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Show 2 , C T- ; T IMPAN O G O S T IME S , My 21, 2010 u. J i . by Marcella Walker July 2010 is the time when both of my brothers are retiring. One retired on July 2 after work-ing for the IRS and the other is retiring on July 26 after working for the UTA for about 30 years. One is 72 and the other is 69. I don't know. Is this a trend? Both of these guys were eligible to retire some time ago but they continued working for one rea-son or another. Look at the U.S. Senators and Representatives. How many of them are over 65? Quite a bunch, it would seem. Some keep going into their nineties. There are presidents of corpora-tions who are very old but are still going. Most of these people are not doing it for the moqey. Some are doing it to have something to do because they have always worked and don't know any-thing else. Others like the idea of getting up and going to work and accomplishing something they like to do. Some do it for the money as their retirement check is not too great. There are probably lots of reasons. I retired because I had oth-er things I wanted to do and I could not do them and work, too. When I began to have chil-dren, I never worked full time. I worked part time as a reporter for Pleasant Grove and Lindon for the Daily Herald and later I was city editor for the Pleasant Grove Review and sometimes I felt like I worked full time. I worked for the city part time for several years and was still writing for the Review but my children were grown and there was no reason to stay home when I could be doing some things which I .enjoyed. Writing is one thing I have always enjoyed. In high school I was on the newspaper staff and I took journalism classes as well as creative writing classes. At Weber State I vas on the news paper staff and the yearbook staff. At BYU I was on the Uni-verse Staff and after I graduated I worked full time in the BYU News Bureau. Incidently, when I was in ' high school I took Latin. Some say Latin is a dead language but when you consider that most of the words in the romance languages, such as English, French, and Spanish, are all der-ivations of Latin, then it is not really dead, is it? However, I will point out that writing for newspapers, although great fun and it keeps you te on what is going on, it is not going to make you a millionaire. It is one of the low-er paying full time jobs but it gets in your blood and you love doing it whether it pays well or not. One of the nice side effects of being a newswriter is that peo-ple come and ask you questions about how to write different kinds of things and it is fun to help them out and I enjoy that. One of my granddaughters, who writes the column just be-low mine in Timpanogos Times, is turning out to be a very good writer and I am very happy she is enjoying writing. I do, too. Although I thought I was retired until the Timpa- - "BLAB " Continued on page 3 ' ' I and find peace with who I am and what I'm doing. Improving oneself only adds to your self worth and confidence. I know that each of us is different and special. We all struggle with different things and are strong in different areas. But with that we can do so much and only we can do it. I looked up at the sky and thought how big the world was, and I was so small in the big scheme. There have been many people before me and there will be more after me. But I felt a sense of individualism. That I was my own person and no one who has ever been or will be, will be able to do what I can do. We each are big. We are im-portant. We each have a role to play here on earth. And I just felt really blessed to be who I was and where I am. Many things have happened in my life to point me to where I am. It's a blessing and a miracle to me. I wish with all my heart that I by Marissa Walker Life is full of adventure! Whether it be diving down into some ice caves, sitting on top a train, or dancing. No matter where life takes you there is al-ways room for new things, new adventures. But something that is very important to learn amidst this fun is your own self worth. Here in this world there is much noise, much talk about how one should be, where one should go to find worth. We are faced with movies, music, the media that has all these things they put value on, such as ap-pearance. It can be hard to feel like you stand out amongst those around you. It can be hard to re-alize all your good qualities. It's easy to lose track of those things that are important. There are people sent here on this earth to help you. When you are feeling down, remember where you stand. This last week I watched a show and they were talking about how they needed to figure out who they were and what they wanted to do and be in this life. It got me thinking. Who am I? And what do I want to be? I drove up to a quiet place to be alone and I wrote down goals, short term and long term. I wrote down steps to get there. It helped me to see what I want-ed and how to get that. It makes me more motivated to see it in writing and it's more encourag-ing so you do it. I also wrote down things I've accomplished and want to accomplish. As I did this, I was filled with confi-dence in myself. I was grateful for all that I have accomplished, and it helped me realize that I do much good, that I have done well and that I can keep improv-ing and adding to the list. I just took a time out, a time away from the world, to realize my self worth once again and to make myself motivated. It re-ally truly helped me to be happy can do all that I'm meant to do. And I was having a hard time because I was losing sight that I was a great person with much to do. And once I stepped back and realized everything, I found peace again and happiness. For it all starts with you. If you know you are doing things that are worthwhile and that you're "Moments" Continued on page 3 Thoughts From The Garden . . . by Tonya LeMone 'What in the name of everything wonderful is a 'tussie mussie'?" To receive a bouquet of flowers is such an expression of love and caring. It doesn't matter if it is a sumptuous armful of roses or a tiny fistful of wild flowers. And if you happen to know the meaning of each flower, how much greater the pleasure of receiving flowers becomes. In the Victorian era the language of flowers was known by everyone. Because of this knowledge flowers were frequently sent in a small bouquet, known as a tussie mussie, to a friend, an acquaintance or a lover. The message was hidden within the selection of the flowers in the bouquet. A tussie mussie bouquet could say Happy Anniversary, express sympathy, get well soon, I love you, or even I hate you. It gives a whole new meaning to the catch phrase "say it with flowers," but whatever the message was, it was spoken with flowers. Every year around mid-summ- er when the flowers in the garden were in full bloom, the young neighbor girls would come to our home for a delightful "tea party" (lemonade and lemon thyme cookies) and we would make tussie mussies. Our tea party's were never formal. Often the girls would arrive without notice, but my time with them was always memorable and appreciated not only by me personally, but the girls looked forward to our visits as well. When the girls would arrive, the selection of the flowers for the tussie mussies was the big event. They would first determine the color, then the amount of flowers for the bouquet was of great importance to them. Each girl, who wanted to have the greatest amount of flowers, did not realize that smaller really is better when making a tussie mussie. Very little interest was in the meaning behind the selection of the flowers until I explained if they were giving this to someone in Victorian days the selection of the flowers was the most important part in making a tussie mussie and had to be seriously considered. After all the flowers were carefully selected from the garden, the stems stripped of their lower leaves and then painstakingly wrapped with a paper doily and adorned with an array of ribbons (the more ribbons the better), we would sit and admire our creations with a cup of lemonade in a very fancy tea cup and treat ourselves to homemade lemon thyme cookies. Lemon thyme cookies were a favorite and I tried always to have a batch in the freezer for easy access just in case my little friends would appear. The paper doilies and ribbon were also a necessity and kept on hand for my much anticipated visitors each year. . These young girls are grown now and their thoughts have " " traveled else where to more exciting summer events like swimming at the pool, riding their bikes, or walking the mall but the times in the garden with them are priceless to me. Except at a wedding, the tussie mussie style of bouquet was rarely seen until recently when the design has become quite popular. The tussie mussie of long ago is reappearing, a neat little nosegay of fragrant herbs and flowers which carries from its maker a small little message, often quite specific. If you are not familiar with their meanings, below is listed some of the herbs from my garden and their meaning. A tussie mussie is, in the name of everything, absolutely wonderful. See you in the garden Basil Best wishes Bay leaf " change but in death " Bergamot Irresistible Borage Courage Campanula Gratitude Clover, four leaved "Be mine" Fennel Flattery Forget-Me-N- ot True love French Marigold Jealousy Geranium "You are childish" Honeysuckle Bonds of love Heather Admiration Ivy Fidelity, friendship, marriage Lavender Luck, devotion Lemon Balm Sympathy Marjoram Kindness, courtesy Oregano Joy Rose, red Love Rose, pink - Grace, beauty Rose, yellow Friendship Rosemary Remembrance, constancy Sage Gratitude, domestic virtue "Pioneer II" . i boys get to spit cherry pits into the bucket. The record is three out of five pits in the bucket. Distance is another matter. Again a new record was set. Jacob spit a cherry pit 25 feet and 2 inches. In just three days we Utahns will pause to celebrate the entrance of the first Mormon pioneers into what we now call the Salt Lake valley. Imagine how these people felt after an arduous journey of some 1,300 miles and this was the place. Within days, some had turned water onto the parched soil and began to plow. Just 10 years earlier, in 1837, a fellow by the name of John Deere had invented a new non sticking plow in his blacksmith shop. Imagine starting your garden in late July with the hopes of getting any kind of crop before the first frost ended the growing season. There were no cherry trees or apricot trees just waiting to be harvested. There were no garden centers with plants, trees, seeds and pesticides to control hungry insects. There were no stores stocked full of groceries, with fresh milk. There were no sporting goods stores where they could pick up by Mark Bezzant There are some beautiful gardens this year in Pleasant Grove. Some in our community have spent years working the soil to get conditions just right. At Bob Shoell's funeral his son talked about how his father grew a beautiful garden every year. Bob even mastered the art of growing perfect onions. Bob was in the automotive business but he loved to garden. The other day I drove down 1100 North and saw the Hardmans out working in their yard. She was tending to the beautiful flowers, while he was working in the vegetable garden. The Hardmans always keep such a lovely place. You can't always see the beautiful gardens from the road. Often they are tucked away behind a home. Just east of the "Old Bell School" and log cabin sits one such garden. For years Fern Harris lived there next to a home owned by the Wadley family. Every year Fern and the Wadleys would grow the most beautiful garden and they still do. Those who go walking, jogging and biking in the mornings get to see our community up close. You get a different perspective when you are out of an automobile. Up in Battle Creek we have lots of these people. The cherry pickers love to greet these early risers when they go by and give them a sample of Bezzant cherries. Speaking of cherries, the cherry season is now history and the first apricots are ripe. In an earlier article, I mentioned that we like to keep the fun in farm and after the harvest, the boys who helped harvest, had a great time with the cherry related contests. New records were set. The old record was eight seconds for tying a cherry stem into a knot, in your mouth, using only your tongue. The new record is six seconds. Try it some time. The old record for the most cherries in your mouth was 28. The new record is 49. We use an old metal picking bucket Grandpa Bezzant owned for the accuracy contest. We place the bucket 10 feet away and the a fresh supply of ammunition or a new gun to go hunting for local game. On the south side of the Battle Creek orchard is an area left much like these pioneers would have found it. Each year the sego lilies bloom. Pioneers had to eat the roots of what is now our state flower. One year I dug up a Sego Lily and tried one of the roots. It gave me a new appreciation for these determined pioneers. Brigham Young feared one thing more than starvation, pestilence or an army sent from Washington. He feared most the day his people would prosper and forget the God who had preserved them and led them here. I reminded the cherry pickers, when they saw the clear water from the slopes of Mt Timpanogos, flow down the furrows near the trees they were picking on that "cherry heaven" existed because of pioneers who had a vision of Zion and the willingness to make that vision a reality. r ctv : TIMPANO G OS TIME S SUjS CAPTION j , Name: Check Check amount: i Make check payable to "Timpanogos Times" , i Mailing Address: CC 1 J lyear$40Q 2year$77Q 3 year$113 4year$152Q Exp. Date CC Billing Zip. All credit card subscriptions will be shredded 1 Mail to: 11 S. Main St. Pleasant Grove, UT 84062 (801) 785-311- 1 timpanogostimesyahoo.com V1M4 , |