Duckwater Community Projects: August 1983 - June 1985: Community Center

I was in Duckwater Nevada almost a couple years.  I worked for the Duckwater Shoshone Indian Tribe.  This was a small community of about 200 at the time.  Working in Duckwater was a little different than clinical social work.  because o the low number of residents I became involved in a number of community projects.  To keep busy I became involved in many community projects.

One of those was the establishment of a community center.

We arranged for the tribe to donate one of their old buildings for this.  There was an old building which had been used for head start most recently.  I wrote a grant with Kathy Graham, who was the alcohol and drug worker at the time.  The money for the community center would come from a grant from her program.  With the money we bought needed equipment.  This included a T.V., V.C.R. stereo, ping pong table and some board games.  With the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School we bought a satellite dish.  The tribe had an old pool table which had been in storage in the garage.  We brought it over and got it through the door after taking the legs off.  

As part of the community center we would try to have activity nights two or three times a week.  Sometimes we would rant a movie.  We would make popcorn and sell it.  We would also buy pop on sale in Ely and then resale it at a profit.  We would also get candy at a distributor in Ely and resale it.  I would also sale pop and candy at work to make money for the rec. center.  

Sometimes I would do an educational group geared to young people at the center.  But usually we stuck to just trying to create a good time without alcohol being involved.  We had a rule against alcohol in the recreation center.   However that didn't keep kids from drinking before they arrived or after they left.

Artwork: Someone at Work Is Very Talented

 This work is titled "African wild dogs (Lycaon Pictus) running down a wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)."  I don't know who drew it.  This is black marker on the board in meeting/training room.  Someone is good at expressing their self through simple means.

Looking at the picture I can see the dog in front racing like the wind to head off the wildebeest.  The dogs behind are nipping at the hamstring and calf muscles of the wildebeest until he can't run anymore.  He will then turn, and chase the dogs, maybe brush one of them on, but it will be back.  Then when it is totally exhausted, the dogs will have their way.

Poetry I Like: Kenny Loggins

This is a Kenny Loggins song, but the poetry in this song paints a picture for me, and I wanted to share it.  The song is called "Walking in the Air" and was written by Kenny Loggins.

"Walking In The Air"

We're walking in the air,
We're floating in the moonlight sky,
The people far below are sleeping as we fly.

I'm holding very tight,
I'm riding in the midnight blue,
I'm finding I can fly so high above with you.

Far across the world,
The villages go by like dreams,
The rivers and the hills,
The forest and the streams.

Children gaze open mouthed,
Taken by suprise,
Nobody down below believes their eyes.

We're surfing in the air,
We're swimming in the frozen sky,
We're drifting over icy mountains floating by.

Suddenly swooping low,
On an ocean deep,
Rousing up a mighty monster from his sleep.

We're walking in the air,
We're dancing in the midnight sky,
And everyone who sees us greets us as we fly.

Youth Soccer and Tournaments

I came across an article in the Deseret News with regards youth soccer and tournaments.  I am not a great fan of soccer tournaments.  They are played on Saturday and Sunday, and I always had a problem with Sunday games.  Also the organizers often pit teams of unequal ability which is really not fun for either team.  I remember one son playing a highly advanced team and the score was so lopsided by half time that the coach spent the second half working on an off sides trap to try and keep the other team at bay.  Not a fun game.  In the article a pediatric doctor Scott Pugh.  He points out another negative is the time spent in cars traveling to the tournament rather than participating in the sport.  Most important perhaps, the doctor also says participating in more than two games a week increases the risk of injury by six times.  Tournaments often involve four or five games in a weekend.   There must be some better alternatives.  

Junior High/High School Friend: Kent Nate

Kent Nate

Having watched the movie “Cokeville Miracle” reminds me of Kent Nate, who moved into our Hyrum Fourth Ward when I was in Junior High.  He moved there from Cokeville.  I was introduced to Kent when someone asked me how I liked being replaced as the best basketball player in our age group at the wad.  We would play a lot of basketball for scouts.  And I wasn’t the best basketball player, that honor went to Brad Thomas who was much taller than me.  However I was the best guard, and Kent Nate fit right into our system as playing guard with me and challenging me for the top honor.  Honestly I would say we were evenly matched, even though Kent was a year younger than me (as was Brad Thomas.)  It seemed Kent and Brad became close friends.  We had experiences playing together for church basketball games, which was an organized league as I was growing up, and also experiences with scout camps and scouting.  Our ward boundaries changed several times, and we eventually were no longer in the same ward.  I went back to the second ward, while there were also sixth and eight wards along with the fourth ward.  I even heard Kent’s family moved back to Cokeville.  I did notice there were several kids with the last name Nate in the documentary of the Cokeville Miracle who must have been related.

Darn that Blue Spruce is Big

This is the Blue Spruce we planted at our home 45-50 years ago.  When we put in our sewer line, the line went through the roots on one side of the tree, and consequently it leaned for a while.  However it seems to have straitened nicely.  It is now over running the yard at our old house as well as the neighbors.  When we lived there there wasn't a fence dividing the properties in front, it started level with the front of the house.  I haven't lived in this house since marrying in 1983.  My mom sold it to my sister in about 1985 and moved to a condo in Logan.  My sister subsequently sold the house and they moved to Idaho.  The circular driveway use to be more complete, but it did extend beyond the property line and was cut back for sewer lines as well.

Poetry I Like: Above Bear Lake by May Swenson

Above Bear Lake by May Swenson

Sky and lake the same blue,
and blue the languid mountain between them.
Cloud fluffs make the scene flow.
Greeny white pools of aspen snake up,
graven with welts and calluses where branches
dried and broke. Other scabs are lover-made:
Initials dug within linked hearts and, higher
some jackknifed peace signs.
A breeze, and the filtered light makes shine
a million bristling quills of spruce and fir
downslope, where slashes of sky and lake
hang blue—windows of intense stain. We take
the rim trail, crushing bloom of sage,
sniffing resinous wind, our boots in the wild, 
small, everycolored Rocky Mountain flowers.
Suddenly, a steep drop-off: below we see the whole, 
the whale of it—deep, enormous blue—
that widens, while the sky slants back to pale 
behind a watercolored mountain.
Western Tanager – we call him “Fireface: - 
darts ahead, we climb to our camp
as the sun slips lower. Clipped to the top
of the tallest fir, Olive-sided Flycatcher,
over and over, fierce-whistles, “Whip!
Whip three bears! Whip, whip three bears!”
This poem is presented at the Bear Lake Overlook tourist information center.  This is my view of the lake from the overlook early in the morning.  

For a view of some of the flowers that morning look here.  This poetry really paints a picture in my mind.  I am not as familiar with birds, and didn't hear any bird song the morning we were there.