OCR Text |
Show i Df (Tinirs3lnbrprubrut Page A6 Thursday, February 8, 2001 OURTOWN Community Comments by Sam Taylor afternoon, but we did get out for a very special dinner at the Sunset Grill together that evening The family honored us ai dinner r.t Ron and Senas the next day It doesn't seem like 40 years Actually, it was 45 years first met we ago that Having just returned from a ax pie of years of military service to take over this job, I went around the corner to Riley Drug Store for morning coffee with newly met members of the l staff. She was working at the soda fountain and looked pretty darned good to me One thing led to another We played it pretty cool. We even waited until she had finished high school and nearly four years of college before we mad 3 it official. But the spark was igmtea at Riley Drug that July morning, and the flame is still burning brightly. Ive been darned lucky I hope she feels the same way, and by the numerous tokens of endearment she has presented me over the years, including four great children. I am convinced she does. small-towdrug stores, complete with soda fountains, are about a thing of the past. That's too bad You never knew what you could find in one of them if you looked long enough. For me it didn't take much of a search. She was standing right behind the fountain with a smile and sparkle in her eye. Moab area residents are being invited (called and urged) to turn out Thursday afternoon. Feb 8 tor an anticipation party The aftair will be held on the Iron! steps ol the Grand County Courthouse at 5 45 p m Said County Council member Bart Leavitt Moao is hoping to be chosen as one of the selected cities to bring in the torch for the 2002 Winter Olympic opening ceremonies a year from now, which will he held in Sait Lake City The honor of having this opport jr.ity will have huge benefits for Moab and Grand County and we are really excited of the possibility" Leavitt said Large screen TVs will be set up and light refreshments will be served Come on out T tie weather f as moderated slightly and we haven't had much of an opportunity to get toyUher since the Christmas tree lighting and electric light parade in December What the heck Who needs a reason Lets get together Thursday in anticipation If nothing happens to excite us at 5 45. we can all stick aiound until 9 and watch ER" together And the county is buying St Saturday was a big day at the Taylor household Adrien and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary, pretty much by ourselves Working overtime on a big project at the office, my wife of tour decades left me to nap in the Many Trails by Adrien F. T-- n Idle Thoughts from Mt. Waas Taylor would give the meat to the dogs. Your article brought back good memories of George, so named because of the gracious donor that donated him to our family. Thanks for the memories. Again, my first memories of the weekly Sunday dinner began in Montrose, Colo., at the home of my grandparents. They had a neighbor lady that raised chickens for meat and eggs, and we regularly had one or two for Sunday dinner. My Pop even had a tree stump near the alley in back of the house that was suitable for the chopping block." In response to Sharon and Ernie, I will report there are two quarts of settled broth in the refrigerator. We tried some in a recipe for baked garlic last weekend and the result was superb. I had forgotten about the chopping block Every home had one when stoves were wood-fireand the same was used when dispatching the chickens. aft Having given up football a few years ago as something not to my liking, I have found other things to do when games are being played. Valley Voices occupies Monday nights for me, while Sam studies Monday night football. And I always have some project or another to take along to Superbowl parties. But this year. Superbowl Sunday was also the same one when Sam and present a classical music show on KZMU. He begged off, and I did the show and was shocked to come in fifth place on the Top Five ratk period at the station. I had a ings for that number of calls asking about the Anonymous Four's An English Ladymass, which was brand new sound for a lot of folks. Its available on Harmonia Mundi CD, and Andy Nettell, at Music of Moab, either has or will get it for anyone interested. Not so surprising, Andys own show Kokopelh Coffeehouse, took first place in the period's ratings It was his 400r show over the past eight years on KZMU. which means he's only missed 16 times, an enviable record or a fine DJ. one looks closely around the valley, signs of the endif the temperaing of winter are starting to show, even willow tures don't agree The trees, at least on the west side, went from gray to golden a week or so ago, and are now turning noticeably from gold to green. Along the creeks, what willows are still holding out against the invading tamarisk have transformed themselves into pussy willows And I suspect that if I visited the right spots would find the starts of spring watercress. This transformation is as much a matter of hours of daylight as it is warmth The hens, now without the domination of the two roosters, have started in to peck each other Most every odd descriptive phrase in a language derives from life hen pecked, the pecking order, the bellwether, the spinster, the black sheep, and so on Some of the young hens are just starting to lay, with eggs only an inch or so long, which makes it easier for the young hen to be sure I probably don't need to be real graphic here' put a couple aside and just left them to dry naturally, for the novelty of them. I had a couple of comments on those roosters that I thought I'd share before leaving the subject From Sharon Ziegler (director of the Moab Center for Higher Education) Just read your column, and this old farm girl has to tell you the only way to really get those roosters tender pull out your pressure cooker. The broth you get, as a dividend, will make the most delicious soup you've ever tasted From Ernie Milner (former Moabite andT-- l pressman) Your article about cooking free range chickens was one that hit home I tried the same thing a number of years ago, before moving to Moab Living m Orem we had a give us a young chick for the kids to have as a pet and low and behold it was a rooster. After several months we decided that we would have him for Sunday dinner and went through the process of killing, cleaning and cooking .. and we had the same results We had to cook that tough old friend a second day and then for several hours before deciding that we If I I I two-wee- by Ollie Harris Tape recording bought a little cassette tape recorder the other day. There are things that I want to remember. You would think that I would have bought a video camera. But, it has to do with the way a tape records memories. Like many of my generation, I am an auditory learner. We grew up listening to sounds. We listened to the wind, to the sounds of water, to the voices of others, to their stones and anecdotes. We grew up reading and being read to. We listened to radio dramas. We created incredibly complex and beautiful worlds inside our minds. I make no claim that our way was somehow better than the world of video. I only know that I would be personally impoverished without a wonderful imagination. No blast of Arctic wind ever caused me to shiver so much as one described by Jack London. No sepulcher was ever so damp and gloomy as one described by Poe. All of the most beautiful women, the most fearful monsters. the most striiling mountains were created in my mind from the pages of books or the stories of others. Mine was the generation that declared without fail that the movie w as never as good as the book. It somehow seems preferable to me to record only the sound. I imagine, someday after I can no longer get out and do the things that are dear to me, listening quietly to my voice describe certain scenes. I imagine listening to a description from the top of Mt. Peale (Yes, I'm thinking of doing it again). I can just hear my voice, somewhat breathless because of the altitude and the exertion, explaining what I can see: There, to the west lies beautiful Moab valley. I can see the green trees and houses and the river beyond. Tb the northwest I see beautiful Mount Mellenthin, and all of the peaks north of Geyser Pass which I have climbed over the years." I think the act of quietly listening to my voice de I High Country News Writers on the Range makes appointments to hospital board County Continued from Al Page tend Three board memlx-rmust be in attendance to achieve a quorum In other business. Council Member Joette Lanfianese reported that the county had received 23 applications f ir the Count y Administrator position. She said the group had been narrowed to five apphrants-tw- o from the area and three from outside the ama-a- nd interviews will begin on Feb. 16 The county has been operating w ithout and administrator since Dave Hutchinson resigned last August. During the afternoon meeting Feh 5. County Council members s inp Ixiard xiMtifin in order to ticronie the couikiI In Council another unanimous vote, Jem Neely was to represent the council on Memlx-- apinttd Muah the re.rexentatie Me Mosquito Abatement I)is-tn- d Board That Ixiard had twofijx-seats, hut according to a letter from District Manager KoU-rPhillips, there were no ajiphcants for the One seat has oj-since late 1999 Phil, is noted in his letter to the council that the shortage of tor the five person adIxiard memlx-rvisory hoard led to three meetings being canceled in 2900 because some existing Ixiard memlx-r- could not at t jxim-tion.- s Ix-e- s voted against contributing 6-- $5,000 towards purchasing the necessary equipment to open a weather s CLltr (Ltmrs-3ubcpcitfc- 5r iC radio tower in the county Chief Deputy Doug Squire, who made the request, said the tower could provide around-the-clocweather information to area residents and would be such as a flood, pipeline explosion or toxic spill occurred. Squire said San Juan County had already contributed $5,000 tow ards the project, and that Project Impact Coordinator Heather O'Hanlon was soliciting funds from other groups such as the National Park Service and the state Forest Service. The total cost of the project was estimated at about $32,000. Council Member McNeely as alone in voting for the proposal. w '-gr mt UPS 6309- 2000 Entered as Second class Matter at the Post Office at Moab, Utah under the Ad Second class postage paid at Moab, Utah 84532. Official City and County Newspaper. Published each Thursday at: 35 East Center Street, Moab, Grand County, Utah 64532 - i of of March 3, 1897. address: editor9moabtimes.com ail Postmaster: Send changes address to. The Member P.O. Box 129, Moab, UT 84532 Times-lndepende- or FAX 5 1 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION and UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION Samuel J. and Adrien F. Taylor, Publishers Sena T. Flanders, Editor Tom Taylor Zane Taylor Ron Flanders Franklin Seal Lisa Church Mary Wright Sadie Warner Dorothy Anderson Circulation Manager. l Maps Press. Prodjdion Manager Systems Manager T-- News Writer News Writer Advertising Representative Real Estate Weekly. Design Mail Room Supervisor Jose Churampi. Stan Zook... Kel'y Ericson. Bobbie Domenick, Jed Taylor New West is an old concept k useful if an emergency situation Backshop Ken Davey, Came Mossien News Writers Layne Miller Regional Correspondent Green River Correspondent Betty Bailey Ron Drake Castle Valley columnist Ron George Columnist Oliver Harris Columnist Distribution scribe such things will be better than seeing it all on a dont really know how to explain this except that in my mind I find things to be sweeter than reality ever can be. Video leaves little to the imagination. Someone once described this phenomenon in the context of his old home. He pined for it, was lonesome for it. It possessed him with its mystic. Yet, when he saw it, it sat there, nothing more than a structure of weathered material, nothing at all special. I had a similar experience when my heart was broken by one of Moabs finest beauties. There welled a great loneliness in my heart. She was something ethereal. Yet, when I saw her, and spoke to her, she was just another person. My heart was restored to proper equilibrium. I was fine until the passage of time allowed my mind to again fill with vain imaginings. Another example comes to mind. I like to gaze at the mountains when the peaks are enshrouded with mist, when heavy, dark clouds spill down their flanks. Once the peaks are out of sight, my imagination takes over. It makes the peaks ever so much more ragged and high. And, dont forget the music. There is al ways music when my imagination runs free. There is another thing I want to record. It may be too intimate to write of here. But, I want to record my father-in-lasaying the family prayer in his home. It is him Mother Lee now and they have both accuand just mulated many, many years. I was there recently and listened as he tenderly spoke his prayer. It was mostly an expression of gratitude for the many blessings he enjoys. It was not a quick, haphazard glossing over of things, but a quiet enumeration of the things he appreciates. I heard him say, Were thankful for the orchard, for the well and for the pump. I smiled. The pump? But, you're in a lot of trouble if the pump fails. I would like to have his voice on tape to listen to in a quiet time. VCR. I by John Clayton I just finished a novel called Old West And New. It's got the New West" down pat: onerous federal regulations; land increasingly carved into tiny patches of weeds; rich, clueless outsiders moving in and ruining things; politicians stealing elections with underhanded charges; lives devastated by illegal narcotics; and a homogeneity of development in which new towns look like anyplace else, exchanging the picturesque for the commonplace. Funny thing is, the book was published in 1933. As we enter a new century, were constantly throwing around the phrase New West." On Amazon.com, for example, 59 books feature the phrase in their titles. Introducing the 1997 book Atlas of the New West, William Riebsame wrote, Traditional life ways logcontrast ging, mining, drilling, farming, and ranching sharply with the new economy of services and information, ostentatious wealth, and tourism. This is as close to a definition of the New WestOld West standoff as Ive found. And I used to agree: these contrasts sheep vs. services; oil vs. microbrew; logged out" vs. logged on" represented the New West. This novel, however, has changed my mind. It paints similar contrasts long before the technology revolution that supposedly created the new ways. In the novel, the onerous federal regulation was Prohibition, not environmental policies. The weedy parcels resulted from dry farming, not residential suburbs. The invading hordes were Midwestern shopkeepers, not Californian But if the issues differed ever so slightly, the attitudes perfectly matched today's. The true Westerners" were independent spirits who distrusted government, loved seeing livestock in wide-ope- n spaces, and preferred ornery characters to idealistic community builders. So the New West" embodies a storyline that never changes: The old" and true" always fight against the "new," powerful and somehow false. Progress and conformity have ruined everywhere else; the West is the last chance to make things right. Which means that change is always bad. It makes me wonder if trappers referred to the first cowboys as the New West." In the late 1890s, the term New South arose as a label for the former slave states. New South usually last-minu- day-trader- s. referred to a land of railroads and textile mills run by progressive business people, though the term was slapped on almost any development that represented something other than the plantation. New South boosters painted their land as rich, just, and triumphant, writes Wayne Mixon in the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and it was almost all a he. Blacks were still little better than slaves, Northerners controlled the industries, and most Southerners were still poor farmers. The illusory image inspired such hope that the phrase endured for over 100 years. But d uring that time it allowed Southerners to become resignedly complacent about social ills, environmental abuses, and the rise of a mass culture to replace unique regional traditions. Does the term New West do the same thing? It strikes me that we throw it at anything that's not cowboys. We have tied up a bundle of values, industries, and attitudes, and labeled them all The Old West." Tbo often, the few Westerners who do embrace change see this Old West as the root of all problems. Thus everything labeled New West they anoint as progressive, rich, just and triumphant. But unlike the plantation owner, the cowboy himself is largely a myth, invented by the writers of the first Western novels. Philadelphian Owen Wister wrote The Virginian in 1901 to mourn the passage of a romanticized ( perhaps wholly invented ) heroic figure. Along with a slew of proteges and imitators, he thus established the Old West as something both unique and finished. One of Wisters followers was Caroline Lockhart, a n Westerns beWyoming resident who wrote a tween 1911 and 1921. Then, after a dozen years in other pursuits, she wrote a final novel that tried to follow her lives. They cowboy heroes into anticlimactic latter-da- y became tourism promoters and barbers and gas station owners. But the only important thing in their lives for the characters themselves, as well as the author who created them was that they used to be cowboys and werent any more. This is the book I just read, the one she called Old half-doze- -- And New. John Clayton is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a sermce of High Country News (www.hcn.org). West He colters the Billings, Mont., area for the electronic letter www.streetmail.com. news- POOR |