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Show 9 PAGE 2 THE ZEPHYROCTOBER 89 , saw the first splash of aspen gold the other day, just below La Sal Pass. It was hardly a month ago that a friend and I practically beat my old Volkswagen to pieces trying to reach the Pass and escape the heat We were successful in cooling off, but were stymied by a boulder field that forced my battered squareback to turn around and creep back down the mountain. By the time this goes to press and reaches the newsstands, that first splash of color will have spread Itself across the mountains. Some of the leaves will have already burned brilliantly, faded, and fallen to the I page two i Jim Stiles i forest floor. decided to delay the Interview with the mayoral candidates until race. So after the primary, when its been whittled down to a two-m- an I far as can see and hear, the upcoming election Is not generating a lot of interest or excitement (so far). However, Id prefer a boring campaign to a nasty one and I think all three candidates feel the same - they are decent, honorable men who want to run a positive and Informative campaign. However, there are always a few overzealous supporters who dare to cross the line and wander Into that zone of rumor and even when they have nothing Innuendo. It reflects on the candidates to do with the mud thats being thrown. If each of the candidates makes sure his own corner Is kept clean, there wont be any need for name calling, and we can have a campaign that Is based on the issues and on the positive vision each of the candidates has for our town. No one ever had a better talent for deflecting political gossip than Franklin Roosevelt. FDR had been unbeatable in three presidential elections. In 1944, Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented fourth term, and the Republicans, desperate to unseat the incumbent, sometimes reached for straws. In October, a GOP whispering campaign spread the rumor, that Roosevelt had left his Scottish terrier on the Aleutian Islands during a visit and had ordered a destroyer to retrieve his dog. With a glee that was distinctly his own, the President seized upon the rumor, and replied to it in a radio broadcast to the country ..... These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, my wife, or my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala ... I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog. And Fala resents them. You know Fala Is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers In Congress and out had concocted this story ... his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I His opponent, Thomas Dewey, was also furious. Later It was said that the campaign had been between "Roosevelts dog and Dewey's Roosevelt won his fourth term. Without FDR here to keep political rumor and gossip In line, our best approach is to do without It Im looking forward to a good, clean, goat honest political contest Suddenly, the lingering summer sun Is gone and darkness settles over the town a little earlier each night The kids are back In school, the big yellow buses are rolling again, and my fellow skateboarders have had to give up daytime ollielng for classrooms and pencils and textbooks. seems like it was just the other day that I was waiting from the baseball season to begin. I was desperate for the voice of Harry Carey and Vin Sculley. I love the sound of baseball, and will leave a ball It game turned on, even if Im not watching. To me, its like "white noise a soothing background sound, a kind of poetry that helps to soften those sharp edges in my life. Why does It have that kind of effect? Im not sure ... I dont know, really ..... ask Shoeless Joe Jackson. So a few blinks of the eye ago, I was waiting for the first pitch of the seasons first game. Today Im wondering if we could really see a Cubs vs. Orioles World Series. Its almost October and the answer lies just ahead. But to get there, I have to reluctantly loosen my grip on the Summer of 1989. Not to sound too melancholy about it all, there are reasons to be grateful for the end of the summer as well. I can stop worrying bout mowing the patch of weeds I call a lawn. I can finally shut off my swamp cooler at night and stop listening to that miserable squeak that no amount of WD40 could silence. And maybe, very soon, the late summer allergies that allowed me to set a new personal record for continuous sneezes (16) will fade Into Fall and let my nose return to its normal size and color. But for me, there is no season like Summer, and as I get older, I treasure them even more. Summer has its own slow rhythm; It seems to last longer than any other season. And maybe thats why Its such a shock when Summer finally fades away and dies amidst those falling leaves. It is the memory of Summer and the promise of the next one, that carries us through the bleak, gray winter months that lie ahead. But Its a promise that has never been broken, and for that Im especially grateful. f THE CANYON COUNTRY ZEPHYR SUBSCRIBE NOW P.O. BOX 327 MOAB, UTAH 845.32 (801) 259-777- 3 JIM STILES, PUBLISHER an annual subscription is only Trish West $12.00 production manager contributing writers Audrey Graham, Gail Denton, Lloyd Pierson John Sensenbrenner, Ken Sleight, Alan West, John Weisheit Terry Tempest Williams 1989 fa. IWB THE CANYON COUNTRY name ZEPHYR address. The Canyon Country Zephyr all rights reserved P.O. BOX 327 MOAB, UTAH 84532 m iU mmm V .v.V.latLv,ir. Iv .v . .i. .v .w .t i .v . .i.v ... vvt ox-v.- s : |