DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER - AUGUST 2011

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:
Linda, Steph and Katie had a garage sale from our front yard early in the month, and we got rid of most things as we priced everything low. What was left I took to the DI, and we now have much more room in our home. We even got rid of our old hi-fi stereo with turn table and 8 track tape! It helped pay for the new front sidewalk we had installed to replace about 50 ft. of crumbling sidewalk. The city chipped in for 50% of the cost.

I attended Mr. Wilkes funeral and viewing earlier in the month. It was good to see Brent and Karin, who we keep in touch with, as well as Julie and Hans. And to hear stories about their dad and the old neighborhood. We also attended Jenna and Eric’s wedding reception (Kirk and Carolyn’s daughter) and got to see and visit with everyone.

Linda and I went to see Josh Groben in concert. A great show! Later in the month, we took off for vacation in St. George and loved every minute. We decided to join a bus tour of historic sites one day and ended up meeting Lorenzo Snow, Jacob Hamblin (he was sent to work with the Indians), Orson Pratt, one of the early women pioneers, and Brigham Young. Instead of the lady who conducted the tour explaining everything at each stop, the key character would come out, introduce themselves, and tell about their history and what they had done for the area. We then drove to Enterprise (not from Star Wars) and attended a corn festival – old car show, arts and crafts, food and of course, corn. We also stopped on the way to visit the Meadow Mountain Massacre site. We got spoiled with two free days at the Casablanca (a Mesquite casino similar to nice Vegas casinos). And we discovered a neat little store in St. George called Judd’s, and bought some “old” candy (like the little wax bottles – about 2 inches high where you bite the top off and drink the punch inside), candy cigarettes, an original Dr. Pepper bottle with the 10 – 2 – 4 as part of the label, and a package of Neccos (the round thin flavored candy about the size of a quarter). Anyway, memory lane.

We left St. George and saw two plays in Cedar City at the Shakespeare event, Music Man and The Glass Menagerie. Both excellent, especially The Music Man. We left there and drove the back roads up the Nevada/Utah border to Wendover, Utah. There we caught Engelbert Humperdinck in concert, and celebrated our 44th anniversary. He put on one heck of a show in their new concert hall. On the way to Wendover, I told Linda we didn’t have to fill up at Ely, Nevada – it wasn’t necessary. About 25 miles out in the desert from Wendover, the gas light went on. But luck prevailed, and we made it without running out of gas. Can you imagine the headline in the newspaper? A local elderly couple perished in the hot desert terrain trying to hike into Wendover, Nevada, probably to waste away their just received social security checks. They had apparently run out of gas, and died tragically with outstretched arms no doubt trying to reach the slot machine arms awaiting them in town.

And that’s the news from Salt Lake, St. George, Mesquite, Cedar City, Ely and Wendover. Love,
Tom & Linda