The pie is a lie!

Pioneer Day is only my sixth-favorite holiday, and in many ways, I feel like it's only a partial holiday. But since I'm writing a book on it, I feel partial ownership of the day.

(Now, you might ask, if it's only your sixth favorite, why are you writing a book? Well, first of all, no one else has done it. And second, I'm familiar with the necessary sources. If I were to write a book about, say, the history of St. Patrick's Day, I wouldn't know where to begin.)

I had to work on Pioneer Day, but I work in a pioneer place, so it's not too bad.

Getting to work was a problem, however. The Deseret News Marathon (which began in 1970) was going along Foothill Drive. If you Googled the route of the marathon, the map on the Days of '47 website was wrong. They did that last year too. Get your act together!

I was stationed in the barbershop that day, which isn't my favorite site to work in. But it occurred to me that it might be a better site for a busy day, because the print shop gets super hot and I get stressed out weighing too much "gold" in the bank. It was a little intimidating when the CEO brought his grandsons in for "shaves." I've heard stories about him being nitpicky when people don't do things how he thinks they should be done. But he said it was the busiest Pioneer Day crowd they had had.

I assisted with firing the cannon, which is a tradition that goes back to the very first July 24 celebration of 1849. (It wasn't called Pioneer Day until the 1870s.) We also had a mini parade that was meant to replicate the first procession of 1849. (They weren't called parades at that time.) I got the men to carry copies of the Declaration of  Independence and two of the women to carry copies of the Book of Mormon, since that's how it started. I was annoyed when one of my coworkers was trying to make the ladies go first. I kept insisting that it wasn't historically accurate! (It also isn't inherently more polite.) But the person in charge made the men go first, thankfully.

Since we had small numbers and limited resources, we couldn't make it identical to the first procession. But in a way, that makes it historically accurate. Many smaller celebrations would replicate the Salt Lake procession using what they had. For example, it was typical to escort Brigham Young to the meeting grounds. An 1856 celebration aboard a ship had a procession with fewer people, and they escorted the ship's captain to the meeting place.

I wanted to do something for Pioneer Day that I hadn't done before, so my options were to go to a rodeo or go to a Pie and Beer Day event. I despise beer and drinking culture, but honestly, a rodeo didn't sound much better. (Rodeos have been part of the celebration since the 1930s.) I searched for Pie and Beer Day events. I was surprised there weren't more events; most of them were prohibitively expensive, far away, and/or at inconvenient times. But I found that Quarters Arcade Bar was having a Pie and Beer Day thing going on.

So down I went into the dark, smelly place and showed my ID. It turns out all they were doing was a discount on beer. There was no pie at all! How can you call that Pie and Beer Day?

So I walked past several bars downtown. Often bars have signs out for special events (e.g. St. Patrick's Day), but none of them had signs out for Pie and Beer Day. Of all businesses, bars would be the ones who would benefit the most from such a "day." In fact, there were at least two bars that were closed for the day, and one of them even said it was closed for Pioneer Day (not Pie and Beer Day)!

I only found one place that claimed to do anything, Maxwell's, which is apparently both a bar and a restaurant, depending on which door you enter. (I didn't see the restaurant door.) Their sign out front had a fruit pie, but inside, there were no fruit pies (that I could tell). Their only pie was pizza, which is what they sell all the time. They had a slight discount on it, but only if you bought a whole pizza. So I ordered a slice of pizza and called it good.

All this taught me something. There is a lot of publicity about Pie and Beer Day, but it really isn't a thing. A few places have events for it, but it's not a widespread thing. Pioneer Day, the OG, is still the bigger event.

I have mixed feelings about Pie and Beer Day. On one hand, it makes me mad that people feel they have to make a separate day. Utah exists because of pioneers. Just because you might not share their faith (or you might disagree with it) doesn't change that fact. So why can't you appreciate what they did? (I also despise drinking, and I have a tremendous amount of schadenfreude for drunk people, but those are tangents for another day.)

On the other hand, it seems to make people more aware of the holiday, whereas they might otherwise ignore it. Many of the promotional materials for Pie and Beer Day that I have seen have made reference to pioneers.

I really think anyone who is fair minded at all, or who is at all capable of rational thought, doesn't have a major problem with Pioneer Day, even if they might not enthusiastically observe it. Utah might have the biggest Pioneer Day, but communities all over the country have similar holidays.

Fireworks are illegal in my neighborhood now, which is definitely a change from my childhood. (Personal fireworks were banned in Utah in 1939, but I haven't yet found when or why they legalized them again. Fireworks have been part of Pioneer Day since at least 1870.) I decided to go on a late run on the Wild Rose Trail (with my headlamp) so I could see fireworks all over the valley. I think aerial fireworks are crazy, but it was fun to see them from far away. But I didn't watch them as long as I otherwise might have, because the mosquitoes were biting.

As I was driving home, there was a family lighting aerial fireworks, even though they live in the restricted area. If you light them where they are prohibited, you have a sense of entitlement, and at least part of you is a jerk. And I was driving in the road, and when the firework was over, a girl ran into the street in front of me! I rolled down my window and yelled to them, "That's illegal!" But in so doing, I forgot to turn on my blinker, and that's one of my major pet peeves when others do it. Oops. (I also have some schadenfreude for people who light fireworks illegally.)

No toil nor labor fear

This week at work, I was assigned to work in the pioneer drugstore for the first time ever. It was fine. But my favorite part is that there are old copies of the Children's Friend from the mid-twentieth century. (Don't ask me why; they're not period appropriate.) Those are some of my favorite old documents to look at. They're just full of vintage kitsch, and they have all sorts of weird things in them.

I didn't read this story...

...but this picture caught my attention. I don't know whether to laugh or to shudder. (1932)

Some things are still applicable today. Add Mexico, Central America, or Iraq, and this would seem very timely. (1945)

My very favorite issues are the October ones. And the food just sounds, uh, interesting? Cottage cheese and jelly sandwiches and goblin salad are certainly appropriate for Halloween, because they sound horrifying. Goblins and brownies used to be a bigger part of Halloween, before they were replaced by vampires and werewolves. (1945)

 That evening, I made cherry omelets, which are one of my favorite things to make from cherries, after I had made cherry salsa the day before. Let's face it, I like making anything with cherries. (The season has passed, but we still have lots of frozen ones.)

 Jimmy has a new spot. Isn't he adorable?

On Friday, my ward had a "campout" at the Church's Heber Valley Camp. I had the day off, so I headed up in the afternoon. I played some horseshoes, did a small hike, socialized, and listened to a motivational speaker who is a CEO. It was nice, but I expected there to be more/taller trees.

However, I did not stay the night, because This Is the Place was dedicating a new monument. Since I'm writing a book about Pioneer Day, I wanted to be there, so I didn't request the day off. I had to get to work early. After coming back late from Heber in terrible traffic on Friday night, I was super tired when I woke up on Saturday.

Imagine my disappointment when I got to work and learned that I wouldn't be able to attend the dedication. That was the only reason I didn't stay at the camp! Instead, I had to help with parking. There were lots of people coming to the park for the dedication, but there was also a company retreat happening, so I had to make sure the people were parking in the right lot. They wanted me to stop cars to make sure they were going the right way. But I really didn't feel comfortable doing that, especially when the vast majority seemed to know where they were going. So I didn't really stop them. Which made me feel like I wasn't doing my job. It was very frustrating: (1) I left my last YSA camp ever early so I could (2) wake up early only to (3) miss out on the dedication and (4) do a job I didn't want to do. Ugh. Also, I doubt anyone who got to go to the dedication is writing a Pioneer Day book.

I was helping with parking for two and a half hours before they relieved me. But the day didn't get better from there. It was half-price admission, so it was a very busy day. I was in the print shop. When I told some people it was a busy day, they said, "That's good." No. It's not good. When it's busy, it means that I can't keep an eye on people. People (mostly kids, but also adults) come in and touch everything. They remove the lock on the paper cutter and try to play with the cutter. They play with the handcart model and break it. They bump the 3-D printer, which messes up the print job (which takes hours to complete!). They drip ice cream on the floor. We have two open rooms, with a storage room in the back. Some kids will come in, ignore everything in the open rooms, then go directly to the back room and try to go in. Like, you're not interested in the open rooms, so what makes you think you'd be interested in the closed room? And the door knob came off recently, so we can't keep it closed properly, which only makes the problem worse.

And since there were people in so much of the day, I had to wear my leather apron much of the day, even though there's no air conditioning, and it's the hottest time of year. The boot shop in the park has AC, even though no one works in there, yet the print shop, drugstore, bank, and barbershop become ovens. And I was so tired. It was not a good day.

While I was at work, I got a Facebook message from one of my horse friends from back in 2012. She (Kristen) had forgotten to send me an invitation to her wedding reception. I wanted to go to it for old time's sake. But I was also planning on going to the Tabernacle Choir concert. Could I do both?

Rather than go home to change (since I hadn't brought clothes), then drive down to Gardner Village, then drive to Temple Square, I opted to buy clothes and then go to the reception without going home. I got a shirt with astronauts on it—I thought I had to get that shirt on the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing. And I went to the reception. It was good to see Kristen, as well as Carissa, another horse friend. But I couldn't stay long, because I had to head downtown.

My friend Shane had tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day concert, so he invited me and two others.

The guest artist this year was Sissel, who sang at the Christmas concert in 2006. When I came home from my mission in 2009, I bought the CD of that concert, Spirit of the Season, and to this day it's one of their best yet. In fact, I will say I like Sissel more than any other guest they've had. Even more than the King's Singers. She's a Norwegian singer with an angelic voice. It was very soothing after a hard day. It was like Christmas in July—I'm most familiar with her voice at Christmas, and she sang "Like an Angel Passing through My Room," which is on Spirit of the Season. She also sang a brand new New Year's song, which was fantastic. 

I also happened to see my cousin Lacie there. She said she expected it to be more pioneery. I've been to a few of these, so I knew it wasn't super pioneery. Yet in many ways, I thought it was more pioneery than usual. They sang "The Handcart Song" and "Faith in Every Footstep" (which are less pioneery than some of the other pioneer songs), but they also had a medley of nineteenth-century railroad songs, which I though was fitting for the year of the sesquicentennial of the railroad. (What a missed opportunity that there were no songs about the moon, since it was July 20!) And there were many references to pioneers throughout the evening, and Sissel herself said "Happy Pioneer Day!" 

I very rarely watch Music and the Spoken Word, but I had to catch it this morning because she was on again. So. Good. 

Lake

My family went camping this week. I was off on Tuesday, so I headed up straight after work on Monday to meet them in the Uintas.

When I arrived at the site of Lilly Lake, they told me we were going to try to find a site at Washington Lake instead. So I shuttled family members around while they picked a better spot. Washington Lake was lovely.

 And since the elevation is so much higher and there were still snow patches, there were still glacier lilies, which usually pop up in March down here. Last month I was surprised to see them in June, but here it was July!

I did not sleep well that night. I was on an air mattress in a tent with my dad, brother, and oldest nephew, while the rest of the family was in the trailer my folks bought last Labor Day. I had to try not to roll off the mattress or hit my brother, and my dad's perpetual cough certainly didn't help.

The next morning, I had to try to get a run in. There appeared to be a trail along the shores of the lake. So I followed it one direction, but it just disappeared, so I went the other way.

 There was a dam on the lake, but I don't know why. I went across the dam

 and across various wooden bridges.

 The trail was difficult to follow and run on. It wasn't steep or especially rocky, but it was often hard to see where it was. There were so many thawing snow patches that much of the trail was submerged or very swampy. I saw a sign for Haystack Lake, so I thought I would go there. I passed Tail Lake and then Shadow Lake.

 And then I lost the trail. Luckily, Google Maps still showed where I was (even though I was on airplane mode), so it showed me I had gone the wrong direction. I went backwards and found the real trail and made it to Haystack Lake. It was pretty, but all those Uinta glacial lakes pretty much look the same.

 My feet did get wet, but I did try to stay out of the puddles (even though I know that's bad for the trails and landscape).

I went 5.8 miles, but it was a very slow pace, since so much of the journey was soggy and confusing.

Later in the day, I rowed across Washington Lake in our inflatable boat. I do enjoy lakes, even though they also kind of freak me out.

Next to our camp site, we had a giant puddle. We could hear frogs ribbiting, which was charming. But it also meant lots of mosquitoes—not so charming.

I went home Tuesday night, since I had to be at work earlier on Wednesday. But I planned to go back up after work on Wednesday. I started heading up Parleys Canyon when my family called and told me that they were headed home, so I got off on a random exit to turn around.

I really am overqualified at my job, so it's refreshing when I get to tell people some of the things I've learned professionally. Apparently there was a model railroad convention in Salt Lake, so we had lots of non-Utahn folks who asked about "Deseret." I also had a woman who was a descendant of Francis Hammond. He went on a mission to the Sandwich Islands in the 1850s, and I cited some of his story in The Saints Abroad. Unfortunately, I didn't get to have a very long conversation with her, because it was the beginning of a very busy hour and a half where I had nothing but people wanting me to weigh their fool's gold.

On 7-11, my family went to get free Slurpees. I technically can have Slurpees in the summer, but I haven't had the Slurpee brand in three years, though I had some other brands with Halloween flavors in the fall. So instead I got some red, white, and blue candy. At least 7-Eleven is contributing something during this dearth year of patriotic treats!

Today I attended my home ward to hear my mom speak, and I was happy that during this Pioneer Day season, they sang two pioneer hymns. My own ward is terrible at selecting seasonal songs.

But my nephews headed back to California today. It's fun having them around. But at least now they're old enough that they don't change as much between visits. 

Announcing

Monday started a new month! I always get excited with new months. I like every month except January and February.

Tuesday was my day off, so I ran up North Canyon. It was a hot day, but it was uneventful. On my way back, on the dirt road, I saw a snake in the road, so I stopped dead in my tracks. I went over to the other side of the road and walked past, looking for a rattle on the tail. Sure thing, there was a rattle, and it rattled at me! Eek! I had never seen a rattlesnake there.

On Wednesday, I took my niece and nephews up to North Salt Lake's annual fireworks after getting them shaved ice. I love this tradition. I love that everyone can gather for this community event and have fun on a summer evening.

I had to work on July 4, but there are worse places to work on the Fourth. And in some ways, I'd rather be working on the holiday than doing nothing. They have a tradition of firing an anvil. They put an anvil on the ground, put gunpowder on it, then put another anvil on top, then light a fuse. The first time they did it, there was an explosion, but the anvil didn't launch, so they did it again. The second time, my coworker was running away when it went off prematurely! Fortunately, no one was hurt.

It was a rainy day. I don't ever recall a rainy Fourth of July (though it rained on July 5, 2012). I came home and roasted hot dogs on the grill; I wanted to roast star-shaped marshmallows, but I didn't have the patience.

 I also made cherry chocolate crisp.

Then we went to my sister's house to light fireworks. I love lighting fireworks because it's such a traditional part of the holiday, and I love that the entire street is having one giant pyrotechnic party, but I don't love the fireworks themselves. I don't get why people illegally light them at other times of the year.

Also, it infuriates me that people light fireworks where they aren't supposed to. What entitled jerks! I hope they get hefty fines and minor burns.

You all know how I feel about holiday-themed treats, and unfortunately, this has been a terrible year for patriotic candy. Shopko usually had the best selection, but they don't exist anymore. Many of the old standbys have been either discontinued or impossible to find (such as patriotic Twizzlers, Trader Joe's Shooting Stars, Tootsie Roll Pops, Baskin Robbins America's Birthday Cake, and more). Oh well. There are a few things that are still around.

Now that the Fourth of July is over, we have entered the Pioneer Day season. I love the sunflowers that spring up spontaneously at this time of year. One of the best things about sunflowers is that they have a very long season.

 I am really annoyed that this kitten calendar I have lists Nunavut Day on July 9, but it does not list Pioneer Day. Nunavut has less than forty thousand people. Utah has more than three million. What idiot is making this calendar?!

And now I am announcing on my blog a project I have been working on. Last year, I read a book on the history of Thanksgiving. Then in July, I thought, "Next I should read a book on the history of Pioneer Day. But there is no such book. Someone should write one. And that someone could be me."

So, over the past year, I have done a lot of research. In the spring, I often went downtown to the Church History Library to look at their sources. (My nineteenth-century research was in the public domain and could be done online, but most of the twentieth century is too old to have originated online, but too recent to be in the public domain.) I have learned something about nearly every Pioneer Day from its beginnings in 1849 to the present. I have begun drafting some of the book chapters. But last month, I visited with some of my colleagues, and they suggested that I could write a journal article first, then a book later. So I have already written a very, very early draft of the article. I haven't wanted to announce this on the internet before now, because I wasn't committed, and I didn't want anyone to steal my idea. But now I have made so much progress that I feel more comfortable talking about it. When I'm in the print shop at work, I'm allowed to use the computer to work on my research. In fact, I might know more about Pioneer Day than anyone else in the world.

Still, I don't want to talk too much about my findings because I don't want anyone to steal my research.

My project is still a long ways out. But I'm really happy with the progress I have made.

Do you have any questions about Pioneer Day that you think I should address in my book?