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Saturday, March 6, 2010

Red Bridge

I can see that nobody really uses this blog very much anymore, as evidenced by the fact that there was only one post from me in all of 2009. I looked through some of the posts again today, and I think this whole thing really was a good idea. I decided I will continue to post here even if anybody else hardly ever uses it. For me particularly I like being able to remember and write down old memories on here that I never really recorded anywhere else. I find it to be really fun doing that, and I also like knowing that I have recorded significant and favorite memories before too many years have passed since they first occurred. I would hope that others from our old group of friends would start doing this as well, but if not than that is alright. I've got to admit that I miss getting together with our old friends, but lately it seems like whenever we have tried for something it usually falls through. Hopefully we will be able to align things with everybody to be able to have a successful get-together or two during 2010.

The fact that this year is twenty years since 1990 is one reason that my thoughts have been returning to memories from that year, and many of those included a lot of my old friends. This January it had been 20 years since I first ventured out to Red Bridge, so I walked out there again during that month to kind of commemorate it. I spent quite a bit of time that afternoon just checking it all out again and climbing around a little on the bridge supports underneath. I was trying to find where some of our names should have been carved on it, but I couldn't find this. I did find where Danielle Christensen and Monica Platt had carved their names during December of '89 if anybody remembers them, so that was kind of cool. I just found it to be really peaceful out there, and it brought back a lot of memories of many of us out there together on several different occasions. I plan to continue to walk out there often this year, and I even went out there again after work one night this past week.

I remember during the late spring of '90 that there was one afternoon that me, Dennis, Steve Lee, and the rest of that year's trumpet section from the marching band walked out there and took a bunch of pictures. It was shortly before that year's band banquet. I believe Dennis came up with the idea for us to get a plaque to give to Chris Walker because he had been the trumpet section leader that year but was about to graduate. He had done a lot to help and inspire us that year as a true leader, so we wanted to do something to thank him at the band banquet. We decided to take some pictures of all of that year's section members together to give to Chris. I remember that some of the guys, particularly Steve Lee, were climbing all around on the supports beneath the bridge in ways that I never would have. I believe Steve even climbed all the way up the supports to the top of the bridge from the very bottom. Anyway, after being there we even drove up to Trumbolt in Santaquin Canyon to take some more pictures. It was just a fun spring afternoon from that time in my life, and I wish somebody could find some of those pictures from that day.

One other very memorable occasion for me of going out to Red Bridge was on 11/16/92. It was two days before I went into the MTC, and it was a great last experience right before my mission. Me, Kate, and Julie all walked on the tracks from the west out to the bridge that late afternoon. It was a peaceful and pleasant afternoon, and not too cool for that time of year. I believe we hung out and sat on the bridge and talked for a little while. I did take some pictures of that time, and I have enjoyed looking at them over the years since then. One of the pictures was of the tracks heading west from the bridge into the sunset, and I guess it even was symbolic considering that I was leaving home that week and what not. I took a couple of the pictures with me on my mission, and I was thankful to be able to have them to help me remember favorite places and old friends from home during the two years that I was away. When I look at those pictures again I am glad to see that not too much has changed out at Red Bridge in the twenty years that I have been going out there.

2 comments:

Afton said...

Rhett I'm so glad you posted!! Red Bridge was a fun place to go and holds several great memories for me as well.

Rish Outfield said...

Rhett, I'd like to see that picture you took of the tracks leading off into the distance.

I don't really share your memories of Red Bridge, either because I joined the gang too late or was more of a homebody, but it was always interesting to hear you talk, almost reverentially about places like Red Bridge and the Orchard and Payson Park and Kyle's Underwear Drawer the way you did.

In fact, I was thinking early in 2009 about writing a story set there, probably from the point of view of a fat girl whose best friend and her boyfriend go there for a romantic evening and she tags along. The story never really went anywhere (like so many), but you never know.

DLP'10