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Show Page (The A8 iTiuies-3n5fpfniU'- Thursday, November 21, 2002 ut Community Commeni's by Sam Taylor ato to true about much tfs ot my friend Ralph M.uor toss cc except tre who Ood eany Monday at hi$ home m MouD He Mayn't just my friend Tie was a close fnend to halt ot the tvn My trst business call 45 years ago as a 23 year old very green newspaper editor here was witn Ralph His crowded oflice in a bac corner ot tfie oid Miller s building no the Sitckrock Build tug tad desks piled high with papers and boxes He bought an ad the first ot hundreds he ran with us until tie finally Sold out But out relationship went back a tot turther than that We gre up just across a board fence on the same block in trie old part of Moab He and Shirley still lived there when he died in a comlur table home uu a mantcuied lot next to the home ol his mother Genevieve and Ralph Sr her late husband Ralph and my youngest sister. Sally were in the same class in school, and there was a lot of interaction between the two families Our business relationship was strong don't know how would have survived in business in those first years without the regular advertising from Miller's Co op, later Miller's Supermarket. Miller's Clothing and Dry Goods, and Miller s Furniture Ad calls turned into weekly visits that turned into a fast friendship And Ralph knew how lo keep business and personal differences apart One time in my early newspaper career, Ralph and a whole lot of other townspeople got really upset when the Superintendent arid School Board fired a long standing teacher who was extremely popular with his students, but was a thorn in the side of the school administration Petitions were circulated in favor of reinstatement and changes in scftool leadership wrote a pretty strong editorial in favor of the firing The next Tuesday when went to the supermarket to pick up advertising copy, was about half afraid to face didnt know whether youd the businessman have an ad this week after my editorial," said I Here s your ad copy," he said "I sek groceries and you pant a newspaper We both need each other" That s the kind of guy he was As a businessman, hie was a tierce competitor. but had a heart as big as a watermelon I don t know how many hungry families in Moab Valley that Ralph fed through his generosity and compassion would bet the number ran into the hundreds He was loyal to his family and his friends He gneved over the loss of two of his sisters in recent months He was proud of his children and grandchildren and rarely missed an athletic event or school production in which one of them had a part A tew weexs ago, dropped in on Ralph and Shirley to show them a copy of a newspaper from American Fork, where Ralph's old high school coach was honored on the tront page for his dedication to that community Willard Deavitt, tresh out of college, was only a coach in Moab tor a couple of years, but during that time he took a Moab basketball team to the state tourney tor the first time in history The three of us had a great visit in their comfortable living room Even though he was hooked up to an oxygen tank and obviously painfully uncomfortable, that big smile never left his face as we talked about all those years we had shared in Moab In retrospect, how glad am now that made that visit We dont do those kinds of things as much as we used to We should make it a point to do so even if we don't have a reason He didnt want funeral services, and that didnt surprise me He never sought the limelight or honors that were forced on him during his life It's just as well There probably isn't a building in Moab big enough to hold all the people that would want to pay him last respects. But his impact on this community during his lifetime of commerce and service will not be forgotten He was a giant among men in this town boon vti not I I . I I I I I I I I I Idle Thoughts fiiom Mt. Waas by Ollie Harris thuiubL'd through a drawer looking fur an old notclmok. something to inspire me for todays column The first piece of good luik was that I found the worn and tattered nolelniuk. The second was that there were several idle thoughts that never made it into a column For example I once thought that there should he a national radio preaihers comjHtition There would be1 various categories There would In one for most passionate delivery, one for hoarsest voice, one for best hack-umusic. There would lie a category for best accent, most exaggerated enunciarhythm, tion, most audible breathing Finally, and most importantly, there would be a category for slickest apjieal for money The trophy could be a little statue of an outstretched hand Instead of an I p lst Kmmy, it would lie called a Gimme. Another note to mv self that never really went any w here is that the early settlers could have used a broader lexicon Almost any map you study will have a place called Cottonwood, another named Hells Hole, and the ubiquitous Johnson Canyon. Heres another. figure that the highest degree of heavenly glory for a janitor would lx? an immaculate building to w huh he had the only key. No one would ever use the building I really enjoy personalized license plates. like to see them and try to decipher their meaning. I enjoy speculating about the motivation and creativity behind them A few years ago we bought a Volkswagen Syncro Vanagon. Since it was a relal drive, I wanted a personaltively rare ized plate that reflected that fact. I decided on 4.2 GO." I thought it was clever but it never really worked out. People would ask if it meant that we had four kids to go, or four years, or what? I had to explain that it referred to the or that it told what the car was 4," or maybe, One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and 4 2 GO. It was not a good choice because it took too much explaining. 1 Many Trails 1 by Adrien F. Taylor Our friend Marcie Moore stopped by Wednesday morning to get some information about how to handle about 100 pounds of camel hair and down she and Terry have harvested from their animals downriver at Camelot Adventure Lodge. It made me realize again how much I have been missing our little spinners flock" of sheep. But we wont make any decision about that subject until spring In the meantime, with the cold months coming on, and there is ostensibly less to do to fill the hours, as least out in the yard people always think theyll be able to explore some new thing. Marcy would like to learn to spin And so, if there are a few others who would like to do that, Im going to otter a class, probably starting in January Here in our immediate area we have camels, llamas, several breeds of sheep, Joe Chacon even has a vicuna, and Ive been wanting to get my fingers into that fiber for a long time. Les Rogers brought me a bag of Huacaya Alpaca wool. still haven't spun up the gold mine of Musk Ox down he brought last year. Dog down also makes an extremely warm yarn (despite it continues to smell like wet dog when it gets wet). So there are lots of opportunities for learning to spin different things. even have some lovely cotton bolls from Howard Bennett, who grows some of the nicest cotton you will ever see This last two seasons, he has been growing some brown from seeds other people had sent me, along with his white. Many spinners think cotton is the easiest fiber to spin. Others detest it. So give me a call if youre interested, and we'll see what we can get together for a spinning class I I four-whee- e, Accolades and Admonishment with regard to issues in our community a world where you read the newspaper, and watch the news on television and all is the violence and rage in people around the nation and the world, you have good people quietly in the background. We have people going about their daily business and doing their job, no matter how big or small, without ever receiving any recognition right here in Moab. On garbage collection day each week, see the two gentlemen do their job, and well might add. live on a street where several elderly couples live, and everyday tasks are difficult for them to do. These great garbage collectors each week retrieve the garbage cans from the house, not the street, and empty the trash and replace the cans at the elderly couples back door. Not just at one house but at a couple of houses. Just this simple task am sure is greatly appreciated by the older couples. commend you garbage collectors and want you to know that you deserve an award. Your kindness and generosity inspires me to do a kind deed for those in need. No matter who we are, what job we have, someone is always watching. hope that we can all do something kind for others and bean example and not just at this time of the year but all year long Like these two gentlemen, and their simple tasks of kindness. Name withheld In you see I I I I I I ; ISSN (UPS) Entered as Second class Matter at the Post Office at Moab, Utah under the Act of March 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 84532 6309-2000- of 8 3. 1897. address: editoremoabtimes.com ail Postmaster: Send changes 1538-183- address to: The Member P.0. Box 129, Moab, UT 84532 Times-lndepende- or FAX 435-259-75- 435-259-77- NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION and UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION Samuel J. and Adrien F. Taylor, Publishers Adrien F. Taylor, Editor Sadie Warner, Assistant Editor Tom Taylor Zane Taylor Ron Flanders Lisa Church Janet Lowe Jeff Richards V Circulation Manager, T- -l Maps Press, Production Manager Systems Manager Staff Writer Staff Writer Contributing Writer Dorothy Anderson Valerie Brown, Jed Taylor, Ron Drake Ron George Oliver Harris Jose Churampi Mail Room Supervisor Jose Santana ... Backshop Castle Valley Columnist Columnist Columnist Distribution 1 1 hoy A few other thoughts from the tattered old notebook include these: You can get rid of the smell of skunk on your dog by holding him in the smoke of burning cedar and leaves. Also, magicians, w and rulers carry scepters as emblems of their power. But no king ever felt more powerful than a man with the TV remote clutched in his hand, nor more impotent than when someone else has it. And, finally, this note, My body is like an old truck. It still runs pretty well but it creaks, rattles and groans, and most of the seals are loose." High Country News Writers on the Range Gardening old-styl- with my great-uncl- e by Dustin Solberg Alfred gave me The other day my a handful of the years green beans, dried and ready for planting next summer. Give them something high up to grow on, he told me. Theyll grow 7 feet tall." Alfred knows. Hes planted this variety in his garden for seven years now, every year saving a bit of his harvest for the next years seed. And for good reason: This variety is resistant to a common garden pest known as the black aphid. As green beans go, this is a true green bean. Its flat pod is delicate and tender, its fresh taste sublime in a salad. The pulpy beans in the more produce aisle of your supermarket are a distant relaroadworthy than tive at best,. Alfreds green beans have a history that goes back 60 years. That's when his neighbors settled in the Seattle, Wash., neighborhood where he still lives. They were Greek immigrants, and a satchel of seeds w as tucked in the luggage they carried. These beans had come from the old country, a place where vegetables are precious, almost like gems never just commodities to be bought and sold. Like his Greek neighbors, Uncle Alfred saves seed every year. As a kid on the farm, this is how Alfred learned to prepare for the coming year: You save the best of the crop. Its natural, like breathing. In Guatemala, Mayan subsistence farmers hang next years seed, the most perfect ears of yellow, white and blue corn, from the beams of their adobe homes. On the Great Plains, farmers fill 10,000 bushel-silo- s with saved seed. And in a quiet Seattle neighborhood, Uncle Alfred keeps a neighborhood tradition alive by saving a few strings of beans for next years garden. Every seed contains a genetic signature Alfred's green beans included that does not belong to anyone. This signature is as public as the air we breathe. Yet recently, U.S. companies such as Monsanto have won permission to patent the genetic signatures contained within their genetically engineered seeds. In this way, business is now selling what has never before been up for sale. Its changing the way we grow our food. Private ownership comes at a price that the public relations machine of the biotech industry neglects to tell us. Whats at risk is the millennia-oipractice of saving seed. Thats because when farmers plant genetically-engineeregreat-uncl- Brick Bats and Bouquets son, who prides himself in being able to about anything, has a personalized plate just that says, ICNFX1T The plate on my Dodge pickup say s, ACCESS," w huh means a lot to me 1 thought of another a couple of wee ks ago but doubt that it w ill ever get used It is UNSUNG It would be appropriate for lots of people Another note to myself in this tattered little book is to w rite a poem about a Mormon cowlaiy who loves the outdoors, the romance of campfires, starlight, Dutchoven cooking, and the hard, dirty, sweaty work a cowboy does All the while he is worried about Sunday when he w ill have to go to church, maybe to preside, teach, speak or sing, all things cow boys arent supposed to w orrv about The opening lines would go something like this, Heres the tale of an occupation, A tale with a Utah complication. Maybe Ill w rite it some day I came across something I wrote when must have been feeling particularly harried, something that happens all too often these days. The note says, Life is a burning building and they keep sending me in to answer the phone Here is something I found under Wisdom of The Ages." It is a statement by Barbaras grandmother, Agnes Burnham Slade. She said, You should never end your family with a Iniy You always spoil the baby and nolaidy likes a spoiled My fix e garden-variet- table-read- well-oile- y y d d d e Alfred in Seattle crops such as corn and soybeans, they are no longer allowed to put aside the best of their crop for next year. Put another way, if Uncle Alfreds green beans were an engineered variety, hed be breaking the law by saving them. The patented plants were talking about boast some unusual characteristics that border on science fiction. The leaves of the new Monsanto corn contain a bacteria that wards off insect pests. Its considered a plant that packs its own pesticide. Whats worrisome about these genetically engiabilineered varieties of corn is that their i ties can spread to other plants. This means that this terminator technology could end up in a neighbors crop, and in the era of globalization, your neighbor doesnt necessarily live next sci-f- door. Genetically engineered corn has appeared in the crops of subsistence farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico, though nobody knows how it got there. The new technology has tipped the cart of the world's farmers. All of the traditional varieties could be lost, says seed collector Kent Whealy. Genetic contamination means that Monsanto could control all the seed a farmer could save. He ought to know. For more than 20 years, Seed Savers Exchange, he has run the Iowa-base- d a nonprofit group with a collection of more than 20,000 varieties of heirloom seeds. By collecting these varieties, Seed Savers hopes to preserve seeds that could otherwise go extinct as manipu- lated varieties spread. Whealy says there is something consumers can do. We can follow the lead of the European Union and ask decision-maker- s in Washington, D.C., to require the labeling of all foods containing engineered ingredients. We can also press food companies to stop including genetically engineered ingredients in their products. Its time to act: Our supermarket shelves are already full of genetically engineered ingredients while the jury is still out on whats safe to eat. Labeling genetically engineered foods is a step towards educating consumers about w hat theyre feeding their families, and how corporate agriculture is changing the way we grow our food. Dustin Solberg is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country Neu s in Paonia, Colorado (hcn.org). He is a Westerner temporarily living in Decatur, Georgia. |