laughed. “Yeah. I’m from Salt Lake City. How can you tell?” “Well, you’ah walkin’ around with two women. That’s a joke I always say when I see a guy with two women. That’s great! You’ah really from Utah?” He even called his friend over from across the plaza to laugh at the fact that he always makes this hilarious polygamy joke, and this time it backfired on him. “Welcome to Boahston,” he told us as we left.

As I was talking to him, I was mostly perplexed about how he could determine where I was from. But when I found out he was poking fun of 19th Century Mormon culture, I just kind of laughed along with him and walked away. I wonder if I should have been offended. After all, my great-grandfather did have two wives at the same time. The modern LDS Church goes out of its way to make it very clear that we don’t endorse polygamy anymore. These were my people he was mocking. And he apparently does so with regularity, even if it is in good fun (unlike the New Yorker I once encountered, who, upon learning I was from Utah, reflexively asked me how many wives I had (and I was 22 at the time!)). I probably should have scolded him and set him straight. Another opportunity lost.