OCR Text |
Show PAGE 29 THE ZEPHYRJUNE 1994 of bam dances and house-raisingthey will be fine. (When you think about it, with house-raising all the new arrivals, the thing could be a necessarily revived old tradition. Things are looking brighter already.) s. The last group is a conglomerate of many It basically consists of people who are apprehensive about their continued health and quality of life in the big dty. The "quality of life" thing is hard to define. It means something different to every person. Some have heard rumors about the existence of a sun and are setting out to see if they can find it. Some are more concerned about truly serious health issues, such as getting off the subway alive. These are valid concerns and I would never try to make light of them. I would venture to say that moving west will alleviate many of their worries. Unless they go too far west, in which case they will really be back east, but with a more laid back population. So leaving out southern California going west is probably a good move for the health-conscioperson. Out west, our health problems are more subtle. You can't really smell uranium fumes like you can those nasty refineries back east. And while we do, here in Utah, spend more time in our cars than almost anyone in the rest of the country, we have all those wide open spaces in which to do it, so the noxious fumes have more room in which to dissipate. And it is those wide open spaces which are so attractive. Something about the phrase seems to conjure up, for many people, the image of youngsters I meadows wildflowers of their Much with as hate to do it, running through dogs. flower-laden here is where I must disillusion these people. Perhaps in Whitefish, meadows are positively rife; however, in the state of Utah, many of our meadows fall under the jurisdiction of some form of state or federal government and were thus long ago given over to the use of cattlemen, miners or the National Park system, in which case dogs are not allowed to run through the meadows. Which brings us to the kids. It is entirely possible that a child, upon discovering this wonderful new thing called clear skies, will acquire a bit of a glow, especially when you consider the current rate of ozone depletion. The danger here lies in equating location with behavior. If the child was involved with gangs, drugs, or general destructive tendencies in the city from which his family fled, the odds are not overwhelming that he will discontinue those behaviors simply because he has more room. It also might be wise to consider the possibility that, if one family knows about this little wholesome paradise;, chances are most of the developed world knows about it as well. How long will the wide open spaces exist? Are they in the process of destroying their own dream? With possibilities there must necessarily come questions. I, of course, have no answers. The one unalterable fret is that people are leaving the cities in droves. Many of them are making their hopeful way to our little towns. All we can really do for now is say, "Get down and come in." s, Subject to Change sub-group- - us rosy-cheek- By Cherie Gilmore They come from faraway places like Chicago and Des Moines. They come in Subarus and Satums and Winnebagos. At first, it was just a seasonal thing. They came, they took pictures, they left. But they're returning, and they're not just bringing cameras anymore. Because they're not just tourists anymore. They're residents. According to the Census Bureau, from nearly 400,000 city dwellers fled to "the country" to take up permanent residence. This is not news to the long time residents of the towns to which they fled. They have watched, with varying degrees of uneasiness, the steady influx of urban and suburban refugees. The impacts on themselves, their town and the surrounding landscape have been discussed and pondered to the point that if the natives have not come to grips with the whole thing by this time, there is nothing anyone can say to help them adjust. No, it's not the native population I worry about. The folks who concern me are the hapless immigrants. Those brave men and women who have left behind their 1990-199- 2, grimy eastern cities in search of...what? After hours of personal interviews, intermingled with scanning travel pieces in big 1 city newspapers and shamelessly listening in on grocery line conversations, have come up with what I believe to be the main reasons that people give up their front row seats at Chicago Stadium and head for places like Whitefish, Montana. There is a small group which, faced with the void left by the departure of Michael Jordan, could see no real reason for remaining. You can see their point. Then there's the group alarmingly large and growing every day who, raised on "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke" and badly written history books, have decided to leave their dull lives and head for the wide open spaces and friendly frees of the Wild West. I worry that when they cross the border into Colorado or maybe Utah, they will become too quickly discouraged when they see paved roads and vehicles. ("Don't give up!", I say to them. There's always Wyoming.) For those who staunchly push onward, I worry most about the time when they actually settle down to life in a small western towm. The first big obstacle will probably be adjusting to the lack of a town marshal. If they can just be patient though, they will see that every so often a congressman will drift through town, bearing uncanny resemblance, in dress and mannerisms, to the best Old West figure they could ever dream up. Once they get past the realization that life on the frontier will not just be a series - ed rosy-cheek- ed - gas-power- ed sua Koa 35-St- f-- "A BREAKFAST Tradition Since 1994' LUNCH DINNER Open at 7 AM 5 North Main in Downtown Moab |