Day 10

OK so what's with the Mormons? If, like me, you were raised in a religious (Methodist) environment, other than the LDS, you might have the opinion that the Mormons are a bit strange in their beliefs. I mean let's face it, their "saints" are almost as strange as the ones in the bible ... you know the REAL bible ... which is also their bible, along with their other bible, that Joseph Smith got from the indians or at a yard sale or whatever. It's not their beliefs I'm questioning ... I mean let's face it one could question and ridicule any faith if one chose to ... so I'm not going there ... to each his own.

Last night Jill and I went to the Halloween program Thriller at the famous Tuacahn outdoor amphitheater located at the end of a spectacular red rock canyon on the edge of St. George. The facility is touted as the best in the world. I can't comment on that other than to say it is pretty cool. On the other hand, we passed a stand yesterday that claimed it had the best sandwiches in the world and I know for a fact that Jill makes the best sandwiches in the world so I'm taking the Tuacahn claim with a grain of salt.

It was a cold clear night and the 3,000 people were bundled for the occasion. The program was a series of elaborately staged musical and dance vignettes spoofing scary ghost type Halloween stories. It was put on by Odyssey Dance Theater ... sort of a Cirque de Soleil lite. My description makes it sound boring but that's my failing ... it was quite entertaining. All seven performances were sold out so it's very popular.

This, in a round about way, leads me back to the question I posed in the first line of this piece ... what's up with the Mormons. I'm making the assumption that most of those attending last night were Mormons, or at minimum influenced by the LDS, which is clearly the main cultural and religious influence in this state. If this assumption is correct then I tip my hat to these folks. As you might expect with a Halloween performance there were a lot of young people attending. I would say that 30% of the audience was between the age of 12 and 18. Let me say at this point that this was not a formal affair ... jeans, sweatshirts, and jackets were the norm. So that's the overall picture of the audience.

Here's what you didn't see ... not one kid with a butt crack showing or underwear hanging over low slung butt clinging jeans. Not one person wearing a goofy flat billed ball cap at an angle trying to mimic some big city crackhead gangsta rapper ... indeed, not one normal ball cap worn backwards. Not one kid was scowling out from overly made up Gothic eye make-up trying, but failing, to look tough or attempting to project some dark vision of unhappy teenhood. Out of a thousand teens, not one had holes in their jeans or baggy shit-hole clothes and rundown sneakers. Indeed most of the girls were wearing ...like OK I know this will be hard to believe ... REAL SHOES... you know like flats or boots. Imagine. There was not one tattoo showing that I could see and other than pierced ears no one seemed to have any clip, studs or holes they were not born with. Finally... the tonsorial acumen was outstanding. Modern but neat and definitely clean.

OK I can hear some of you saying ... of course this was an expensive WASP type venue. Not really. The tickets were only $20, easily in reach of most WASPish indeed but so is the entire town. In similar events I've been to all over the world there is usually one or two or a few dozen slack jawed ugly acting anti-socialites hanging about. Not here.

The other anomaly I noticed was that many of the kids seemed to be on dates. I don't know about your family but in ours it seems like our grandkids 'hang out' and don't date much. I'm not passing judgment just observing that it was sort of sweet to see kids holding hands.

On the way home Jill and I both commented on how safe we felt even though surrounded by several thousand strangers. Normally when attending any event with lots of people there's always a small part of the brain that's on guard for any untoward activity that might threaten one.

So I say again ... what's up with these Mormons? Beliefs and dogma aside, you gotta respect the results.