GimletBlog

We always look forward to our visits to Utah:  a year is not complete without eating far too many raspberry-butter dinner rolls and sweet corn at Maddox, and it’s comforting to know that the sun still shines somewhere, even if its existence is in question around the Pacific Northwest.  But better still, the Things get to see the grandGimlets and play with their cousins.

The week started off with a drive south to Provo to see a new Pride and Prejudice musical.  This year we’ve been lucky enough to see three different Jane Austen stage plays:  Sense and Sensibility at the Meydenbauer Center (so-so), Persuasion at Book-It (excellent!), and now Pride and Prejudice at BYU.  Unfortunately we saw each play near the end of its run, so there wasn’t time to publish a useful review.  As for Pride and Prejudice, the cast gave it their all and had great singing voices.  Fans of the book (and especially fans of the 1995 miniseries) would enjoy the characterizations.  It’s understood that many scenes must be cut in the interest of time, but this adaptation managed to portray or mention quite a few favorites — plenty to please fans and enough of the story was left for newcomers to follow.  If the musical visits any other community theaters around Utah, it’s worth considering for a nice evening out.

We also made a day trip to a neighboring valley to visit the home in which my grandfather grew up.  We called ahead to make sure we would be able to see inside the house, and learned that it’s open for tours most Saturdays during the summer months from 11-3.  The town is small (population about 650) and a sign on the street corner ensures that out-of-towners can easily find the house.  It was built by my great-grandparents around 1872, and modeled after the but-and-ben cottage in Thurso, Scotland in which my great-grandfather had lived before emigrating to the USA.  As the family expanded in size to eventually include ten children, the house grew as well.  Thick stone walls still keep the rooms nearly as cool as air conditioning in the summer, and massive cottonwoods provide shade in the garden.

The house and its furnishings are an excellent example of what life would have been like in Utah in the late 1800s.  Quilts and other handiwork, all made by my great-grandmother and her daughters, are displayed in every room.  The family photos and other treasured mementos were delightful to see.

A baby cradle is in the front bedroom:  my great-grandmother would rock the cradle with her foot while reading or doing handiwork.  After ten children, a small groove has been worn in the cradle’s edge.  The Things liked the upstairs sleeping porches; one year as the house was being prepared for summer tours, a baby raccoon was discovered sleeping in a crib on the sleeping porch!  The Things also enjoyed their special “cousins only” tour of the cellar.

This photo of my grandfather was taken around 1914 while he was an LDS missionary in Scotland.  (He’s the rather large gentleman in the center; click on the picture for a closer look.)  We had a wonderful visit with John, my second cousin who conducted the house tour, and soon realized that we both needed to bring members of the previous generation with us next time.

Tags: family history, utah

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 4:37 pm and is filed under jane austen, reviews, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.