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Show Rain, but not on my parade By M.AKC'KLI.A WALKKK Did you get caught in the downpour down-pour last Thursday evening? I guess it was worse in Orem, but if it was it must have been something. It was terrible in Pleasant Grove. The water flowed into the low spots, washed over curbs and ran across lawns. Cars on State Road 89 looked like Miss Budweiser at full speed as the plumes sprayed up on each side. I didn't ask Frank if they had any problems with the drainage in other places in the city, but they probably did. A lot of rain fell in just a short span of time. In the past week we have had a lot of rain storms and lots of lightning. I am not good in lightning. It isn't bad to watch from the front porch when it is out over the Oquirrh mountains but when it is flashing around in your back yard, or nearly, it does not seem so good. There are two good things about the storms. One is that they cool things down a little, at least until the sun comes out and things get real muggy. The other is that you do not have to water the lawn for a day or two. The bad things about them are p.g. hUih numerous. They rain out ballgames, they rain out picnics, lightning strikes people and trees and does damage, they get your seats wet if you leave the car windows down and your bed wet if you leave the bedroom windows open. I hope it does not rain today. It is the Hyrum Wright family reunion and it-is planned as an outdoor activity. ac-tivity. We want people to visit the old homestead, to visit the cemetery, and to visit with each other. Rain would not help a lot. There will probably be a lot of family reunions today. Remembering our pioneer heritage, if we have one, is of prime importance on Pioneer Day, July 24. I have no Utah pioneer ancestors. I cannot join the DUP or stand in church and talk about my grandmother grand-mother who walked across the plains. I could tell of my greatgrandfather great-grandfather filling a wagon with family and belongings and traveling from Green County, Indiana to Maryville, Missouri where my ancestors settled. I don't even know how the Youngs, my mother's side, got to Missouri. Probably the same way. As you know, the Walkers' and the Wrights were among the early settlers in the Pleasant Grove-Lindon Grove-Lindon area. It has been kind of fun getting involved with a family that has pioneer ancestors and hearing all the stories that go with it. It is fun to read in Henson Walker's memoirs about the Indian battle at the top of Battlecreek and learn all about the old fort, the experiences ex-periences with the Indians, and the early schools and stores. Grandfather Wright planted manv of the trees at the old Third Ward and it is neat to stand under them and try to picture him planting them all those years ago. The Wrights came from England and so there is more to their tab than just coming across the plains They crossed the ocean, too. I have a great-grandfather who crossed the ocean. He was stowaway on a ship coming froni England to America. He served in the Civil War and was not even an American citizen. I have always tried to imagine him leaving his Yorkshire home, slipping unnoticed onto a ship leaving porf and never returning to see his family again. 3 He did have a brother who came to America to lecture and happened to be in Chicago at the time that Mrs O'Leary's cow tipped over the lantern and burned up the place. He was never heard from again. All of this is a far cry from the weather that I started to talk about at the beginning of this epistle. Let's all wish for good weather for today shall we, and it will still turn out the way Mother Nature wants it. |