It's Strange...Seeing The End Of An Era

 When you've lived for almost six decades, you're old enough to see things. You see people--parents, kids, yourself--grow and change. You see trends in fashion, cars, communication, almost everything, change. Things get really interesting when you see the complete life cycle of a thing like the popularity of a song or movie...

Even how people shop.

A few months ago I stood in the nearly empty halls of a once great institution.  Many may not think of it as such, but to the millions of people who entered the halls and shops of the Cache Valley Mall, the place was important...

Important in ways we've most likely forgotten.

I'm sure malls existed before me, but I remember they became popular in the 1970s, and by "popular" I mean, they started building them where I lived. Bountiful Utah had a mall called Five Points Mall. It was, well...sorry for those who loved the place, but it was not impressive. They did have a huge Hallmark Store, though...I remember that. They also had a theater where I did a show while in high school, and they had Top Hat Video, a store that outlived the mall in which it once resided. 

The next best mall near where I lived was in Layton, the apt-named Layton Hills Mall. I spent a good share of time in that mall, not slumming, but shopping. We even watched movies in the near by theaters.

Over the years and decades, malls have fallen into disfavor with the public, so much so, that many are closing. The mall I visited in January was the Cache Valley Mall and it's slated for demolition. 

End of an era.

I've lived long enough to see malls crop up all over the world, the malls put other businesses out-of-business, achieve huge success, then eventually close due to the changing habits of the consumer.

I didn't frequent the Cache Valley Mall enough to say I'll miss it. I know there will be times when I will miss what made malls great in the first place...the ability to find so many things you need (and many you don't...) under one enormous roof.

I wonder how long it will be until we will wish malls once again dotted the landscape, which may never happen.

Time will tell.

Time For Some Additions...

 I noticed an ornament hanging on our Christmas tree the other day, and one thing came to mind...

There's been some changes since then.

Life's funny. Sometime it seems like life moves slow. The busy work season of the year crawls, hot summers and cold winters seem to take forever to end, but then you turn around and it's ten years later...a decade has passed. It's a good thing we have kids because to them, ten years is half their lives (a little more, a little less...). Ten years ago I started attending writing symposiums and writing conventions as an attendant and participant.

Then years ago, our youngest was nine years old.

Fast forward a decade and our youngest is in trade school. Our next youngest is married, our next youngest/second oldest is helping create video games and getting paid for it, and our oldest is married and has become a father himself.

You look at our Christmas ornament and you see none of that.

But, that's what ornaments are, really...just snapshots of what life was like at the time. They're reminders of the life that is when they're first introduced, and what life has become as they age a year at a time...

Kind of like us.

We got a few new ornaments this year. They're not dated so they may just end up as one of those ambiguous decorations that we picked up one of those years, another in a long list of date-less ornaments we hang up each year. What we need are new ornaments that reflect the state-of-the-family, things like "Grandbaby's First Christmas," "Welcome To The Family, Son." You know, things like that.

Maybe that's why people sometimes get bigger and bigger trees as time goes on. Got to have a place for the new changes.

If You'd Like To Perform On The FanX Stage Next September...Just Fill Out The Application!

 

Even though it's months away, it's never too early to think about next Season's FanX. Some people think about it a lot...almost the whole year long. Some people, as soon as the final FanX event ends, they're already planning the next show twelve months in the future.

Such is life.

This is an invitation for those of you interested in participating in next September's show. If you have an act and you'd like to showcase that act on our Vendor Floor Stage, we'd love to hear what you've got. How do you submit your ideas, you ask? Simple...

Just fill out our application!

You can access the application by clicking: HERE. Now, I cannot guarantee you a place on our stage, but I can guarantee if you do apply, we'll consider your request to see if it fits in what we're trying to do at FanX.

Maybe you don't have an act, but if you know someone that does, please forward this post to them so they can submit an app. We're looking for fun, engaging, entertaining acts that our guests will love. Again, please let us know what you've got and maybe you'll be performing in front of Utah's largest convention crowds. Just fill out the application and we'll see what happens. Good luck--we'd love to hear from you.

Last Christmas...The Title Means Something Different Now

 Over the past couple of weeks I, like many of you, have listened to Christmas music. Listen to it long enough and you'll begin to hear repeats of songs, then three-peats of songs, and so on. For several decades a little number from Wham! entitled, Last Christmas has made its annual showing--there's even bands doing covers of the hit. A few years ago the made a movie with that title...never saw it--know nothing about it.

But the song...we can't seem to escape it.

The song is a parable of sorts...a song of regret and resolution to make changes so next year the singer won't make the same mistake as they did this year. There's not much to the song. High poetry it is not, but it's an upbeat ditty, the kind of tune that sticks with you, stays in your head. I'm sure that's one of the keys to its success.

I've thought a lot about the song this year, not so much the lyrics or the melody, but the title...

Last Christmas.

Since March 2020, so much has changed. I think the whole world thinks about life and mortality differently. People were with us one day, then gone the next. Of course, this happens all the time, sickness, accidents, age can take lives in an instant. But, we all know people who have left us since the day the world changed.

Last Christmas...this year my children and their only living grandparent came together. We played games and ate too much delicious food. We were blessed with safety from the storm that blew in and shared the warmth that only family affords. Though there were some small changes, this year's holiday reflected pretty much what we did last year.

If the past two years have taught us anything, it's that there's no guarantees, no way to know for sure if we'll be here next year to gather and enjoy those we love.

I have friends and family that--unbeknownst to them--last Christmas was their last Christmas. If asked, I'm sure they would have said they had a wonderful holiday, but if they had known it was the last time they'd have the opportunity to share the day with loved ones, would they have done anything differently? Would they have changed anything?

I hope this was not the last Christmas for any of us and that in exactly a year from today we can once again gather with our favorite people like many of us did today. I hope we've lived in such a way that we can honestly say, "I wouldn't change a thing." I hope when we think of last Christmas, it won't be a regrettable one...you know, like the song.

Yeah...I'm One Of Them

 It's been a most unusual year.

I don't know anyone who's life has not been affected by covid, some more than others. I've admitted before that for our family, sure we've had issues, but we've come through this mostly unscathed (knocking on wood...). One of the adjustments for me is sports.

Or, the lack thereof.

For the first time since my mission in the mid-1980s, I did not watch one NFL game, play-off game, or the big daddy, last Sunday's Super Bowl. I've been wanting to spend less time watching games for years, and it seemed like a good place to start. Maybe it's because most of my college football favorite team's games were canceled in 2020 that turned me off to football. Maybe it was something else.

It's weird giving something up.

For the most part, it wasn't a big deal. I've sort of lost interest in many of the teams...not knowing a lot of the good players nowadays. Still, I would have liked to seen Zach Moss, and many of my Utah Ute alumni play in the pros. And I would have been able to see numerous alums play--Utah put so many players in NFL. Good news is that if the Utes continue to excel at the college level, there'll be more to watch later.

Now that the season's over, I don't know if I'm going to watch any pro games next year. I might...we'll see. So, I didn't watch the Super Bowl...apparently, I wasn't the only one.

Eric Wood...A Very Good Man

I saw a post on Facebook last night and reading through the post, I noticed I was too late to attend the funeral (his obituary can be found: HERE). A person I've known since I was four years old passed away last week. 

You hear it all the time when someone dies. "I just saw him a few days ago." So it happened with me and Eric. Two weeks ago in church I passed him in the hall and gave him "the nod" and he returned the gesture. I wasn't in too much of a hurry to stop and say, "hello." I could have done that.

When we moved to Farmington we quickly came to know all the families with kids our age. Eric was older than us, but his siblings weren't. When I worked summers at Lagoon Eric was there. Most of us were just punk teenagers and we'd take more than an occasional break if we could get away with it. But not Eric. He was honest in word and deed.

Last year my graduating class had its thirty-year reunion. Before we met, posts on social media were sent and in one, we were reminded of all our classmates who had passed. Among the names was Eric's sister who graduated with us. I missed the news of her death by years. But it hit just as hard.

These people in this family were so much a part of our town, or at least, the memories that have shaped my definition of what my town is, that losing them feels like a long-standing building, or a field where we used to play is forever gone. But no building or piece of property can ever mean as much as the people we love.

Many of my childhood friends have moved away, but I've stayed. There's a price to pay when we remain. The cost is that we must endure change and rely only on memories of how life used to be. That means, of course, watching the people who mean so much to us leave. Eric joins a growing list of friends, family and loved ones who are on the other side and I'm saddened by his passing. If you know Eric, you understand when I say that he was a very good man and he'll be missed.