Dude you've been to Utah?? Tell us more. The way you described it reminded me of those horror movies or TV series episodes where someone goes to a remote town and everyone in the town is hostile and grumpy to outsiders.
Haha kind of. I was of course exaggerating a bit for comedic effect. But I was in Utah for only a few days because I was on a cross country trip with some buddies. We hit up a lot of the spots in the Old West from old cowboy towns to Native reservations to old battle sites. The Mormon temple was on our list.
Salt Lake City is a lot smaller of a city than one would expect considering that it is pretty well known. It felt like the size of a mid level suburban city. However, the streets were very clean and immaculate, especially compared with bigger American cities.
The people were VERY White. When I say VERY White, I mean, they looked like Hitler's Aryan poster children. LMAO Of course, Mormons are largely of Dutch descent, so they are very Northern European looking. Plus, they are a very endogamous group. The people were very well dressed and in appearance, looked much more attractive and put together than the standard rank and file of Middle America. Their style of dress and mannerisms looked like something out of Norman Rockwell's America and you didn't see the typical fat slobs and white trash that are common in much of Middle America. The women were beautiful, elegant and modestly dressed, I wouldn't say they were sexy (nothing like Miami, the sexiest women in America bar none, esp if you like Latinas or Mixed race women like me), but I have to say they were objectively very pleasant looking and would not be out of place in some 1950s era advertisement, something like this:
The people overall seemed very happy, like they were on some kind of drug. Also, many seemed like they didn't know how to act around someone that was not White. There were some rough looking country boys who looked like they were from the sticks, some of them seemed very hostile. Then there were some Mormons who looked like they were from a cult and were dressed like they were from the 19th century. Overall, outwardly Utah seemed very pleasant, but the behavior of the people and the vibes I got from them seemed really "off". Some Mormons would be overly friendly with me and would ask me many questions about where I was from and my background, only to finally try to sell me their pitch and we would depart with them gifting me a Mormon bible. Interacting with them was sort of like how when a homeless comes up to you to shoot the shit and you start off with a friendly conversation, but all the while you have this nagging feeling that he's wanting something from you so you are never comfortable. lmao That's how I felt speaking to Mormons. Lastly, their temple was beautiful but all around the grounds were statues of the exploits of Joseph Smith and their founder, and I just found the whole experience very odd knowing how strange many of their beliefs were.