Americana...A Little Different, But Still Out There

 We pulled up to the diner, put the van in park. We weren't there but a minute when the young girl emerged from the building and came to the driver's side window, which I lowered. I asked for recommendations and ordered a shake, just a shake. As we waited, I gazed into the the diner, at red and white benches, formica-covered tables, and chairs unused to a year.

It was a snapshot into what life used to be, the way things once were.

In that space--at those tables--people fell in love, and hearts were broken...all over greasy food and ice cream, served in a myriad of colors and flavors. Teens met friends and parents ordered food at this singular location, a place replicated all over the country, thousands and thousands of destinations, in every city, in every state.

And it's survived for decades.

I haven't spent much time outside the United States, though I did live in Europe for a few years back in the 1980s. They can build a Pizza Hut in Copenhagen, but it's not the same. You don't have a wicked big-block 1970s muscle car pulling up, reviving the engine, and having both teenagers and the adults turn their heads in admiration or disgust (but, really admiration...). It can never be the same thing.

I don't know the history of Brigham City's Peach City, but I can imagine it's similar to that of all the other places in big cities and small towns across America. Thousands upon thousands of people consuming tons and tons of food...and the memories that endure.

We weren't allowed in the building, so we joined the other auto-bound patrons waiting for our food. I know somethings will never return to what we once considered "normal," but when all this crap has settled, I hope at least the neighborhood diner can return...to what it once was.

Brigham City Temple...

 We live approximately twenty miles from the two grocery stores from which we do most of our shopping. Because of this distance, we take our trip into town once a week--sort of like the settlers of America's history when they hitched up the horses and went to town for supplies. In or modern world, we hitch several dozen horses (fueled by gasoline and not hay...) and do the same thing.

Normally, we'd go in the mornings, but the last couple of weeks we've been driving in to Brigham City at night. And one of the incredible buildings in that city is the LDS temple. Announcement that the temple was to be built took place in August 2009. They broke ground in July the next year, and it was completed in September 2012.

Before we moved up here, we hardly ever saw the building. We'd see it whenever we drove north to Idaho, and of course, when we came back home. Now, we're seeing it at least once a week, and at night, you can actually see the double spires from our house...they're really small, but you can see the building.

A week ago, we picked up groceries from one store. As we drove away. I looked back and saw the temple spires rise above the Smiths Grocery Store. I snapped a picture and posted it with the caption "Smiths...Temple." It generated a lot of comments. I wrote what I wrote to point out the two buildings, a Smiths and a temple. I think people might have thought I meant I was implying this was one building, not two. So, instead of the Brigham City Temple, I was saying it was the Smiths Temple.

Not really what I was going for.

A week later, and without the grocery store in the shot, I found myself at an intersection with the temple and the tabernacle all lit up. I prefer the second shot, unobstructed by commercialism. Don't get me wrong...I'm not anti-commercialism, just not in the shot.

It's a beautiful building, and it looks spectacular at night.

The Room Loft...Fascinating

If you're driving from Cache Valley Utah to Brigham City, if you continue on Hwy 89 as you leave the canyon, if you look to the west you'll see the remnants of an old school, a huge school. But, it was more than just a singular building where the basics were taught, it was a campus with living quarters and an entire little town. It was home to the Intermountain Indian School. 

There's not much left of the school, a few buildings here and there, roads--some that continue through and some that go nowhere. The school was still in operation when I was in high school. Sometime after, they closed it down and leveled most of it. There's now a golf course on the land and other things, but a couple of buildings still stand, and two are used as a furniture and antique store.

And it's amazing.

The store's called The Room Loft. You enter on the main level of one long building. It's packed with furniture and decor. There's also an upstairs that holds even more things to buy. Halfway down the floor, there's a hallway that goes north and it opens up to another huge building. This is where the antiques are stored and for sale.

Again, amazing.

Unfortunately, we had to hurry back home or we could have stayed in that antique store for hours--there was so much to see, even a couple of cars were for sale.

Check the hours to make sure they're open if you want to see this store. Yes, it's a drive, but if you want a feast for the eyes, The Room Loft will not disappoint.

Something I'd Never Seen Before...

 We shop at Walmart. 

I know some of you may hate that store, or oppose it for political/religious reasons, but we choose to shop there. We did when we lived in Davis County, and we will continue to do so now that's we've moved. In Davis County, the trip took about ten minutes. Now, it's double that. Another big difference is it's almost a straight shot from our new house to the Brigham City Walmart.

And because of that, the whole valley opens up. This morning, as we made our weekly pilgrimage to the grocery and other item mecca, I saw something I'd never seen before.

We were about fifteen miles away when I first spotted it. I thought it was excavating on the mountain above Perry, Utah. It looked like a new road where new homes would be built was opening up, mostly because of the way the road switched back on itself.

But, as we drew nearer, my theory of a new housing development evaporated.

No, what we were seeing was smoke rising into the air.

Only, it rose in such a manner that was, in a word, strange.

The smoke (mostly likely weeds or other trash being burned...) snaked up into the sky, going first east, then west, then east again, then finally west. There must have been a strange wind pattern above that particular location. Since we're new to the area, I don't know if this is normal, or as strange to the locals as it was for us.

There's much to learn about our new area--didn't think wind patterns would be something I'd think about, but...well, there you go.