Remember When
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Kenna Holm
Memories of Yesteryear
I've been thinking back of all the fun we used to have snow sledding, swimming, ice and roller skating and dances. I'm sure kids now days still have those things but have better facilities .
When we were young, we used to swim at Spring Lake. I remember my brothers taking me as a little girl and they would toss me back and forth and me giggling all the time, but one day one of them tossed me to the other one and he caught me by my legs and my head went down in the water. It about scared the heck out of me. I guess I can now blame them for me not liking water. No--I knew they would always save me but I can remember it frightened me. I hated the feel of the slime and vines down on the bottom of the pond. It was eerie. We also swam at Salem Pond.
After the old Orem train system was shut down, they rerouted the highway and straightened it out over the Salem Pond. There is now a bit of pond on the North side of the highway. When we were in high school, I remember one kid from Spanish Fork by the name of Butch Clayson. He dove off the side and hit one of the pilings of the old rail trestle. It was just under the water (that had been part ofthe railroad track) and broke his neck. He was lucky to survive that.
There wasalways places to swim. There was Warm Springs out in Genola that was fun to go to. The water was so nice and warm but I think that has been closed off now and no one can go there because of gang problems or some kind of trouble. It was fun though. We also had Arrowhead Swimming Pool in Benjamin and Park RoShe in Springville that we could go to. They were both inside pools and they kept open longer than Payson Park Swimming Pool.
Park RoShe also had a roller skating rink in a building by the swimming pool. We loved to roller skate. We would take parties over there. We could choose to skate, swim or just picnic.
I never was any good at either one but it was fun to go anyway. My husband excelled in all sports so it made me look like an amateur dummy when I went with him. He could do all kinds of fancy dives in swimming and at skating he was great. Me, I just blundered along.
We roller skated a lot onthe sidewalks.Remember the old clip onroller skateswe would have to undo a screw to lengthen themout to fit our shoes and tighten that screw and then we had a skate key that we could tighten the clamps on to our soles of our shoes and then off we would go. We loved to skate on the roads or sidewalks. When we went to Park RoShay, they had shoe skates and they were easier to skate it. But then I still fell a lot.
I never was any good at any sport but it was fun to go anyway. My husband excelled in all sports so it made me look like an amateur dummy when I went with him. He could do all kinds of fancy dives in swimming and at skating he was great. Me, I just blundered along.
In the winter, we loved to ice skate and go sledding. We had Peteetneet hill that has always been and still is the best to sleigh ride on. We would also sled at the old Payson Jr. High. (that they just tore down). We would get a pieceofplastic and slide downthe hill,laughing allthe way.We also would go out to Tote Gote Hill out on the West Mountain. We loved to tube out there.
One time, (which my kids will never let me forget) there was two or three families of us all withtubesand things to slide downthe hillon,went out there for anouting.Myhair hadn't beendone so I put on my wig so I would look at least somewhat presentable. We climbed to the top of the hill and each got on our tubes to take turns sliding down and as I got about halfwaydown, my wig flew off one way while I was going the other and and we all cracked up laughing and like I say, my kids will never let me forget it. It was fun though even if I was the butt of all jokes.
We would take wieners to roast or just hot chocolate to drink and totally enjoy the outing. I'mnot sure some would evenknow what tote gotesare now. Theyare a thing ofthe past but we would even sometimes pull the kids on their sleds or tubes behind the tote gote and have a ball.
When we were first married, we had an old 1938 Chevy that we used to go up the canyon in. There were 3 couples of us newlyweds, Jerry and Lorraine Jones Mortensen (Jim's brother), Cliff and Beth Cartwright (Dona Cartwrights's brother) and Frank and I. We would get our sleds and line them all up behind that old car and be pulled everywhere. The end one would swing back and forth across the road. We couldn't do that now days. To much traffic. We would go down through the fields or up in the river bottoms in Spanish Fork. It's a wonder we didn't get hurt but you know, at that age you're invincible.
Remember when we had the irrigation ditches and each home had an alloted time to water their yards. We loved to put our swimming suits on and wade in the water and sit in the ditch so it damed the water up. Sprinklers were fun to. Oh the water fights we had.
When we went ice skating, it wasn't always the smoothest places but as kids we didn't care. The city flooded an area down on 8th West just off Utah Ave. (the Freeway is across it now). We would skate there and we would go out to Spring Lake. That always frightened me because I was afraid the Ice would crack and we would drop in . And as I remember there were a few ponds down in the fields we even skated on.
At one time the American Legion sponsored dances for the teens and we could go there on one night (I think it was Thursdays) and we could dance or play games. They had ping pong tables and they would have bottles soft drinks and goodies we could buy. I remember Andy Andress was always there to over see it. He was a fun guy. That was always so fun to go to those.
We could play tennis in the summer at the Payson Park Tennis Court. They also had Horseshoe Pits to play at also.
And of course there were always the night games. We had no TV's so we made our own fun. We played hide and seek, run sheepy run, red rover, and I could go on and on. We always had so much fun and it didn't cost money, just our imaginations.
Isn't it fun to remember back when......
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