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Show GSMLMJ7G fJEl'JS By Marlene Haws 826-4859 marlenehcolor-country.net Memorial Day has passed once again, but it was a fun-filled fun-filled weekend, especially for families and friends. There were a lot of reunions and activities activ-ities bringing both old and young together for visiting, eating eat-ing and having good times. Due to a conflict in scheduling, schedul-ing, the annual Jared Riley Porter Family Reunion was canceled can-celed on Saturday, May 29. This diminished the numbers considerably of the people who usually spend this weekend in town. This group has brought as high as 300-plus to town in years past. The celebration began with the cowboy poetry and music at the high school auditorium on Friday evening. Part of the "Lone Hawk" group, Lynn, Mike and Brace Griffin were the opening act with songs, poetry, and even some of Lynn's art talents tal-ents and a little bit of Willie Nelson worked into the act. Quinn Griffin presented some 'cowboy poetry and Sid Mooseman recited a poem that had been written by his father, , the late Doyle Mooseman, of Boulder. Clayton Carter was a real crowd pleaser with his poetry, singing and yodeling. He is .What? 19...20? And only gets better. He gave his grandfather, DeLane Griffin credit for teaching teach-ing him to play the guitar and helping him to perfect his talents tal-ents and asked him to come on "stage and sing a song with him. Steve Downs, formerly of the tSar G Wranglers, and his family, fami-ly, of Cedar City, were the clos- : jng act. Steve has the kind of beautiful voice you could listen t to all night! I was glad to see that Steve is still singing even though he is apparently no . onger a member of the Bar G group. I hear the group has ' moved from Cedar City to . Kanab. As I sat there that night I began thinking of all the years that my sisters and I have sung ' together and participated in programs, pro-grams, of all kinds, and it occurred to me that all at once we had been "put on the shelf!" ' Not by choice by omission. 'And about the only place we're i allowed to sing any more is at a funeral once in a while, if we're lucky! But I can still sing to myself and I enjoy that. Well, ,that was my senior moment for the week and you'll all have jhem if you live long enough! Some of the people I noticed coming into the program that night were: Ralph and Wavie Sjple from Idaho (they were ;with Betty Alvey, Wavie's sis-ler); sis-ler); DeLoy Spencer, Ogden, -'and his sister Betty Jean Dowdell, Orem; the family of ergean and Carolyn Porter: 1 Clint Porter, Enoch; Kevin Porter, Parowan; Vergeania ! Davenport and families; Roma land Ken Clark and Ruby ; Griffin, all came from St. George; Jim andJolyn Spencer, Johnny Spencer and part of his family, all of Orem; Vernon and Peg Roundy, Monroe; Gwen Lyman and daughters, Deanna ' and Rosemary, Salt Lake area; Sondra Boulter came from I Provo to visit her mom Velma i Boulter. Ben and Renee Porter had 'most of their family here and Leah and Delane Griffin had i. part of the family of Dick and Edith Sharp here from Bountiful. Kent and Laura Cottam and Kent's sister Dianna were in town, but I don't know if they were just checking on business at the Canyon Country Store or if they stayed for the festivities. I'm sure they probably visited the other Cottam families in town. ' ' Others that I noticed at the play "From Hell's Backbone to Calf Creek, The CCC Camps in Escalante from 1933 to 1942" on Saturday evening were: Howard and LaNea Munson, Cedar City; El wood and Vonda Willis, Glenwood; Warren and Kathleen Woolsey, Cedar City; the Shurtz brothers, Gordon, Ivan and Don, who were my neighbors growing up, sons of Calvin and Loreta Shurtz; Wayne and Pat Banks, St. George (I was glad to see them both "lookin' good!"); Aaron and Michelle Johnson, Cedar City; Jay Deuel and his wife, Orem; Mary Ellen Coleman and daughters, Donna Rae Barker and Valeree Davies from the Richfield area; Gene and Renon Reid, Richfield; and Diane Pierce and daughter Angela, Redmond. At the cemetery I visited with Neal Wooley, who came from Preston, Ida., especially to receive a posthumous award given to his father Reed Wooley, who spent years and years in law enforcement in both Escalante and Garfield County and was one of the peace officers offi-cers during the time the CCC's were here. Neal accepted the award for his father in the play on Saturday night. Also at the cemetery we visited visit-ed with Mac and Jo Barney, Cedar City, and Bemice Jolley, Antimony, and some of her grandchildren; Dwight and Jaleen Vance who will be spending spend-ing most of the summer at their home here; and Glade and Darlene Reynolds, Richfield. Part of the family of Ray and LeNora Griffin (but a good sized group nevertheless) met at their old family home for their first family gathering in a number num-ber of years. In attendance were Bill and Dawn Griffin, St. George, their children: Boyd and Trudy Griffin, Cleveland, their son Brink Griffin and three children, and daughter, ' Braci (?); Brian and Suelynn Griffin,' Richfield, and their family of five;' Nickie Excell, -'South -Jordan, and two daughters and a son-in-law, Justi Griffin ' and Jessie and Lex Allen' (the Allenes probably visited with Lex's parents Greg and Debbie Allen and his brother Lane, also); Evan Excell had just had surgery so stopped off in Panguitch to visit his mom Hilma Excell while the others came on over for the reunion. Eva Dean Liston had Elvon and Utahna Poulson, West Valley City, and their son and daughter-in-law, Jaron and Lesley Poulson; Jim and Lola Alvey, Mapleton had sons and daughters-in-law: Jimmy and Amy Alvey and two children, Jeramy and Lindsay Alvey, Jeffery and Malea Alvey and Jesse Alvey. Margie Ence came from St. George and had all of her family here: Rick and Karen Palmer and two sons, St. George; Gaden and Jayley Griffin and three children, Ivins; and Camille and Katie Ballard and Doug Hall, Boulder. MaeVonn Taylor's family (part of the Griffin group) had their annual family reunion of their own. Jerry and Monica Taylor and family and Jimmy and Ethel Taylor and family all from Salt Lake; Louie and Janalee Bernardo, Escalante, and family: Heath and Tiffany Spencer, Bicknell and Heather Spencer, Jared and Cody Dunton, St. George, were all there. Emmorn and Rita Dodds made an attempt to come, but had car trouble and had to return to their home in Idaho. ; Emmorn's son, Rick and family, and his daughter, Randie and a friend, were there though. I didn't get names of any relatives rel-atives who were here for the high school graduation. Tm sure there were a lot of them. ; Thais Griffin did report that she and Gene and Melanie and Jay Johnston, Las Vegas, Nev., went to American Fork for the graduation gradu-ation of their granddaughter Nesha Griffin, daughter of Gary and Sheila Griffin. Laura Richrhond, daughter of Elizabeth Richmond, was in a very bad car wreck on the "Blues" last Saturday. We were glad to hear that she came out with only minor injuries, even though her car looked somewhat like an accordion. She must know that "Somebody up there loves her and is watching out for her" after that! |