My Home Town

So I was in Tremonton (actually Bothwell) for my class reunion on July 26. So while I was there I thought I should visit a few of "landmarks" in that fine town that I called home for the first 20-plus years of my life.

McKinley School, where I went to kindergarten-6th grade. There is a "new" McKinley (opened in 1973, so I guess not that new) that replaced this one. Since it closed as an elementary school in 1973, it underwent some extensive remodeling and has since been used as the Senior Citizen Center in Tremonton. However, earlier this year, the earthquake that was centered near Wells, Nevada caused enough damage to this building that it will be torn down. Sad really, because it is a fine-looking building...and I don't know why but it looks much better now than it did when I went to school there. But considering my dad went to school there, it is an OLD building.

Another interesting place to visit in Tremonton is the public library. Again, it has aged gracefully and looks better in 2008 than it did in 1978 - from my perspective. Of course, it has been added on to and remodeled.

An item of note is a new sculpture that has just, within the last week or two, been added to the grounds in front of the library. It was created by Val Lewis (brother of my classmate Lanny Lewis). It is of children reading the book 'Peter Pan', and the characters come alive, as shown in the sculpture.

Directly across the street from the library is the oldest LDS church in Tremonton, but not in the Bear River Valley...that is the LDS tabernacle in Garland. Again, this building has had a facelift since I lived here. (Gee, were all the buildings in Tremonton run-down during the 70's, now with new faces in 2008?) This will always be known to me as the "Tremonton 1st Ward" building. (Though, I am still partial to the Third Ward building.)

The final stop on my tour-de-Tremonton before heading home was to see the state of demolition of the high school. My understanding is that the auditorium and memorial gymnasium will be the only things remaining from my good-old-high-school days.

The "girls' gym" was located between the auditorium and the memorial gym. It is now rubble.

Also, the "cubbies" in front of the memorial gym are gone.

The "bear" in front of the school...no more.

I final look at the administration building, which may be gone by the next time I drive by here.

All in all, it was a good day. A time to spend a few hours with classmates and share fond memories and catch up on what they are doing now. It was also a time to visit familiar places of my childhood. To make this complete, I should have stopped by the old Valley Hospital, where I was born (which has been apartments since 1976), and the Tremonton 3rd Ward building, which is where I can trace my spiritual upbringing to...as well as many fun times. Looking back, I really had an idyllic childhood in a community that I will always consider "home".