Show '"mrr awifjiii Wednesday December 1 Sanpete Messenger - Sanpete MessengerGKmnison Valley Edition 2004 Vinegar taffy pulls and ward parties brightened Christmas in the 1950s Off the Wasatch By Let's talk about values not names I: I enjoy responses from readers and carefully read those that agree and those that disagree with my column I especially appreciate reading thoughtful arguments with which I don’t agree That is one of the reasons I hate to see William Safire retire I’ve enjoyed mentally disagreeing with him ever since he was President Nixon’s speechwriter but at age 73 and after 15 books on language and argument he is taking his typewriter home from the New York Times Careful arguments are the of people in my profession and I often learn the most from those who disagree with me I was especially glad to get an full of responses to the article on liberal values published in the Sanpete Messenger and the Deseret News The responses came quickly I hadn’t hauled in my Deseret News off the front porch before my computer whined under the load In fact I started to read responses before I saw the article in print I suppose we aren’t as isolated here off the Wasatch as we sometimes think What impressed me at first was the number of people who included identifiers about themselves that helped me put their views in context The first email I received was from someone r church assignment in Germany who said he was on a He agreed with the values I attributed to the liberals I know The second note I opened was from a Utah expatriate who has been living with his family in England for the past eight years He claimed that LDS folks in his English community are left of center compared to Utah Mormons The next note was from a man in Virginia who identified himself as an in the Department of Health and Human Serundersecretary vices in the Bush Administration The letters from England and Virginia were both supportive but included some reservations The list is long I heard from B YU alumni all over the world because the Deseret News column identified me as a member of the BYU English faculty I got one long nasty rebuttal numerous times I suppose it was something circulating among the cbnservative community that many felt inclined to pass on to me I also got calls from Utah legislators I suppose I could have been clearer I was trying to describe the moral values of the liberals I know I was not defending everyone who calls him or herself a liberal or a Democrat I’m not a baby killer as one writer called me and I’m not an advocate for pornography as a couple of writers proposed is not good argument in my book in defending the personal ethics of I’m not interested Michael Moore any more than the conservatives I know are interested in defending the drug abuse of Rush the sexual fantasies of Bill O’Reilly the gambling Limbaugh habits of William Bennett or the dress standards of Brittany Spears I’m no more interested in defending the language of Whoopie Goldberg than my conservative friends are interested in defending the “shove it” of a prominent Republican or the expletive directed at a senator that rolled off the lips of the vice I don’t even care that Lynne Cheney has written a president steamy novel What is interesting to me is the ideas in the letters particularly the ideas of what we want our government to do as it provides for the common defense and promotes the general welfare It is our values that direct the course of our government I’d be very interested in sitting in a room with the dozens and dozens of people who wrote thoughtful notes and letters to the editor and listening to them talk about the values that shape their attitude to the war to those who are poor and to those of us required to pay the bills that our government racks up doing what we ask it to do I’d be interested in hearing them discuss the morality of debt the value of life environmental values and the importance of civil discourse I’d be especially interested if they didn’t Need some MDNEY extras FDR THE CHECKPOINT ONE CAN HELP! We make loans on Post Dated Checks Vehicle Titles Up to Come in Susan Browning Staff writer By Roger Baker $1000 and see us or call for details to 6 pm to 2 pm 255 North Main St Ephraim Mon-F- Saturday at COPY 10 am 0 am 1 FAIRVIEW — Dawn Mower Shelley still lives on Mower Lane Oak Creek north of Fairview She and her husband Ivan built their current home in the early 1970s when they took over the family farm but it is the house just next door to the east — the one where one of her sons now lives — where she spent her childhood Christmases There her parents Lela and Ruel Mower raised five children There the Christmases were sparse but happy There a Christmas tree that had been cut down by her father and brothers added atmosphere to the season The family worked together to make vinegar taffy which had to be pulled and then rolled out cut and wrapped They made popcorn electric popper with in an a hand crank “My mother made the best fudge” Shelley said “and she didn’t use marshmallow crfcme” When Shelley reminisces about her childhood in the 1950s she remembers fondly a Fairview Christmas tradition that has since “Back then there disappeared were only two wards in town and they both had a Christmas Eve program at the church” she said The programs included Christmas music and Santa Claus was usually in attendance The highlight for Shelley was the nativity scene acted out by the Primary children This tradition con tinued into the years when Shelley was raising her own eight children but in more recent times has gradually been phased out She thinks that similar programs are now held on different days so that families can celebrate Christmas Eve together in their own homes “But this was our family time together This was our family (Above) Dawn Shelley crochets while she reflects on fond memories of ward Christmas Eve parties and vinegar taffy cherished holiday traditions from the ‘50s The ward parties have given way to family traditions and Shelley says “I haven’t pulled taffy for years” mv Christmas tradition” she said noting that even the foulest weather couldn’t keep them away One particularly memorable year a great Ct deal of snow fell and the roads were bad 'W “But Dad had a brand new manure r spreader and he got out the and hooked it up bundled us all up and took us the two and a half miles into town in the manure spreader” Snow is a major theme m Shelley’s Christmas memories “It seems we don't have as much snow now as we used to” she said “Sometimes it was so high you could walk over the fence We always had snow” Most winters she remembers the children went sledding too on the hill at the top of Mower Lane “Dad rigged up lights and sometimes there was a bonfire” she said “We (See Memories on A6) PHOTO COURTESY DAWN SHELLEY 1958 Dawn was 11 years old and had fun playing in the snow with her sister Pam (above her) and her brother Robert who is coming out of a snow fort (on her right) In The touch of the master’s hand ML Pleasant violin maker shares craftsmanship with Chinese By Kathy Lin Eggleston Staff writer As a teenager Paul Hart learned to make cellos and violins on his own He presently runs The Tree’s Breath Violin Making School and Studio that he opened about six years ago in a building on Main Street in Mt Pleasant Now Hart is teaching himself Mandarin in an effort to leam the language before his next trip to China After traveling to China a year the ago- to teach violin making country its landscape people and history quickly fascinated Hart He is planning a return trip to China next month for another teaching session “I really enjoyed my last trip and would love to actually live there for a little while and teach” said Hart Hart was asked to go to China by his former student Jay Ifshin who owns companies in Berkeley California and Guangzhou China “I went over as a consultant” said Hart “They don’t have a long tradition of violin making in China so I was helping them with style and details Their goal is to produce the violins in China” Hart who has been teaching violin making for decades said the experience was very different from teaching in the United States It takes about four years to become a violinmaker here where students pay tuition to leam the craft In China he was teaching people who are employees of a company “They are paid to make violins I don’t know if that is the reason but they leam a lot faster I tell them what to do show them - Paul Hart teaching Chinese students He says they are eager to be taught and quick to learn and he is eagerly awaiting his next trip to China how to do it and they get it done” Hart said Many of the tools and techniques are different in China but his Chinese pupils are open and receptive to new ideas and concepts Hart was able to spend about a week traveling in China during his last visit “It was just amazing ” V iv f i jb -- i Guangzhou miles from eled w ith a residents to v- - - L£ 4 E is located about long Kong Hart 1(X) trav- toui group of native Beijing and other cities “1 saw quite a bit ot the country It was very interesting traveling with Chinese citizens to sec parts of China that even they had never before seen” he said Hart hopes to form more ties to the country “Some of niy other former students are interested in school starting a over there” For now Hart is looking forward to his next trip as he continues to teath and build violins in Mt Pleasant |