Friday afternoon our family made the pilgrimage to Utah. We are planning on spending the week for the 4th July holiday. This morning I read an article in the newspaper that cracked me up ... when July begins Utah spends three weeks celebrating. Celebrating what? Under the guise of patriotism (and I don't doubt there are some sincere feelings of patriotism hidden in all of the festivities), every big and little town celebrates SOMETHING that, provided the local taxes are budgeted correctly, ends in an either "average" or "wow, that was waaaaay better than last year!"fireworks display. One would think that there could not possibly be reasons to celebrate for three straight weeks. One would therefore be wrong, and obviously not privy to the "charm and uniqueness" of all that is Utah.
Despite the obvious patriotic reasons for festive July activities, towns (large and small alike) in Utah deem this particular month as a reason to worship, better yet, idoloze, produce. Produce? Yes, produce. The briefest and easisest explanation of the phenomenon is that towns worship whatever their town grows best. The worship of the produce maye have started out small many years ago (I'm not really sure on that fact), but I know today it has grown into fulls scale madness. Not only are there parades, town celebrations throughotu the day (with overpriced vendor booths, cheap fair rides that my mom lever let us ride because as she said, "they were put together with nuts and bolts in a hurry" and therefore they would most assuredly fall apart while one of her four children happened to be riding one, chintzy entertainment by local American Idol hopefuls that missed the age cutoff date, and culminating fireworks displays. Some towns even have beauty pageants disguised as "scholarship pageants", uh-huh, whatever. Can you imagine your crown being that of "Miss Tomato Days" or Miss Cherry Days", or her royal "Miss Peach Days"?
Honestly, look it up online, I can't make this crap up ... just to name a few: Hooper, UT has "Tomato Days" down south they have "Corn Days", Brigham City, UT has "Peach Days", some town has "Strawberry Days" (according to my mom) and my little town of North Ogden, UT has "Cherry Days". Cherry Days is always celebrated on the 4th of July, so the two holidays sort of were just a merge growing up. You never celebrated the "4th of July", you went to the "Cherry Days Parade", and the "Cherry Days Beauty Pageant", you get the idea. If you grew up in Utah (as I did) you thought the worship of produce was normal ... it was not until years of living AWAY from the great state of Utah that I realized the whole produce idoolization might be a little "off".
So here I sit, home at my Mom's house, in Utah, looking forward to this weeks events and all that is Cherry Days. This year's theme is "Boots, Buckles, and Barrels of Fun!" Even I have nothing that words can properly express wondering what fool (or committee of fools as it may be) came up with that theme for the year. Where do Cherry's fit in with boots, buckles, and barrels of fun? Perhaps this week the mystery will unfold as we immerse ourseles in all that is North Ogden, Utah. My little sister Kati insists that the "mascot" for this year (a mouse in full cowboy garb riding around on a broomstick toy horse) looks like "Speedy Gonzales". I didn't even SEE a Cherry on the mascot logo (maybe Speedy ate the Cherries, and they were delicious, and now he is riding around whooping it up on his toy horse ... how does my mind even go these places, who can tell?), so I don't know WHAT'S UP WITH THAT MASCOT?!?!? I just hope there are souvenir t-shirts I can buy for the whole family to prove we were here. Mom thinks the local grocery story has them. Awesome. More, oh yes many, many more updates to come. Bet you wish you were! p.s. My mom made a homemade cherry pie yesterday ... I think one slice of her pie could bring world peace ... it makes me want to celebrate the Cherry. Go figure.
AND THE CAT MAKES 5
Caesar, aka the "CAT", donning his baseball opening day attire.
4 comments:
Where are you guys staying!! I really would love to come say hi.. PLEASE let us know.. If you're too busy I understand, we'd just love to stop by.. hubbamyers@yahoo.com
wow, I didn't know there were so many "days" here. I am only bummed I missed the Art Festival this last weekend, and I'm still trying to get the nearby towns straight. This place is nice it it's own way, but takes a while to figure out. :) Glad you are having a good visit. Wish I could meet up with you and Jen sometime, that would be fun. One of these summers, we need to have a get-together when you visit, Jen M, Jen C, Juliann, etc. Well, have a great week, hope your family is doing well, I bet they love having your angelic sweet boys around to brighten the week. :)
That was a funny post about the boys, but I don't know if you get comments when they are posted on older posts? I was just thinking, you are probably on top of it, but I wasn't. I kept pushing through my tired feelings, like most moms do. About 18 mo after eddie was born, I finally went for the stupid exam. Glad I did! my feratin (sp?) was a 3. Yeah, bad, and they said it was the pregnancy that did it, mixed with the stress of moving, career changes, etc. Just wasnted to share, just in case that was something you have not checked lately. I have to get my iron checked every 4 mo to see if I drop too low again and have to get the lovely 4 hr IV iron treatment. Hope things are going well for you, I'm still trying to get baby weight off. well, not really at this moment, but in process of it. :) take care Cort.
I haven't followed my older posts, but thanks for the advice on the iron. Pregnancy is a wonderful thing, isn't it? Grrrr ....
Cort
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