[Formendacil]

I don't think I've ever posted about how I came to be a member of the forum--if I have, it's long enough ago and on some thread obscure enough that I think I can retell it here.

My final year of high school there was a girl a year older than me who moved into town to go to college there--moved something like 1500 miles from Ohio to western Canada--and she became a member of our parish and we got to know each other as members of the relatively small youth group.

(Side note: I definitely had a crush on her--she's the reason I joined the parish choir.)

Obviously, one of the things she learned about me is that I was a Tolkien fan--a Tolkien snob, really--and at some point asked if I knew any Tolkien fan forums. I did not; my knowledge of online forums was limited to only thing I'd ever really spent time researching online: LEGO. To be honest, as a teenager with strong anti-movie feelings at the height of the movie era, I was a bit leery of fan forums, and said so. She told me that her sister was a member of a forum I might like somewhat better: the Barrow-downs.

Well, as the Christmas holidays were winding down, I did, in fact, join the forum. Eighteen years later, I have no idea what became of her (this was pre-Facebook), save that I believe she moved back to Ohio. I once knew her sister's username, but I think even early in my time here I was unsure of it, and at this point I have only the vague impression that it was a three- or four-syllable username starting with an "N."

It's funny how things turn out. I don't think her sister was ever a huge poster; certainly, my friend wasn't. But the Downs would become a major part of the next decade for me, and a major part of the big, 3000 mile move that *I* would make five years later.