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Show I Opinions Page 2 Friday, July 7, 2006 The Gunnison Valley Gazette When the family gets together Just A Thought By MARK HENLINE One of the things that I truly enjoy about the 4th is the fact that it brings so many families back together. I love seeing families, sometimes 2 and 3 generations sitting together at the parade or around the table at the park. Every year, Jodi and I have a couple of our family members that come down to enjoy the fourth with us. This year, for some reason, we had the majority of both our families come down. We were able to play host to forty one people at our home this year. All in all there were 16 adults, 25 children, which included two sets of twins under a year, two dogs and seven gold fish. The worst part about having that many people over is getting ready. The whole house had to be cleaned from top to bottom. My wife even had me pull the screens of the windows and wash them. Everything has to be just right for that first impression, then when everyone arrives it goes down hill but it doesn't seem to matter. Four carloads of relatives missed the warning signs and couldn't exit on the last Nephi exit. Three of them drove down the freeway a couple miles and flipped a U turn, the other went to the Mills exit and had to backtrack into Levan. Feeding that many people is a challenge. One evening we had a big barbecue and since I would be cooking over 50 hamburger patties, I tried to save a little money and bought one of those econo boxes of patties. That was a big mistake. They were so fatty that I had a big grease fire on my hands. The flames were so hot that I singed the hair on my knuckles and arm trying to flip the patties. I ended up turning the gas off and there was still so much grease that the flame burned for another half an hour. For another meal the ladies ended up making well over 50 grilled cheese sandwiches. Then there was the endless consumption of soda pop. It's amazing how many sodas 40 people can drink in a weekend when there is a big supply. The kids just thought it was open bar. There were half drank cans of pop all over my yard. I had to pull the hose out several times to clean up the sticky spills. With that many people, parking was also an issue. There were twelve cars coming and going and jockeying for parking spots. With our guests and all our neighbors guests, the street resembled a mall parking lot. Then there's the question of bathrooms and where will everyone sleep. I don't know how the bathroom thing worked out, I think it was a small miracle. The sleeping arrangements were a little better. Between all the guests they took six rooms at the Gunnison Inn. Then we had two tents, a bunch on the trampoline and the rest all over the floor and beds in the house. I got up about two in the morning and walked through the living room and it was like tip toeing through a mine field. Even though there were challenges with the numbers, we all had fun. It's great to be with family and have good meals, play games, talk and joke around, just sit on the front lawn and watch fireworks and enjoy the parade and the festivities together. It's funny, but as quickly as they all arrived, they all left just as quickly. By 4 in the afternoon all the guests were gone and all we were left with was a huge pile of trash for the garbage man and a lot of great memories. I hope they all return again next year. The ladies celebrate the 4th Lester Hill did the auction because he talked slow and you could understand him. That young mari last night sounded like he'd been taking Elma's heart medicine. When she takes too much, she talks a mile a minute and there's no shutting her up. We took our lawn chairs By HARRIET with us for the fireworks BAUMGARTNER and we had just got comfortable when a big commotion It was just a delight- started down in the west ful 4th of July celebration. part of town. We heard the Most of us were able to at- fire engines take off, and tend the whole affair as a then the ambulance followed group. We had Edgar pick them, and then the cops folus up and we went to the lowed them. We sent Edgar park for the dinner and to find out if somebody had auction. Our club donated been run over by a burna couple of items we had ing truck and he came back made and they were sold about a half hour later and promptly once the bidding said that it was fire behind began. Esther kept asking some houses. He said some Dora who was bidding on kid was lighting fireworks our items and Dora told her in his yard and one of them that the guy was talking too shot out into the dry field. fast to makeheads or tails of Elva said it's too dry to be who was bidding. Somebody doing those things and his said the fellow talking was parents should know better the animal doctor but from than to let kids have things where I was at, it didn't look that can damage property. Kids do the stupidest like Tom Anderson to me. Thelma said she felt things. They always have. bad when the auctioneer Edgar tried to find out who asked one young girl what it was that started the fire "GIC" stood for and she but there was too much gosaid, "Gick?" Lenore yelled ing on and he came back to out and said it was the the park and told us what Implement. She yelled it he had found out. Once all at the top of her lungs. Of that nonsense got under course, those of us who are control, we were able to enolder know these things, but joy the fireworks. There is these youngsters today don't nothing more patriotic than seem too aware of what's go- those exploding colors in the ing on around them, even in dark sky. a small town like Gunnison. Edgar went over and Vera said she liked it when parked the van on Main Club News Street after he took all of us home and he set our lawn chairs out so we would have a good view of the parade the next morning. By the time we got there, we could hardly see our chairs for people standing around them, even in front of them. Sometimes people are terribly rude. It didn't take long tofixthat problem. Thelma can break wind at will, and after she's passed some air, those people who were blocking our view cleared out as fast as their noses caught a whiff. She did that just as some cows and a reindeer came by and I'm sure some people blamed the animals. Orra got hit by a Tootsie Roll that was thrown out of a pickup truck. She didn't get hurt. Elva noticed there was only one float with royalty in the whole parade, if you don't count the girls on horses. We used to have the royalty come from all the towns around, even Nephi. The girls would come in gowns or swim su ; ,a. That really caught the eye of the men back in those days. Edgar said he misses those old parades. (He might just as well come right out and say exactly what he misses.) It seems like some men just never grow up. We are discussing the idea of going to the rodeo and parade in Nephi that is coming up. Nephi has a long main street and it doesn't get so crowded. We hope everyone had a nice holiday. -Harriet Baumgartner, Reporter. hristmas In %adw "BowlContest -1963 Lorene H(ump, Cathy Wftitbcl^ %gnal&Jrandsen and Sherry Anderson Sponsored by Jratt " Paints 99c per Bottle/'Sweatshirt Fabric $2.99 yd.* All Fleece HERMANSEN'S MILL 204 South 1st East • Gunnison 528-3136 Feeds • Grain Storage • Fertilizer Seeds • Farm Supplies • Chemicals GUNNISON VALLEY 20% off! theater Quilt $4.99 yd. 90"-108" wide Saturday 83/55 Partly Cloudy Sunday 85/55 Isolated Thunderstorms Closeout Ribbon 5c yd. v LL Bean Denim Quilt by the yard Gunnison's Weather $9.99 yd. Gunnison . Telephone Co. Lace 6 Yards for$1 Resistant] Prices good throughout [UVA-Qtain .$3.99 yd the month of July while supplies last! Monday 86/55 Isolated Thunderstorms brought to you by 2 0 % off Reg. Price Outdoor fFurniture Fabric^ WEATHER Friday 80/54 Isolated Thunderstorms All Flannel Precious Moments 20% off Check out our new .Floral Prints! Lane Henderson, Publisher Mark Henline, Editor & Advertising Jodi Henline, Office Manager Call: (435) 528-5178 for subscription, news or advertising. FAX: (435) 528-5179 E-mail gazette@gteico.net The Gunnison Valley Gazette is published each Thursday by Gunnison Valley Gazette, L.LC, 194 South Main -Suite 101, P.O. Box 143 Gunnison, Utah 84634. Bulk rate postage (permit No. 11) is paid at Gunnison, Utah. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Gunnison Valley Gazette, P.O. Box 143 Gunnison, Utah 84634 Deadlines: News and advertising, close of business, Friday prior to publication. 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