We brought pictures and memorabilia to display. Susan Payne Rogers read her Zion Smile piece that she wrote 40 years ago. Has it really been that long? We all looked great to each other. The years melted away. These pictures are of Gini Highfield, Karen and Craig Livingston. Scott Boyter, Gini,Susan Rogers, Mary Ann Bunker Jackson, Craig, and Marianne Poulton Tower is in the striped shirt.
Susan Rogers brought a tear to our eyes when she read her Zion Smile and then she read Mike Walker's Softer Silent Good Bye...(See on right sidebar)
A Zion Smile by Susan Payne Rogers
You know how good the sun feels as it warms your body each morning. Well, that's like a Zion smile, one that warms your soul. That's a special smile, one you'll always look for in the world of reality and never quite find. To just sit here and feel how good it is to share in our Zion world. And now that it's ending, over forever, I weep because--well, I've returned to reality before after having know Zion, and I know, too, the longing that consumes one like a fever with only one cure--returning. Sure, I gripe and yell and threaten to quit, but how could I go knowing my soul would remain here; away only emptiness fills it's place.
I'm afraid I'm older now, and these, they're the good years that old folks always tell about when all they can do is sit in rockers or play an occasional game of chess. I hate to go. Will I return years later to view the Zion world, knowing I'm not a part of it--seeing the places which bring faces to mind--will the pain be too much, realizing they're gone, too...never to return? Why can't I just go on here with my Zion life?
Always something happening, if only watching goobs and management compete on the front lawn or hearing the latest on a "super stiff" or helping the "loser" push a broken car from his collection of broken cars.
It's caring about people, not clothes and stuff. Gosh, we look so bad to the world and so great to each other--it's true, I crave it all. Words, ha, there aren't enough pages of words in a novel to explain the Peyton Place--involved situations that exist within these canyon walls.
Today my friend said, "Why only three months--three months to have real friends?" I cried inside and begged him to come to see me in that other world. He said, "Of course." But we know, we both know--it's not the same out there. Oh time, please, please go slowly--I'm afraid, afraid I'll lose all that I believe in again. Time, don't make me go--Then come memories...then the loneliness, the aching for a good ol' Zion smile.
On Oct. 12, 2008, a few of us got together at a Midvale, Utah restaurant to discuss our upcoming 2009 Employee reunion.
We brought pictures and memorabilia to display. Susan Payne Rogers read her Zion Smile piece that she wrote 40 years ago. Has it really been that long? We all looked great to each other. The years melted away. These pictures are of Gini Highfield, Karen and Craig Livingston. Scott Boyter, Gini,Susan Rogers, Mary Ann Bunker Jackson, Craig, and Marianne Poulton Tower is in the striped shirt.
It was John Rogerson's birthday that day. We sang the waitress birthday song around his table. He showed us an old Utah Parks placemat from the dining room. He had numerous items from his time at the park. The pictures show Johnny and his wife, Holly.
This table was my relative table. My brother, Scott Soulier in the red sweater came with his wife Barbara (who worked at Grand). My cousin Steve (Jan) Soulier married Janet Bateman. My husband Bill (I still call him Bear) in the plaid shirt, got up to address us before we viewed the DVD of the 25th reunion. It was great to see us perform the melodrama and vaudeville. I took the video and I need a count of who would like a DVD copy of it.
Two Scotts...Scott Soulier (in red) and Scott Boyter (in tan jacket) and his wife Sherrie (in the black coat.) Scott Soulier's wife (in plaid) is named Barbara. Janet Bateman Soulier (Steve's wife) is in blue.
