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Show May ,15-Ma- y 21, 1980 7D FOCUS cont. ... Valle-H- i, time, Irma had returned to live in Salt Lake and leased the place to Walley and Janice Rise, a young couple rrom Park City. Walley restored the bar business and the presence of Janice and their infant daughters gave a homey feeling to the Cafe. One afternoon, 1 rushed out of the apartment on my way to work in Park City. The two doors on the stairway slammed behind me, and just as I opened my car door, a voice bellowed, Hey Pardncr! The accent was Southern, I turned to see a thin hot faced man in a on the upper porch. You know a man's got to get some sleep, and if you slam that door one more time. Im going to have to do somethin about it, you when Barbara got tired of listening to him, he bought a1 parrot and spent a lot of hours teaching him how to cuss at the customers when they entered the door which became a less frequent occurrence each day. Barbara, honey, get this man a glass here so he can have a drink of this here poison, will you?" Red plopped down a half gallon of Ten High whiskey in front of me. I had a drink and chased it with beer and then the group of us shot pool till early morning. Two weeks later, I came home late and had to grope in the dark as there were no lights. Red and Barbara had split the country after compiling a grocery bill the length of a novel and Janice moved to Park City. Everyone else was moving out and so was I. Why did I. go back to the Valle-H- i a year and a half later? I ' simply needed a understand. Later that night. I found his name was George Urban and he was a driller from a coal mining family in West Virginia. We shot pool and. became good friends.' George had followed a Southern Irishman named' .Red out West to work as drillers in the Ontario Mine. The mines had recently dosed and the miners who used to cheer up the place now brooded over their beers. Walley headed to. Nevada to work in the mines entrusting the place to Red' and his girlfriend, Barbara. Next to drinking. Red enjoyed talking the most and place right away and I figured here was a vacancy. The place was rapidly deteriorating. I got the same room I had when Irma was . there. The china closet still stood neatly in one corner of the kitchen and a sofa had been added to the front room. Rust was lining the plumbing and paint peeled from the shower stalls. The furnace kicked on less often and the fumes were bad. I started using the oven to heat the place in the An early post card depicts the motel around 1950. Photo by Ken Webb. morning. Nearly everyone else had burned their ovens out by now. Ken Christiansen, Irmas oldest son, ran the place with his wife, Debbie. The affable manner of Ken and the smile of his attractive wife, helped light up the place, but it was obvious the Valle-H- i was winding down. A government man had shown up a month earlier and settled on terms for - buying the place. The Christiansen family received $192,000 for the motel and three house trailers, said Ken and renters who had lived there for the previous 90 days each were promised anywhere from $3,000 to Financial Affairs $4,000 a piece for moving expenses. My timing had been off. I only got icicles hanging from the kitchen tap and cold water dripping from the ceiling. When I moved back to the Valle-H- i from a week long in December, everyone trip was moving out again, and this time it was for good. I called to my dog Fritz and turned to walk back towards the car. The grpund along the side of the road was spongy wet and little pools of water laid in my previous footsteps. 1 drove into the gravel parking lot of the Valle-H- i and stopped squarely in front of the entrance. One of the owners had built a steep over the shingled entrance several years ago giving it an alpine chalet look. The letters Valle-H- i on the neon sign were Oriental looking and the bright red Coca Cola sign Jt the top was straight American. I knew there were days when I had been happy here and days when tourists stopped oi. long summer journeys and went away contented. The stark face of the building with its patched up sides and broken glass was what confronted me now. Somehow I wasnt comfortable with the thought of the water creeping! back from the Jordanelle Dam and arriving at a pile of ashes. HOW TO LIVE ON $15.00 A WEEK IN KEETLEY, UTAH Beer Wifes, allowance Meat and Groceries Rent Coat Life Insurance on wife Cigars Movies Slot Machine ..Pinochle Account Hot Up on Horses Dog Food Snuff Poker Game $8.80 1.65 on credit pay next week .borrow from neighbors 50 .30 80 .70 .80 .70 -- .60 .40 0 THIS MEANS GOING' INTO OUT THE WIFES ALLOWANCE. . -- : , Total $16.65 CUT DEBT-- SO .taxes' AN. ACT to collect taxes in. Keetley, Utah. Line 1 How much did you make last year? Line 2 How much did you spend? Line 3 How much did you have left? (Deduct from line 1) Line 4 Send it in. An exerpt from George A. Fisher's book, Along the Road" published in 1950. The Weber River Is flowing dose to tbe top of its banks this week heralding the onset of spring. |