Another feast in La Sal

NORTHERN NEWS

by Maxine Deeter

Monticello received a couple of nice showers last week. Not so La Sal. Mother Nature only sent a couple of teasers last week. Looks like rain, but no wet! Heck, we even had our Pioneer Day celebration on The Mountain last Saturday night, and even that did not invite rain. (I sure hope Mother Nature is making a fool out of me between the time I write this and you read it!).

I know for most folks the Pioneer Day/24th of July celebration is still in the future, but for La Salites, it is now in the past. Yep, we did trek upward for a feast and celebration last Saturday night. The weather was perfect, except maybe for a little setting sun in the eyes as we sat around visiting after stuffing ourselves.

Seems this year’s festivities actually got started nearly right on time. Those who did not get the word that the eatin’ time had been moved up half an hour to 6:00 and arrived fashionably late found folks happily eating away as if they got started right on time.

Not to worry. Even arriving late (that would be me), there was more than plenty of food upon which to feast! Actually more than you could get on one plate (even as big as my “tray” furnished years ago by my buddy Ruthie – and it holds a lot. One of the privileges of old age) even if you were just taking a taste of each dish.

Of course the main feature of the night was the wonderful deep pit barbecue a la Jam B. who – with a little help – kept the roasting fires burning for a couple of days prior to the feasting.

Oh, yes, there were Dutch oven potatoes in several varieties – from The Works to Vegetarian. Folks packed home many a doggie bag of meat and taters at the end of the evening.

Manning the Dutch ovens were – of course – Deputy Mike and his sidekicks Les Thayn, Hal Adams, and Darrel Benson. Yep, the taters were as good as ever this year.

There were a few new faces at this years cookout, but they were the faces of old friends and even former La Salites. The kiddos from La Sal E were delighted to have Ms. Lilly in attendance. They’ll be seeing her and Ms. Thayn on a daily basis soon enough.

Once we finished pigging out, we settled in to some serious visiting with friends and neighbors. It was just a perfect evening for it too. No rain you see. But, even the visiting was cut short (in my opinion).

Seems the teenagers were eager to head down to town to the movies. There fearless leader aka their Scout Master said they weren’t going anywhere til the tables and chairs were loaded in the horse trailer for return to the church. They virtually dumped us out of our chairs so they could be loaded and they could be on their way.

Unfortunately, it was only 20-30 minutes after they left that it was discovered that one of them had the keys to the pickup hauling the trailer still in his pocket. The P.U. was on the mountain but the keys were headed to Moab! So, tables and chairs spent the night on the mountain and were retrieved the next day.

All in all – I have to declare this a successful “This is It Day” celebration. Could have used a little longer visiting time, but, other than that, the vittles and company were great.

Next up, the Scouts overnitter this week – hopefully, if most of the boys can get off work and come on up to the mountain. Hope they are not so noisy in their night games that they keep you awake down here in the valley!

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