THOUGHTS & DREAMS

   I have found over the past few years that I have slowly started thinking and dreaming , more than I have been actually, doing things.

   One real big reason for this is that I have completely stopped driving. Fortunatly, however my memory has stayed with me and I can sit and dream my dreams of younger days and and recall even last week?  (some what).

   This "Blog" if I can call it that will not flow smoothly. In fact it will be all chopped up as thoughts come to my mind.

   I, like most of the people in the town I was born in, and grew up in liked to get together and have parties as there was not much entertainment, so we more or less made our own.

   I loved it when we got together for a Big Birthday Party in the younger days. As we got older, and older and OLDER, I used I liked getting together and looking at old pictures, and reading old journals, and of course I still like that!

   My home town was made up of many different nationalities, so depending on where we went to visit, we might get Greek, Italian, English or many other kinds of "goodies" before we left?

   We did not get our mail delivered to our homes. We walked uptown or downtown to the post office, opened our mailbox with a combination, took our mail (and maybe our neighbors-if they ask us to.) Then we would drop off the neighbors mail on the way back home.

There were people in town who had no cars , especially not 3 or four per house  like it is now. If someone was going to the store or the Post Office they just picked up things for their neighbors then walked home carrying whatever (mail, groceries, or what ever they needed in a brown paper bag and dropped stuff for the neighbor on the way back home.

    It is strange how many memories I have about living in Hiawatha, when that was the place in my life where I spent the shortest length length of time.

   I have always loved the forests, trees and streams. To me going on a picnic in a multi colored green tree forest, topped by a robin egg blue sky and a few white fluffy white clouds thrown in was Heaven in Earth. Then if there was a trickling Stream near by that was God's gift man!

When I was about 14-16 some of my friends and I used to go hiking almost every weekend. We hiked a lot of places but a couple of places we seemed to go a lot was "Pine Springs and the old Mine portal in Mohrland. 

Maybe Hiking every weekend had something to do with being here alive and still kicking at 88?

   One of our dreams, even before we got married, was to build a mountain cabin in Joe's Valley. We even picked our a spot. However we never used that spot. We did build our cabin. At 88 I don't use it much but my family really enjoys it.

   Just a couple more comments-I have mentioned before in my Blogs that I am not a music aficionado, but several times I have listened to our Ward Choir in Church and it makes me tingle.

   If any of you old Hiawatha or Carbon County keep a blog I would like to be signed up with you

Wally Baldwin 28 Jan 2020   

    

Black Friday

                             WHAT IS THIS THING" CALLED BLACK FRIDAY"
                                                   Well it is NOT THE DOG!
   Of course like many things, to rationally discuss Black Friday could place you in a group of people who love the "modern "something for nothing group, or the "nothing is free" buy now pay later group'. I suppose both of the groups are true in one way or another
   I, being born during the depression and now being (at least in thought) a member of the (Black Friday) group Vicariously, I often which group I enjoyed the most?
   My first thought was that I cannot really judge that, because they were different, different places and many different people?
    The name "Black Friday" actually took hold in the 1950's and was an immediate hit for the merchants.
   I even broke down and bought my first car in the 1950"s. and so did many other people who were just trying to get there lives together after the War.
   Well back to Black Friday!!
   Advertising told us we could "buy it now and pay for it later. Almost anything was fair game. You could fight your way to be first into the store, fight your way to the check stand and if you were the first one in line it was FREE-- /well maybe?
   One of the big come-on's was, come on buy it now and keep it a month. If you don't like it bring it back.
   I keep digressing? Back to "Black Friday." Is it all bad?--In my opinion "NO". However perhaps we could find a better name for it--to me somehow Black and Friday do not seem names to ring in the Christmas Season with!
   Actually I remember the Beginning of Christmas a lot better than I do BLACK FRIDAY. with all the rushing, trying to get in and out, people shoving, trying to get in and out of traffic, some people actually fighting. Then there are the people who seemed to have been born, just to be rude. And No I am not a SCROOGE.
   I love the family groups, that mingle together in their own neighborhoods , sing carols and tell stories. We have a family group who have come caroling for years and I think the are more people than myself that wait each year for them?
   Well this started out as an epistle on Black Friday and I guess and perhaps for me to vent about a lot of things I miss about the Christmas season
   And of course NOW you pick almost anything you want, order it, pay for it by phone, have it delivered to your home, pay for it in advance and start looking for another item to buy.
   Somehow Black Friday does not make me feel all fuzzy and tingly, especially when it is tied so much  with Our Savior Jesus Christ. .

IT WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

       IT WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

          IT WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (ALMOST)

It was the night before Christmas

And all through the house

old Max was tipping over everything,

while chasing a big mouse.

The Dad of the house, usually serene,

had turned into a Monster, who was very mean.

He swung at the mouse with an Andiron Poker,

which turned the fire place into a great big smoker.

By now Max was chastised, his head between his legs.

It looked like forgiveness. He had stated to beg?

Then the back door flew open, and in stomped Meg.

Tell me I am in the wrong house she started to beg.

Grandpa set by the TV asleep, so it seems.

Then one eye popped open, and he let out a scream.

“Where is my Jitterbug, the phone that I love.”

“Meg said, Look out Gramp, it’ falling from above”.

As the phone hit the floor, with its incessant ring

Someone said,  “turn off that blasted thing”!

Meg. hurrying, stumbled and fell on her nose,

And now there was red stuff all over her clothes.

There was a large BOOM and the door did fall.

Then the people inside started to yell.

The police told Meg it was not blood, just cranberries.

The door rang again and Meg. Answered it and yelled----

  DAD IT’S THE HOME TEACHER’S!!!!!

W.R.Baldwin  Nov. 2019

               

Happiness / vs/ Joy

        Happiness /vs/ Joy

   I Met an old acquaintance and after giving each other a big clap on the back, we were both grinning like “the Old Proverbial Cat.”

   After chatting a few minutes “Terrell”, made the comment”, Bill you were always the happy guy in our school years and I always wondered how you kept up that big joyous smile. In fact even in our old age, a few of us have commented about how happy you always were? I recall you used to call it your “Joy Smile”. And of course all of your friends called it your “trouble smile”

   We chatted a while and then parted ways as he went down the street with his “smile of joy and I went across the street with my happy face.

   I had only gone a short way when my inquisitive mind started working. The question that popped out was two-fold, “what is Joy, and what is happiness, and are they different for everyone or are they just different for certain people? Or perhaps they are not different at all”?

   Then I wondered are they built into everyone’s Psyshe ,
and does it change as we get older? Then the question arises---“When are you the happiest? Then Does Happiness and Joy both change as we get older and do they change together?

    Do you have friends or a job, or siblings that make you happy or sad just by having them, as friends?

   Are we HUMANS constantly or even occasionally, changing the written meaning of happiness and joy? If we are not do we at least change some?

   Then a Big question? Would you like someone like you for a friend? Would you like to associate with the person you are RIGHT NOW?

   As we travel down memory lanes do we end up on different paths of happiness or joy, for different reasons?

   One example would be I had a stroke several months ago. While I was in the care center I imagined several times that someone came in and borrowed some of my memory bank and they have not yet brought it back! Then a while later they came back and got part of my vision, so I OWE the people who stood by me a GREAT BIG THANK YOU.

   At this point I am not sure how much of my JOY & HAPPINESS I have regained, but I do know I have regained my sense of humor and I want to thank all of you who have put up with me and my so-called sense of humor.

THANK YOU 

Wally or Wallace or Touche

9 November 2019   

THE EMPTY HOUSE

THE EMPTY HOUSE

   Yes it is an empty house. Well it is empty of people at least. No people have lived here since the last Baldwin left in 2019. The last Baldwin to live there was the Dad. He suffered a stroke in 2019 and moved in to an apartment at the home of his eldest daughter. The Wife, Mother, Grand Mother and Great Grandma (all the same person) all left us in 2012. Then the Big Brother of the family left us in 2013. Our youngest Grand Daughter left just 4 days old in 2008.

   So has the old house been sitting empty? No it sits inside four walls so to speak, but it is not empty. It is full of memories and perhaps even some Spirits on the other side? The Father probably feels the loneliness the most. After all he has lived there longer in that old house than any of the rest of the family has?

   So what does he do in his spare time, when he used to read, write and   study? He does a lot of the same things. He reads, writes, studies. He also likes to visit, reminisce, dream dreams and look for dead people in his computer. Looking for dead people is kind of a family joke that is the answer to MANY Genealogy questions.

   The Dad loves to talk and he does so with anyone who even gives him the slightest open to rattle on about any subject you would desire! He also assure’s the family he DOES talk with he departed wife.

   When he goes around opening closed doors and windows in the old empty house, he does not know what he will find because most of the time he does not know what he is looking for?

   The family says to keep watch when at the old house as you will probably always get a hug.

   Different thoughts and actions burst in on you as you enter the different rooms and Dad’s office. The office is a gold mine for information about the family----and some of it is probably even true?

   Imagine most of the toys that were purchased for the “Seven Littles” have now been passed on and replaced by more and different ones. Of course you may still find a teddy bear, baby doll, or piggy bank  if you search hard enough in the “old junk-room or under the old fold up bed.  

   However I think most “stuff” has been recycled or replaced or just  transferred to new homes.

   The center of attraction in the Old Empty House, and has been for many years is a sliding rocking chair, in the front room. I am sure that since I have left, the old “glider has also or soon will”. I suppose it will be sorted out to some family member, friend, children or that receiver of all things old, the Garbage Truck.

   But when the infamous day comes when the last old; treasure is gone the Earth will still keep turning; Life will still keep moving on. I suppose some things with sentimental value will perhaps pass on to be kept, or perhaps not?

Life in Mohrland & Hiawatha JPG

                    LIFE IN MOHRLAND & HIAWATHA

I was born in my parents’ home, on the side of a hill.

My Mother’s name was Bertrude, and my Dad was Bill.

There was no hospital in the town you see.

But it was good enough for the birth of my friends and me.

My dad taught school there for several years.

Would we have enough to eat was one of our fears,

Especially during the cold depression years,

Sometimes a lack of food caused us real fears.

In my teens things got better, food seemed to abound,

But of course, not in the winter, in that cold white ground.

I started School there with the best kids in the State

And our athletic teams also deemed the best in the State.

My first adventure on a sleigh was no fun at all.

On the same hill I was born on I took a great fall.

The sleigh I was riding, was made to be slick and fast

But the garbage can lid was anchored like a big mast.

I have worn a scar on my nose,--- 70 years now it seems,

Perhaps to remind me, of my sleigh-riding dreams.

I sit here with Myrtle, her pictures and stuff

And it makes me realize that life was not so rough!

         (myrtle is the name of my computer)

       Wallace R. Baldwin 23 October 2019

An Oquirrh LakeTale

Everyone knew there was something strange about Oquirrh Lake from the first time they saw it up until the present day. I am not talking about the name, which is strange in itself. I am talking about some of the happenings that have come to light recently! Of course everyone did not become acquainted with Oquirrh Lake at the same time but it seems many people have a story to tell?

When people get together in the community of Daybreak it just seems like Oquirrh Lake seems to become one of the topics of conversation?

No matter how many people get together just to talk they all seem to have a story or a tale about the big lake at Daybreak.

I guess first of all the question needs to be asked, “who ever heard of a lake with a plastic bottom?”

Well John J.___ knows why it was built that way and he does not think it is the reason that they tell us? They tell us it was built that way to keep the water from seeping out, but John knows different! When they were first digging the big hole, even before they put the plastic down and started to fill it with water John had an experience he does not like to talk about and even tries not to remember.

He was walking his dog one night and as he looked over toward the big hole in the ground that was soon to become Oquirrh Lake he saw a strange sight. There was smoke coming out of the cracks in the ground. It looked like smoke but John says it also looked like steam and it seemed to give off a vapor. In fact it looked moist and it had a horrid smell.

John decided to walk over and have a look to see if he could tell what was going on. When he took his first step into the hole he heard a blood curdling noise that did not sound human but it also did not sound like an animal?

Needless to say the dog walking was over for the night and John almost ran all the way home dragging his dog behind him. The dog kept stopping and turning back toward the hole and barking and yelping then putting his tail down and running right along with John.

Of course John thinks the plastic it to keep whatever is under the lake there forever. He has told me he hopes he never sees it or hears it again!

John would probably never thought about it again if he had not been talking to Cory B.__ down by the elementary school one day and he casually mentioned the story to Cory.

Cory then told him his story-----. I was coming home from the airport one night and it was late. Actually a little after midnight and as I passed the lake I thought I thought I heard a siren so I pulled over to the side of the road and stopped as I had been taught to do. However no one passed me and I could not see an emergency vehicle anywhere but I could still hear the wailing.

I opened the door to see if I could determine where the noise was coming from. Not only was the screeching, siren type noise still there I also saw a vile green mist rising out of the lake and moving toward the road where I was parked. I rushed back to the car and opened the door and jumped in but then I realized the green mist had already started to seep into the car. I slammed the door. As I did there was a shrieking scream like I have never heard before and never hope to hear again. The only thing I can imagine was that when I slammed the door it must have caught whatever the green mist was and that was what set off the scream.

Of course Cory had never mentioned to anyone because he did not think they would believe him. However he knows the thing is still there because he has seen that green vapor-like mist from an airplane as he has flown into Salt Lake on late night flights. He says, “No I do not know what it is, but I hope I never see or hear it up close again.”

In 1938 there was a miner by the name of Ralph Jones who worked at Kennecott. He lived down by the Jordan River. He did not have a car so he rode his horse to work at the mine. He rode it up and back every day, winter and summer.

Ralph stayed to himself and never bothered anybody and he was a good conscientious worker. Everyone liked Ralph and his boss at the mine always said he could do the work of two men.

That is why it was so strange to everyone when one day Ralph did not show up to work. After he did not show up for three days a couple of the guys decided they would follow his horse tracks to his old home and see if they could find out what had happened to him.

It was early spring, March I think, and the ground was moist so it was easy to follow the tracks of Ralph and his horse. He and his horse had been coming and going on this same trail for several years but because of the moist ground it would be easy for the men to tell which were, the new hoof prints.

Well just as planned after work that night a couple of the guys left the mine and followed Ralph’s tracks until they were almost to his house. They went up a little hill and down into a small ravine and in the bottom the tracks just ended? No more tracks, no more Ralph and no more clues.

That is there were no more clues for years until a couple of months ago? Nancy M.__ and Jan C.___ were out jogging around the lake and they noticed some bubbles coming up in the water out near the middle by the bridge. They also noticed that all the seagulls flew off and none would go back to that spot on the lake. They kept flying around and around and squawking at each other but they would not land on the water.

Well Nancy was the adventurous type and she told Jan they should go down by the lake and see if they could tell what was causing the bubbles? Jan was not so sure she wanted to go. All the squawking of the gulls had made her a little uneasy. However she did not want Nancy to think she was a “wimp” so she said. “OK let’s go.”

As they took a few steps toward the lake Jan stopped in her tracks and yelled to Nancy, “did you hear a horse noise that sounded like he was in pain or something?” Nancy told her she thought she had heard something but she was sure it was just the wind. Jan thought to herself, “what wind?” Then they both thought to themselves, “How could a horse be in the lake?”

Since they had started toward the lake they decided they might as well try and find out what was causing the bubbles coming up out of Oquirrh Lake? They got close to the edge and the water started to boil, it turned a murky green color, steam come to the surface and the putrid smell almost made them sick. Then they heard the horse noise again and the voice of a man that was almost not human. It was a scream and a bellow and a yell all at the same time. It sounded like someone or something caught in a trap. “LET ME OUT, I CANNOT STAND IT FOR ANOTHER MINUTE. I HAVE BEEN PUNISHED ENOUGH! I AM RALPH JONES AND I HAVE LIVED IN THIS HELL HOLE WAY TO LONG! HELP ME OUT NOW OR BOTH OF YOU WILL REGRET IT!”

Of course no one knew why Nancy and Jan’s families moved to Cedar Hills so quickly? I suppose no one would ever have known their story if someone from Daybreak had not met them in the mall one day and heard their story. They said they finally decided to move for several reasons? They never could understand why, after that night only their windows would shake and rattle when there was no wind blowing. They also wondered why the mist would come out along their sidewalks and not near anyone else’s?

I suppose Ralph and his horse are still under Oquirrh Lake and on a breezy summer night the smell sifts through Daybreak. Of course everyone says it is the compost operation out to the south west but Nancy and Jan swear it smells just like the lake did on THAT NIGHT.

W.R. Baldwin