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Show Tii TIMES Submit a Guest Editorial or Opinion at our office, located at 538 South State in Orem. Deadlines are Monday 10:00 a.m. &OiDinion All submissions are subject lo editing for and The Orem-Geneva Times reserves the right to publish or not to puDiisn a submission. t Utah Valley Elder Quest of the Center for Lifelong Learning at Utah Valley State College is composed of some 200 local senior citizens, many of whom are involved in recalling and writing down their memories and life experiences, such as the one presented here. COMMENTARY lenath. I I RigtA2 Thursday, May 30, 2002 1 - Our Shot On Ik-comber 7, 1941 I wan sitting at a card table working on an assignment for Professor Tommy Martin's religion class at B.Y.U. The sun was coming through mother's lace curtains and the New York Symphony Orchestra was playing their usual Sunday concert on the radio. The music stopped and the terrible news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, was announced. It was a life changing chang-ing moment for me and the rest of the world. At 10 a.m., on Monday morning morn-ing December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, I punched the time clock at the S.H. Kress Co. in a new building on the corner across the street from the Orem Interurban train depot on center cen-ter street in Provo, Utah. Some of tho employees gathered around the time clock and everyone was stunned and shocked as we heard terrible reports from Hawaii. We clerks looked at each other and words wouldn't come. Each of us had brothers, sweethearts, or family members in the military. Many of my fellow graduates from 1940 were away in the service and we all knew we were in for sad news on a daily basis. War and rumblings of war was taught in our history classes class-es at Provo High School. One day our history teacher, Mr. Slack, tuned in a radio broadcast broad-cast of the Germans marching through Czechoslovakia. That broadcast pricked me and I remember feeling I was glad there was an ocean between us and Europe and war wouldn't touch us, but it did touch us in a terrible way at the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I had been out of high school less than a year and the world was getting smaller in my young mind and my life and my family's life The Orem-Geneva Times 538 South State Street Orem. UT 84058 published by I hi' Daily Herald. A I'uliliT Newspaper Subscriptions & Delivery Sersicc .175-5103 News & Advertising 225-1. WO Ian 225 I. Ml I'.miiil ircMiliincs( ' nelworld.coin USPS 411-711. Published Thursdays by Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc., 538 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84058. Periodicals postage paid at Orem, Utah 84059. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 65, Orem, UT 84059. Member. Audit Bureau ol Circulations NEWSSTAND PRICE $0.50 SUBSCRIPTION RATK 1 year - $18 (in area) I year - $39 (out of area) iNKWS We welcome news tips. Call 225-1 225-1 340 lo report a news lip or if you have a comment or a question. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters arc welcome on any topic. Elder Quest Memories - By Francis Bowen ie Changing. Moment would be affected in a profound way for a very long time. It seemed it would never end. As I approached the china counter, that I managed in Kress Co., there was a line of big baskets in front of it. My boss came to me and instructed me to throw every thing on my counter, that was made in Japan, in those baskets. It was to be destroyed. It was hard for me to bust and crash things like junk in those baskets because I had always been so careful not to damage or chip the merchandise. The baskets were full and my counter was almost empty. Such pretty things with lots of hand painted paint-ed designs and art work on lovely porcelain figurines, bowls and dishes. Terrible hatred was developing. It just broke my heart and my thoughts returned again to my little Japanese friend Hira Zazuki that went to the Maeser school with me. She and her family returned to Japan in the 1930s. Her Brother Gene would be of the age to be Japanese warrior - was he flying fly-ing one of those planes that bombed our ships? Oh dear, I suffered the thought. I stood on the corner on my lunch hour one day in the fall of 1941 fifing Tdihe ftainV pass. It was full "of National Guard fellows going to Camp Williams or Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City for training and preparation and be shipped out to war. The street was lined with well wishers waving and wishing them speedy return. I waved but I didn't know any of Crickets- It's late May and Utah State University Extension agent Matthew Palmer is looking at a wall-size map of Tooele County and pointing out what looks like movements in a military exercise. In a way it is. Every spring Utah faces an attack of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets - the only variables are how many and when. "There is a group moving up from the south and another from the west over Johnson's pass and they will be converging converg-ing here," Palmer says as he points to the map. "This is where we need to stop them before they come up to the Tooele val ley." One of the problems in f i ah t i n r crickets is me patchwork of land they cross. Palmer holds up other maps that show ranch, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Tribal and private lands. Of course, the crickets make, no distinction of who governs the land, but the agencies don't always allow the same procedures. proce-dures. Some areas only 'allow bate that is thrown on the ground, while others allow aerial aer-ial spraying. Earlier in the day Palmer was on his cell phone talking to a Salt Lake City television station sta-tion looking for Mormon cricket sightings. "It makes a shot and sound bite when they start migrating across roads and they make crunching sounds as the cars pass," he says. The war against Mormon those boys. They had been picked up in towns south of Provo. The train had extra cars and they were full. The train tracks ran right down the middle mid-dle of main street as it did in most of the towns on the Wasatch Front so those boys had lots of people waving to them that day. As I walked home from work I wondered what the Evening Herald would tell us had been rationed that day and who had been killed or injured. The first casualty I remember was Don Christiansen from my graduating graduat-ing class and I was anxious to hear news of our good friend Tom Adams who I knew was on the U.S.S. Utah. It was bombed at Pearl Harbor and sent to the bottom. Tom was one of the lucky ones to survive by climbing climb-ing off his ship and swimming through oil to the shore. To be revived and then he offered to use a small boat and pick some of his dead ship mates and parts of them. He has given a good interview in Dean Hughs book "For The Duration". The rationing started with gasoline for our cars. Will Dad have enough to get to work and a weekly trip to Weelington to help grandma? I wondered. Shoes and sugar, fats, meat and citfee'-and cotton and wool were "in short supply and needed to keep the war machinery going, civilians had to make do and do without. A ration stamp was issued by the government to get them. We walked everywhere in that one pair of shoes we were rationed each year. Rain, snow, sleet or shine, to work, school, on the move again crickets has become an annual battle. This year it would seem the ravenous hoppers have ordered reinforcements. Last year was bad, and they are far ahead of last years's assault. By April 29 they were already coming into the towns of Oak City and Kanosh, says Michael Pace, USU Extension agent in Millard County. Considering that they may not yet peak until June, this is a bad sign. Grasshoppers are a threat to crop and rangeland across the West, but Utah has always had a special historical relationship with Mormon crickets. Anabrus simplex has been known as a Mormon cricket since 1848 when hordes of the insect started start-ed eating the early Mormon settlers' much-needed crops. When they prayed for help, an equal horde of seagulls descended and ate enough of the crickets to Bave the crops and possibly the lives of the pioneers. Ever since, the California gull has been Utah's state bird and the ravenous cricket has taken on a religious nickname. The crickets were here before the pioneers, says Jay Karren, USU entomologist. Archeologists have found caches of dried and cooked crickets in Native American ruins that date to 150 BC Weighing in at a Mar wun mormon cncKeis. s. 'iL I Jy SKx Anabrus simplex has 0 church or movies. Our 1930 Model A Ford was worn out and daddy was looking to walk to work. Cars were rationed too. He worked 10 hours a day seven days a week for U.P.R.R. donating two of those hours each day to the war effort. Trains had to keep moving transporting war materials and men. I don't recall much grumbling grum-bling but there was a lot of sharing and everyone had one goal in mind and that was to win the war. I don't think our country ever pulled together for one goal as we did then and I don't think it ever will again. There were victory gardens planted to grow food and I wished our family still had Bess, our old milk cow, with us so we could have real butter instead of that margarine, oleo they called it. It came in 1 pound blocks that looked like lard and inside was a capsule with coloring in it. We had to mix it to look like butter and I hated it. Scrap metal and fats were gathered and many women left their homes and went to work building ships, planes, uniforms ammunition and medical supplies. Once in a while a bus would take a group of girls, from jprk, to Camp Wiyiams tq dance with th Troupes. Some girls I know met their marriage mates at those socials and had happy families here in the valley. val-ley. With heavy hopeful hearts those who stand and wait also serve. For four long years we did. heavy 17 grams of protein per cricket, they were likely a prized food source. Taste change and even with the aid of a state-sanctioned seagull air force, the crickets multiply out of control, Karren says. They are aesthetically unpleasing to humans. They are big and ugly. They don't bite, but they are not shy about clinging to anything, including slow moving humans. People have tried to her, burn, drown and poison them, but with only limited success. Fortunately, the opposition opposi-tion is also ahead of schedule handing out more bait and doing more aerial spraying than in previ ous years, Pace says. Tooele and Millard counties are the worst hit but Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services estimate that 3.3 million mil-lion acres are infested. Infested means at least eight per square yard. "They are still in their 3rd and 4th instars, so they are still going to grow and subsequently eat a lot more," Pace says. "Instars refer to their life cycle which consists of five stages before they reach adulthood." This year cost sharing for control is available to homeowners home-owners as well as ranchers, Pace says. All parties are eligible eligi-ble for 5050 cost sharing with the Utah Department of Agriculture. There is no limit as to how small or large the area you need to treat. Extension is not distributing the bait, but it is the place to call if you need more information informa-tion on obtaining bait and how to use it. Call your county's USU Extension office or visit the Grasshopper hotline at Timpanogos Green SEVEN CITY CANYONS The Fountain at Liberty Park This remarkable fountain, which has been closed for repairs for two years, Is now open for the enjoyment of the public The perfect place for microcosmic waters From mountains high, revealing seven canyons, Surrounding Salt Lake City: Liberty Park! Your loyal sons and daughters Recall their early days of fond companions Who formed their play committee. This fountain features many flowing streams, That bubble over washboards of concrete, Near checker-boarded grass. The sparkling water swiftly glides and gleams To make this happy haven, now, complete For friends who come en masse. The undertow from winter snow makes Seven Canyons Fountain flow! ow, flanked by sturdy trees of Ash and Pine, We see that some As he who With sage-like plants, The flowers are ---, A water The burly benches, made of steel, are fixed Upon the sturdy gravel-faced concrete To welcome visitors. The colors of the canyon stones are mixed, As water splashes on the children's feet, And sprays inquisitors. The fountains flow! The fountains know their waters make the cities grow! rv Worn PARLEY'S CANYON, water gurgles up From aquifers into a pool that sends A stream through rocks of red. And water from a flowing stony cup, Now, navigates through MILLCREEK CANYON bends: A racing thoroughbred! The water from BIG COTTONWOOD is drained To flow from granite boulders on the mount. A small, grey, squirrel freezes, Atop a snowy peak with water, deigned To flow into the Canyon Fount, Unburdened by diseases. The aqua pura pool is clean, when water crashes, crystalline! le City Canyons send an aureole To channel churning life through city streams, Enriching and enhancing everything. The undiscovered canyons of the soul Hide summer waters which the heart redeems, Whenever Sego Lilies bloom in spring. Who holds the snows of winter in their hands, And fingers former days with fond companions, Remembers water, blessing thirsty lands From mountains, molding seven City Canyons. The city dwellers bring their sons and daughter; to celebrate the City Canyon waters: The City Canyons pour an aureole . on undiscovered canyons of the soul! E:ccx3 of the increase of news stories & advertising rjlto the OremLtndon Times, our deadline for r.: : 'v::'":!: has been changed to 10:00 a.m. Monday. l:z: r.: J h fca brought to the OremLindon Times at 538 Street, Orsm. Entries may be edited for length and content. If y:j hr3 ciy questions please call our office at 225-1340 I of them are just as old played of yore. set off by gold and wine,' a vision to behold: metanhor. H I 7. poSr cot 1 u |