POST #8 -- To B or not to B...?

To Blog... or not to Blog?
That is the question.

I'm perfectly aware that most travel blogs are about as exciting as my Aunt Hilda's summer vacation photos.

"Here I am at the Grand Canyon, posed with Uncle Ralph!" 

"Here I am at Mount Rushmore, posed with Uncle Ralph!"

Our Presidents' stone faces are decidedly more alive and animated than Hilda's and Ralph's.

So who needs boring summer vacation photos?  Or a Boring Blog?  Not you, certainly.  Not me either.  And although yesterday's Post about Maple Grove Hot Springs was nice enough... it was kinda boring, right?

Right.  I know that.  And today I confessed to a friend that I've not yet 'hit my stride' in my Blog postings.  Where, I wondered, is my inner Mark Twain? My Bill Bryson?  My Tom Robbins?  
Thus far I feel I've found only my inner Fred Johnson. (He posts the 'Soup of the Day' details at the deli counter of the FreshCo Market here in Logan, UT.)

So... how do I up the writing/reporting ante from Boring to Interesting?
Well, I'm in Utah, right?   This is Mormon country.  And who has ever accused those Mormons 
of living on the wild side of life?  
(Answer:  only an acronym-challenged Captain Kirk in that Star Trek movie when he apologized to Earthlings for Spock's strange behavior: "Too much LDS in the '60s.")   
And herein lies a rich vein of opportunity for the observant travel chronicler.  Because there are plenty of aspects to everyday life in Utah that are as boring and ordinary as can be for the folks who live here... but which offer a nearly endless supply of interest and amusement to an outsider like me.

Consider this photograph as a case in point.  
This is not the signage you're going to find on any clothing shop in Palo Alto or Tacoma or Palm Desert.  

Why shop anywhere else, indeed?


But wait.  There's danger here.  
I don't want to appear culturally insensitive or politically incorrect. 
I don't want to risk offending the good citizens of Mormon-land.  


Oh, hell.  Sure I do.  But what  right have I got to Blog-post my indelicate Mormon-musings?  
(O.K.  This is where I can play my 'Raised Catholic Card'.  I've endured a lifetime of Irish-Catholic jokes.  I have loving friends -- thanks, Val! -- who send me links to Catechism-Comic, Papal-Bashing sites like this:       http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7Jrh_uuPmd0
n.b.,  I was raised SO very Catholic, that I was several minutes into this YouTube video before I realized it was a parody.  You see?  Ruined for life, I am.)  And THAT's what gives me a Free Pass to share a few Mormon Moments here on this Blog.  No offense intended.

Ahhh.  So where to start?  Why not with the most slippery slope of all?  Polygamy.  Let me hasten to point out that polygamy is no longer Mainstream Mormon.  And let me further acknowledge that talented others have already served up the best of Polygamy Parody.  Far be it from me to add Plagiarism to Polygamy.  (As a once good Catholic, I know I'd burn forever in Hell for doing such a wicked thing.)

But here's what you've been wondering about and waiting for, I know.  I can make the connection -- tortured though it may be -- between the Polygamist Mormons... and Aunt Hilda and Uncle Ralph.  ("What?!  I thought they were Catholic!")  That connection is one that I don't need to describe in much detail.  Because the following photos say it all. 

Here's a photo of Lorenzo Hill Hatch, a very early and very prominent Mormon settler in the region.

Want the full story instead the L.H. Hatch Blog-Lite?
Then go to:
 http://www.b13family.com/html/journal-lorenzo_hatch.ht

The sash shown in the photograph couldn't be more appropriate, insofar as Hatch managed to father no fewer than 24 children.

But he didn't do it on his own.  He had help.  From his wives.  Plenty of wives. Four, to be exact.  One died at an early age.  But three lived with Hatch here in this house, built in 1874 in Franklin, a thriving agricultural town, and an important center for Mormon life in the region.  It was a grand mansion in its time, and it was frequently visited by Brigham Young himself.

And what about those wives, the mothers of L.H.'s 24 children?

Here's a photo of the three who lived at Hatch House.  The official LDS biography of Hatch devotes a chapter to "Spunky Sylvia," "Shy Alice" and "Loving Catherine".

Take one look at these photos and you can appreciate where those adjectives came from.  Poor 'shy Alice' looks more than just a little bit shell-shocked, perhaps as only a prolific Mormon mother could do.

And all three photos show a countenance that makes the summer vacation photos of Aunt Hilda and Uncle Ralph positively sing with vitality and exuberance.

Michae'ls ME-anderings isn't yet done with Mormon Musings.  Watch for more on future Posts.