The Skeleton in Grandpa's Barn: And Other Stories of Growing Up in Utah (Favorite Readings from the Utah Historical Quarterly) (Volume 1)

The loft of Grandpa's barn in Salt Lake City was "off limits," the trap door padlocked. For boys like Zack Lund, Grandpa might as well have hung out a large "welcome" sign inviting them to break in and see what was hidden there. In Parowan, young Nevada Driggs decided to discover for himself whether Captain Fremont had really slept in his grandma's bed. Fae Decker Dix tells of how her father refused to accept the church's newly censored version of a nineteenth-century hymn. To her embarrassment, he sang the original hellfire lyrics to O Ye Mountains High as loudly as he could above the rest of the congregation. All told, this new anthology features sixteen priceless stories: quirky and fun, informative and serious, but all engaging—nostalgic for when Utah was little more than a wide spot in the road, or as Robert Mikkelsen remembers, when both sides of the tracks were the "wrong side."

If one thing stands out in Zack Lund's memories of his childhood in Salt Lake City, it is the loft of Grandpa's barn. It was strictly "off limits" to children; but for Zack and his cousins, Grandpa might as well have hung out a "welcome" sign inviting them to break in and see what was hidden there.

Growing up in Parowan, young Nevada Driggs had heard all her life about the derring do of the original settlers. Later, as a student at U.C. Berkeley, she decided to discover for herself whether Captain John C. Fremont had really slept in her grandma's bed. The truth, she learned, was even more dramatic than the folklore.

Also from Parowan, Fae Decker Dix remembers that her father refused to accept the church's new, cleaned-up lyrics to the hymn, O Ye Mountains High. In the presence of a visiting dignitary, her father defied authority and belted the original hellfire version of the hymn above the rest of the congregation, to the mortification of his entire family.

All told, this anthology features eighteen priceless stories: some quirky and fun, others informative and serious, but all engaging-nostalgic for when Utah was little more than a wide spot in the road, or as Robert Mikkelsen conveys in his reminiscence, when both sides of the tracks seemed to be the wrong side.

Never change a song / Fae Decker Dix One long day that went on forever / Saline Hardy Fraser ; compiled by Marianne Fraser Zion's rowdies : growing up on the Mormon frontier / Davis Bitton "Hide and seek" : children on the underground / Martha Sonntag Bradley The Gypsies are coming! The Gypsies are coming! / David A. Hales My garden of Eden / LaMar Petersen Growing up railroad : remembering Echo City / Robert S. Mikkelsen "The murderous pain of living" : thoughts on the life and death of Everett Ruess / Gary James Bergera Kimberly as I remember her / Josephine Pace When Captain Fremont slept in Grandma McGregor's bed / Nevada W. Driggs Childhood in Gunnison / William G. Hartley Inflation idyl : a family farm in Huntsville / Fawn M. Brodie Topaz, city of dust / Yoshiko Uchida Glimpses of ice skating and coasting / Miriam B. Murphy and Craig Fuller A trip with the mail / Max E. Robinson "Redeeming the Indian" : enslavement of children in New Mexico and Utah / Sondra Jones Growing up Greek in Helper / Helen Z. Papanikolas The skeleton in Grandpa's barn / Herbert Z. Lund Jr.