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Show Christmas Traditions Continue to be Alive and Well by Geri Taylor Holiday traditions are near and dear to our hearts as they usually involve family, fam-ily, friends, food and presents, but old traditions don't always mean there isn't room for new ones. In fact, some traditions must be altered by the very fact that people move, grow up or pass on. During this Christmas Christ-mas season, traditions from our citizens will be shared while glimpses of the past may cause you lo reminisce. The Pleasant Grove Jay-cees Jay-cees had great plans for a new Christmas tradition in 1953 and elicited the support of all the businesses in town to make it a success. "The First Annual Community Christmas Party" was heralded in a full-page ad to be held at the PG High School. It touted a basketball game with Milford High followed fol-lowed by a dance and 100 donated do-nated prizes that would be given giv-en to only those in attendance. The Pleasant Grove Baseball Club was even giving away an automobile to some lucky ticket tick-et holder who didn't need to be present to win. Contributing businesses such as Cozy Corner, Corleis-sen's Corleis-sen's Cafe, Christensen's, Ben Franklin's and Radmall's Hardware Hard-ware were among many stores, banks, and other establishments that leant their name and support sup-port to making this a favored, annual tradition. So what happened? hap-pened? . One can only guess the outcome because no mention of the festivities, game winner, or prize winners were even mentioned men-tioned in the following week's papers. Page after page and issue after issue were scoured for any reference to this grand event, and not one word was written nor even eluded to. "Christinas" continued on Page 5 "Christmas" continued from Page 5 I wanted to know who won ihe automobile! Fast forward one year and the only mention of the Jay-cees Jay-cees was their club Christmas party and how they arranged for Santa to visit the elementary elemen-tary school (Central) and any shut-in children in town. If you don't mention it, maybe it didn't happen? Back to 1953 and a perusal perus-al of events indicated several individual parties, hosted by prominent citizens, were held the same night as the gala event but no one seems to remember what was to become a great city tradition. In fact, no one seems to remember the Jaycees or what happened to their club. (And I've asked people who would know!). To their credit, Pleasant Grove City has instituted other oth-er holiday traditions that had staying power and are enjoyed by old and new citizens alike. There's a comfort in knowing you can plan on an event and even build your own tradition around it and the Tree Lighting is one that continues to grow in popularity and attendance. Whatever your holiday traditions, tra-ditions, make them memorable and record them so poslerity can follow in those wise and familiar footsteps. |