This year's Pioneer Day festivities

 I had a lot going on this week!

My brother's kids who are visiting love Reggie. He sure is cute. I caught him doing a facepalm this week, and I tried to think of good captions to go with it:

Me: I work for the Church History Department
Them: Oh, have you read The Lincoln Hypothesis?
Me:

On Wednesday evening, I went with a few members of my ward to the Wilford Wood Museum here in Bountiful. I walked there for a field trip when I was in fourth grade, but it's only open by appointment (family-led tours), so I hadn't been since then. It's a series of old houses full of old Church artifacts purchased by Wilford Wood. There's even a ceiling made of rocks. All I could think was "I wouldn't want to be here during an earthquake." There's already a dilapidated storage building that apparently has been condemned. I didn't take many pictures because it seemed a little awkward to do so. It was interesting but not riveting. 

On Thursday, I was invited to a Christmas in July party with a group of mid-singles. We made creations of candy and graham crackers, and I titled mine Pioneer Day.

There was also a white-elephant gift exchange, so I took a Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook that I found at Book Garden. I ended up with the card game Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman.

Friday morning, I took a couple of hours off to go see the unveiling of the new Pioneers of 1847 Monument at This Is the Place. I got there early enough to get a decent seat. The opening prayer was offered by the president of the NAACP in Ogden; I was glad to hear an inclusive non-LDS prayer in this setting. Then Mauli Bonner, the instigator of the monument, gave a rousing speech about being inclusive from a faithful perspective. I really appreciated his remarks. (Bonner made the movie His Name Is Green Flake, which is an important movie but not a very good movie.) Then Governor Spencer Cox spoke about his pioneer ancestors, learning later in life that one of his Mormon ancestors was a slaveholder, which he found heartbreaking. His speech was good but not as good as Bonner's. Then the Bonner Family sang the original song "Child of God"; they are very talented singers. Then President M. Russell Ballard gave a few remarks before his dedicatory prayer, acknowledging that our Mormon singing isn't as good or rousing as that of Black churches. Elder D. Todd Christofferson was also there but didn't speak. So there were a few local celebrities present. In the audience, I saw Charlie Bird, the gay Cosmo the Cougar, there with his boyfriend.

After the ceremony, I said hi to a few former coworkers at This Is the Place, but I was kind of incognito with my hat, sunglasses (instead of regular glasses), and clean-shaven face. Then I went to look at the new statues. There were lots of people around, so I didn't get very good pictures.

Hark (Lay) Wales and Oscar (Crosby) Smith. They were two of the three slaves that came into the Valley two days before Brigham Young. Last year I wrote a bio for Oscar for the Century of Black Mormons database, but for some reason it was never published. Both Hark and Oscar moved to California and drifted away from Mormonism.

Green Flake is the most famous of the three slaves. He stayed in Utah and Idaho throughout his life, and he often spoke at Pioneer Day celebrations about his experience.

Jane Manning James arrived in Utah in September 1847. She was not a slave but still, of course, endured hardships.

I didn't have time to read the bios on the stones, but from what I could see, they have rather religious language. That would be fine for a monument on Temple Square, but it makes me uncomfortable that those are the bios they use at a state park.

I was so happy to see these people finally get a monument. I have long thought Green Flake (at least) should have been on the main 1947 This Is the Place Monument. But maybe they thought it would be glorifying slavery to put a slave on the monument? I don't think they excluded him for nefarious reasons, but he was still excluded.

Saturday morning I decided to participate in one of Bountiful's Handcart Days races. The only options were 5k or half-marathon. A 5k is too short for me, but a half-marathon is the upper limit of my running, and I didn't feel like doing a long, shadeless, flat run on a July morning, so I opted for the 5k. I was happy with the themed shirt and finisher medal I got. (I have been disappointed with the poorly themed Thanksgiving and Valentine's shirts they gave out at other races.) 

I ate the breakfast that was part of the race (though I felt like I was stealing from the serious runners, the half-marathoners), but then there were still two hours before the awards ceremony. Instead of hanging out for two hours, I decided to go up Holbrook Canyon for an hour. I don't go there often because it's not good for running, but it was better than I remembered. It helped that it's later in the summer, so the creek wasn't as high.

On my way back to the rec center for the award ceremony, I heard my radio clip play on KUER (local NPR station)! But then when I got there, the awards ceremony was already over. But I later learned I wouldn't have gotten any awards anyway. (Today I learned that my uncle and cousin heard my spot on the radio today!)

In the afternoon we had a delayed family party for my grandpa's ninetieth birthday. It was supposed to be on July 2, but he got COVID.

This year, Salt Lake City opted not to spend any money on fireworks, instead putting on a laser show. So I took my "posterity" to Liberty Park to see the laser show. Once it started, we were away from the action. They had a screen onto which they projected laser images while playing pop songs, and there were some laser lights up on the trees. But it was a bit underwhelming, and we didn't feel like staying to battle crowds for the whole show.

Then today, July 24 itself, has been a bit boring. But that's what happens when holidays fall on Sunday.