What’s a Todd trip without at least one stop at a cemetery?
Knowing that I couldn’t get to the Bonneville Salt Flats (a remnant of Lake Bonneville) where Con Air, Independence Day, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End among other movies were filmed, I knew there was one brief stop I could make that, while not a film site, does have a plausible relationship to the movies. I was off to visit the grave site of a man named Steven Allan Ford.
Those of you who have traveled with me know I enjoy visiting the graves of people who have influenced either my world or the world in general and sometimes I simply enjoy going to cemeteries such as Mirogoj in Zagreb that are renowned for their beauty. Often, the two overlap. This particular visit qualified on neither account but indulge me as I tell you a little about Steven Allan Ford.
Although he died a young man, Steven Allan Ford was a licensed minister of the Temple of the Jedi Order. On 5 September 2008, when he presided over his elder brother’s wedding, it was the first such ceremony performed by a Jedi Minister in Utah. (Remember that Charu had been impressed by the amity and tolerance he found when he was in Provo on a mission to sell books for ISKCON so this shouldn’t be too surprising.)
Lest you think the Temple of the Jedi Order some sort of odd joke, here’s a statement from their website:
We are a Jedi church and international ministry of the religion Jediism and the Jedi way of life. Jedi at this site are not the same as those portrayed within the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars Jedi are fictional characters that exist within a literary and cinematic universe. We are a recognized International Ministry and Public Charity…
They go on to state,
The Jedi here are real people that live or lived their lives according to the principles of Jediism, the real Jedi religion or philosophy. Jedi followers, ministers and leaders embrace Jediism as a real living, breathing religion and sincerely believe in its teachings. Jediism does not base its focus on myth and fiction but on the real life issues and philosophies that are at the source of myth. Whether you want to become a Jedi, are a real Jedi looking for additional training or just interested in learning about and discussing The Force, we’re here for you.
Perhaps objects, people and events are connected in ways we don’t yet comprehend. If you recall, some nine hours ago in real time, I made my first stop in Salt Lake City at the Up! house in the suburb of Herriman. The builder who constructed the house is Bangerter Homes. According to their website, the address of Valley View Memorial Park is 4335 W 4100 S, West Valley City, UT 84120. (Remember that Salt Lake City and much of Utah uses a sort of hybrid system where streets have both names and numbers.) Imagine my surprise when I saw
the street sign as I turned onto W 4100 S and learned that I’d been traveling on Bangerter Highway. Oh, and one other thing, those who know me can look at the month and day of Mr. Ford’s death and will know that it’s a significant day in my life (and not the first time that date has popped up in this day’s narrative).
Play Ball! The secret revealed
Thursday night when I returned to the hotel after my dinner and a walk about the neighborhood, I settled into the room to read a bit, transfer the day’s pictures from my camera to my computer, and complete whatever housekeeping chores I needed to finish before preparing for Friday’s activities. As is also my habit, I turned on the late local news primarily to serve as background noise but also to hear the weather forecast.
During the sports report, I heard that the Salt Lake City Bees had returned from a successful road trip and would be hosting the Albuquerque Isotopes Friday night. (The Bees are the Pacific Coast League AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels and the Isotopes are affiliated with the Colorado Rockies.) As soon as I heard it, I could imagine no better way to spend my lone Friday night in Salt Lake City than at a minor league baseball game even if it meant changing plans and scrambling to be certain I’d be back in the city in time.
(The Isotopes, by the way, have one of my favorite sports team nicknames because of its origin story. In the 4 March 2001 episode of The Simpsons, Homer attempted to thwart a planned move of the Springfield Isotopes to Albuquerque by going on a hunger strike that ultimately failed.
Albuquerque had lost its franchise a few years earlier but in 2003, the Calgary Cannons moved there. The local paper held an online poll to choose a name for the new franchise and Isotopes received more than 80,000 of the 120,000 votes cast. Though I’ve never visited Isotopes Park, photographic evidence indicates
that Homer and his family spend time there.)
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Bees home, Smith’s Ballpark, was less than two miles from the hotel and basically a straight shot down West Temple (or West 1300 South). I saved a couple of dollars by parking a few blocks from the stadium and bought a general admission ticket for $11.00 gambling on being able to find seat in the stadium rather than having to remain on the berm behind the outfield fence. A Shock Top draft and a burrito salad added another $18.00 to the night’s tab. I’d arrived early enough to have a look about the stadium and eat my dinner without rushing through either.
When I entered the stadium, a young woman handed me a towel that was imprinted with Salt Lake Gulls. It confused me a bit since I’d come to see the Bees but I thought, “A free towel is a free towel.”
The stadium’s setting, by the way, is quite pretty
with the trees behind it and the mountains in the distance but some other aspects only intensified the confusion I felt when I’d received the towel. You can clearly see the top of the dugout reads Salt Lake Bees. What you can’t see in this photo, but can if you look at the close-up of the scoreboard in the photos folder, is that the scoreboard read Dukes and Gulls. I asked two different ushers but neither had an explanation though the second chap did invite me to sit in the second deck along the left field line.
The game itself proved disappointing. Albuquerque scored in each of its first four at bats running out to a 5-0 lead that would end as an 11-1 thrashing of the home team. Though the announced crowd was more than 7,000, it seemed much smaller than that to me. I was sitting in the fifth or sixth row of perhaps 15 in my section and and there were only a handful of other people there with me.
One of them, a girl who passed me more than once on her way to and from the concession stands was wearing a t-shirt that drew my attention. By the fifth inning, I couldn’t contain my curiosity and I joined her and her family to ask about it. I don’t now recall whether the shirt had the name of a club team or a camp but what had intrigued me was that the sport was lacrosse. I learned from them that there are many club lacrosse teams in the Salt Lake City area and that when she returned to school this fall, her high school was adding a girls lacrosse team.
We talked about Maryland and their recent men’s and women’s national championships, the Terps’ Tewaaraton winning athletes and, more importantly to me, the growth of the sport in (to me) as unexpected a place as Utah. They also solved the mystery of the team names for me. That night was some sort of throwback night celebrating historical franchises the two cities had hosted prior to the current squads. With no rooting interest and the outcome in little doubt, I left at the end of eight innings hoping for a restful sleep before a long drive to the south and east Saturday.
Believe it or not, a mere two days remain for me to write about on this trip. Perhaps you’re disappointed. Perhaps you’re relieved. Whichever it is, I’ll continue writing about it. See you next time.