Walking to School
I was 12 (1980) when we moved to Hyrum, Utah. School started in the fall the way it always does. I was in 7th grade, starting off in Middle Scholol at South Cache. The school was only 4 blocks away, but in rural Utah blocks are big and it was around a 1/2 mile. Since we were close I would walk to school and the journey would take me around 15 minutes.
We had moved from Missouri where the world was largely flat and Utah has the Wasatch Mountains and Cache Valley is a small valley surrounded by mountains. The valley is only about 8-10 miles across. On west side of valley was the Wellsville Mountains; they were my constant view as I walked to school. I always heard living there they were the steepest mountains, later I learned that this reputation comes from their prominence from the valley floor (4500 ft) relative to their base (only 4 miles wide), though I never did hike them while I actually lived there.
In the winter it was cold. So cold that I remember my ears hurting as I walked the half mile. Not sure why I didn’t wear a hat, probably wasn’t cool. But I remember when you heard that wicked scrunch scrunch of the snow under foot your ears were gonna hurt.
Walking home in the summer months was conversely hot. As a kid I read a lot. Like ALL the time. Walking home from high school I used to read with half an eye on the sidewalk. And at night I would read under the covers with a flashlight, so as not to get caught. I used to read entire series of books. In elementary school I read all of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Somehow in middle school I got on a Louis Lamour kick and I read many of his westerns. One of the tropes of the western is crossing the desert without water. Lamour would describe in great detail the parched and swollen tongues and the languid stumble of dehydration. One hot day walking down 200 North, which had a large rural section of farmland, I imagined myself one of these desert stranded cowboys. And my walking mimic’d the stumble of a nearly dead cow poke. I forgot to abandon my imaginary walk as I approached the Darley residence on the corner of 2nd west and I remember Layne Darley seeing me and commenting on how tired I looked. I quickly straigtnend up and walked normal embarrassed at being caught doing the Lamour.
It was also in those middle school walks that I remember listening to my Walkman and discovering Def Lepporad Pyromania. "Gunter glieben glauten globen" All the way home. I also recall writing a journal entry for Family Home Evening where I listed Earth Wind and Fire as my favorite band. I bet they never imagined they had a fan in Hyrum Utah.