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Show Free Press - Wednesday. October 15, 1997 - Page 2 Opinion Too much of a Family Bonding Thing is dangerous to one's health Timpanogos Cave a jewel Timpanogos Cave celebrates 75 years this week as the crown jewel of Utah County's natural wonders. Each year, tens of thousands of visitors make the hike to inspect the wonders of this underground wonderland. By itself, the cave accounts for more tourists to north Utah County than any other attraction, natural or three-caves-in-o- man-mad- e. It is, without question, one of our most valuable assets. For that we can thank the federal government and its parks program which preserves such natural phenomena from thoughtless intruders for the edification of the public. Every trip through Timpanogos Cave begins with a walk through the part of the cave which was not preserved from the ravages of the thoughtless hundreds who came, saw and plundered before the cave received the protection of the government. For years, cave formations were mishandled, damaged, and even removed from the cave to be made into coffee tables and that reckless disregard for the cave that the natural would cease, and beauty of the cave system would be preserved for those that followed. As national monuments go, Timpanogos Cave is small, occupying only a few acres in a national forest. As part of north Utah County's heritage, however, the cave is huge. Efforts are underway to make the cave more presentable. The current fee station at the canyon entrance may be annoying for local residents who have considered the canyon a part of their back yard, but fees collected will help upgrade picnic and camping areas in the canyon, preserve the existing forest facilities, and protect the canyon from overuse and misuse. A combination Park Service-ForeService building at the mouth of American Fork Canyon is in the planning stages. The new visitors' center will help preserve the cave and the canyon by reducing traffic through the canyon and will give visitors a greater opportunity to learn about the cave before they visit the actual site. All of the efforts seem to be working. The cave touring season has been expanded this year. A broad variety of cave experiences are offered throughout the season. And the tens of thousands of visitors keep coming year after year. Thanks to careful stewardship, Timpanogos Cave has enjoyed 75 good years as the centerpiece of Utah County's natural wonders. With the same kind of careful stewardship, we can look forward to sharing the Heart of Timpanogos with our children and their children for vears to come. st nick-nack- s. The Hansen Cave was mined, although there was nothing of much worth there. The net result is that there is little left of the first cave to be discovered anew by the visitors hike who make the to the cave. A typical cave tour leaves one in awe of the people who originally found and then explored the caves, but it also makes us aware that such natural resources can be badly mishandled by those who come after if there are no controls in place. When Pres. Warren G. Harding made Timpanogos Cave a national monument 75 years ago, he ensured mile-and-a-ha- lf Warning: Anyone attempting to establish a rigorous Family Bonding Thing should seriously evaluate his or her stamina. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote in this very column how pleased my wife and I were to have successfully completed a Family Bonding Thing (FBT) project when we found a delightful little park in South Salt Lake. We were so pleased, in fact, that we decided this bonding activity, or FBT if you will, was rather pleasant and that it ought to be repeated sometime the future. in Now I know that for many folks in these parts, the FBT is a regular occurrence. We've heard that some even do it weekly. Anyone who has that kind of perseverance and stamina ought to be congratulated. Like I said, we had had such a good time before that we attempted it a second time last weekend when we decided that we would go bowling. I had bowled in a league as a teenager, and although I was not incredibly adept at it, neither could I necessarily be classified as horrendous. In college, I took a bowling class with a friend; unfortunately, practical classroom exercise didn t really improve my game any more than the earlier league play experience. Nevertheless, we thought bowling could be a great adventure for our children and a great FBT for the family as a whole. And indeed it was. At least the first game. Just as some novice chefs are with if one clove is great then garlic we felt that three must be fantastic if one game was good for bonding, then two full games would absolutely cement us together for the eternities. Bowling doesn't necessarily work that way. By the time we were through, the parents were physically wiped out, the older two children were discouraged with their performance, and the toddler was ready to do something else. Only our daughter seemed to come away with a good attitude, but she may have been the only one who improved in the second game. All in all, it was great fun, and I think it could be labeled a successful FBT. But we have learned our lesson that there can be too much of a good thing. Excess, like many other things, is relative to one's age. That point hit home Sunday when my brother was visiting and our daughter went into the other room to start playing the piano. After just a few notes, I hollered for her to cease and desist immediately. The moment Bob started laughing, I knew that he was thinking back to the times when I would do the same thing when my older siblings returned to our home. Desperate for attention, I realize now that I made it a point to play as loud as I could to show off for them. They were clearly not impressed with my talents, no matter how good they may have been. But that didn't dampen my spirits at all, for I kept on being a pest each and every time they would In its sudden Rocky Mountain way, fall has arrived, and I made occasion to go walking in the woods the other day. I was actually looking for birds, but as the trees closed behind me and shut off all traces of civilization, I was carried back to 1970, when chance landed me and my family in a little old brick house in Ellsmere, a quiet, ancient village near Albany in upstate New York. We lived at the end of a or what passed for one; the street simat the woods. Although ply dead-endewe only lived there a few months, I came to think of those woods as mine, and I spent as much time in them as the restrictions of my life then would c, d permit. Its fascinations It were endless. seemed like I could walk forever in wilderness. I would sit sometimes on the thick bed of pine needles that carpeted every stand of them, drinking in that heavenly scent. Or, I might climb one of the ridges and survey the countryside, trying to see how many different kinds of trees I could identify from one spot. The woods held hidden treasures, too. My sister dated a SUNY biology student that fall, and it was he who introduced me to many of them. We would go along the streambed, looking under rocks and in shallow pools for amphibians, and surveying the fall I can't say that that experience never occurred again in my life, but it gives me that old familiar parental perspective that I can use on my own children, although I am well aware that they will have to experience such things for themselves to really understand it fully. Unfortunately, age also teaches one about the opposite of excess, which is not giving enough in a situation. Not only do we see as parents how children shouldn't eat too much or stay up too late, we also see from our own experiences that they should do their homework with more enthusiasm, they should be more obedient and they should give 110 percent to whatever endeavor they undertake. Still, we cannot really instill that in them without their having to go through it themselves. Thus, they have to hear us nag until they experience those situations firsthand. Perhaps this is why the FBT is so so we can share experiimportant ences together and learn from each other's choices, both good and bad. But next time, I can assure you we will only bowl one line, and save some time to go to the park. that much by such an influx of people since the first pioneers arrived. (That may be an exaggeration, but it's close.) All these people create a definite impact in our communities and that Every year about this time, as election season both heats up and winds down it's all over in one day, you we start to hear the same know "So, what are you going to write about once the election is over?" This year has been worse than others. This year the question is more like this: "So, what are you going to write about if the mayor and council start to wildflowers and butterflies. We also made several expeditions to hunt mushrooms and fungi. For these we invited siblings and friends along; more eyes usually made for better success. On one particularly fruitful outing, we found 28 different kinds, rangto blood ing in color from silvery-whit- e red and in size from a fingernail to a fist. It was on one of these that we had our most unusual experience. There had been farms once, in portions of the woods. Long since abandoned, these had been taken over by nature. There were some living apple trees remaining in one area, and we happened upon a group of squirrels who were feasting on the fallen fruit. They were chattering at a deafening level, and running to and fro quite erratically. Our biologist guide laughed, and explained that the squirrels had become slightly drunk because of the natural fermentation in the apples. I've never been back to that place, but its sights, sounds and smells are stamped forever in my memory. It takes only a hint of one of those to bring it all back. inevitable. There's always plenty of things to write about question: A walk in the woods return. Another time in my youth, I went with my other brother and his family to a well- - known pizza restaurant in Provo. I don't think I had ever been out for pizza, and, with parents who were somewhat older, I may not have even eaten pizza prior to that time. So it was natural to end up eating more than I should have, and on the way home, John had to stop along the way when the consequences became get along?" It's almost as if people think that we newspapers thrive on controversy, and controversy is only created during election campaigns or when one public official or another goes off on a political tangent. Well, it's been my experience that there is usually plenty of controversy to go around all year long. And even when there isn't, there's always plenty of news. And frankly, the kind of controversy we've been experiencing this past year tends to give me a stomachache. I'm looking forward to Nov. 4 with as much anticipation as any candi- date. As for news, these little papers have been printing news each week for almost 100 years, in some cases. Our definition of what should appear on the front page has changed in all those years. At one time, obituaries regularly appeared on Page 1, complete with a program of the funeral services. The towns were much smaller then, death was less common (oh, everybody still died, there just weren't as many peo- - pie to pass away), and everybody knew the deceased. It's a rare death that makes front page news anymore. For many years, especially during the First and Second World Wars, these newspapers carried national news pages on the inside of the newspaper. The pages were syndicated, and looked different from the rest of newspaper in type and style. But at the time, many people only took their hometown newspaper, and they relied on their American Fork Citizen, Pleasant Grove Review and Lehi Free Press (or Lehi Banner) to keep them informed about events of the city, state, nation and world. That's a role we don't try to fill anymore. After all, with all the news on television, including CNN, and the existence of three competitive daily newspapers in the area, our readers don't expect to learn from us about the in Washington, D.C., or even goings-o- n in Salt Lake City. But there's no shortage of news in north Utah County. So, after the polls close and the winning candidates declare victory, we will still have plenty of things to write about. We can write about growth. These communities haven't been affected as means news. We can write about Micron. Will they or won't they? Are they or aren't they? Apparently they are, at least a little. Anyway, it all makes great "copy." We can write about new businesses. There are a lot of companies doing business in north Utah County who sell very little in the local community. And we are getting more of these businesses all the time. I have long wanted to do a series of profiles of these businesses, but have not had the time or the space. Maybe this fall, after the election, will be the right time to attack this particular project. I think we'll all be surprised at what's out there. And we can write about you. After all, that's what a community newspaper is supposed to do. For several years we have been working on placing a profile of someone in the community on our front pages. At first, some thought we would run out of people to write about, but we have found that almost everybody has an interesting story to tell. So we're still looking. No, rather than dreading the end of the election, we're looking forward to getting the voting over and the politicians off our pages so we have room for the kind of news that makes reading your hometown newspaper fun and and hopefully an indisenlightening pensable part of your weekly routine. Reader's Forum Wanfs info on Lehi Editor: We arc doing state research reports in my class and will be reporting on Utah. The reports are due in November and cover topics such as history, economy, education and culture. The reason I am writing to your local paper is to ask if you could publish my letter in your paper. I am hoping some of the members of your community would write to me and tell me about their experiences, traditions and some history or details about their life in Utah. I live in southern California and I am sure I many things about Utah are different from where I live. Also, if any of the citizens find time to reply it would be great if they would enclose a copy of my "published" letter. Thank you so much for taking time for my request and any information would be most appreciated. Send information to: Nicole A. Mendoza, St. John's Episcopal School. 30382 Via Con Dios, Rancho Santa Margarita. Calif. 92688. Nicole A. Mendoza Don't let children answer door Editor: Who is at your door? Over the past couple of Published weekly by ISSN No. 8750-466U.S.P.S. No. 9 309-50- A 0 TPie AewfaliiXews roup member o! tii NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION v, rt 59 West Main American Fork, Utah 84003 & Circulation News Publisher Managing Editor Brett Marc City Editor Subscription price S24 Bezzant Haddock Russ Daly per year Second class postage paid at American Fork, Utah Postmaster: send address change to 59 West Main. American Fork. Utah 84003 Classified Advertising .Tuesday, Display Monday. 5 p.m. Monday. 2 p.m. Missionaries Monday. 2 pm. Weddings Monday. 2 Monday. 10 pm. a m. Monday. 10 am Tuesday. 11 am Advertising News Community Calendar Letters to the Editor Obituaries . 2. Do not leave small children unattended at home. Instruct them not to answer the door when home alone (even older school age chil- dren). better for a child to say a parent is unavailable, when he or she is not home (this applies when answering the door or the phone). 4. Talk with your children about safety and have them practice how they should act. These suggestions are hopefully fuel for thought on how we can more effectively safeguard our children and community. 3. It is Pastor Chuck Lovelady Timpanogos Baptist Church We welcome letters to the editor. Deadlines Telephone Numbers Advertising I have knocked on most of the doors in Lehi. As pastor of Timpanogos Baptist Church, my desire is to talk to people about spiritual matters. I enjoy talking to people about Jesus. However, what bothers me in going through our community is the large number of small children who open their doors to strangers. This happens with or without a parent at home. This is very dangerous. When a child answers the door, I always ask for a parent. Many times they tell me they are not home. This is also dangerous. Here are a few suggestions to improve safety of our children: 1. Do not allow your small children to answer the door unless an adult is with them. years, noon 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 are welcome on any topic. HOW TO REACH US By Mail P.O. Box 7, American Fork, UT 84003 In 59 W. Main, Person American Fork By Fax 756-527- 4 By newtahaol.com |