This Is My Town

Na na na na na...

When Rachel and I were making plans for what we would do when she came to Payson to visit me, I joked about how there isn't much to see or do here in P-town. Luckily, she came here on a dark, wintry night, so seeing the sights wasn't really an option. But I've been thinking all week about what I'd like to show her next time she's here.

I'd like to show her my town the way it was when I was growing up. One stop light, one grocery store, lots and lots of open space for kids to explore. The mountain bike trails that are now subdivisions, the old ball park in it's heyday where I spent every single day every single summer. The smell of the Huish Theater's popcorn and the donut holes at Roe's Bakery on Main Street. I'd show her the backyards that connected for blocks where night games were a weekly occurrence, the penny candy store we would stop by after we were done at the swimming pool, and the trail to red bridge where you'd get in trouble if your parents found out you had been there.

Roe's Bakery

Things have changed since I first moved to this little town. We have seven stoplights. Fields where we used to catch grasshoppers are now huge business developments. Everyone still seems to know everyone else, but they don't always take the time to find out how anymore.

But that's okay. There are lots of things that are the same. The band concerts in the park every Sunday in the summer, where the kids go to socialize and the adults go to watch the kids socialize. The hill at Peteetneet that is the best sledding hill in the country (probably). The canyon - which is my absolute favorite part of this city - and the way the sun hits the mountains and turns them a stunning shade of purple before night comes. The smell of the cherry plants and the smell of the Salmon Supper and the smell of the hay fields and the smell in the air when West Mountain is on fire --- which happens at least once every year. I'd show her the road where my sister and I would walk to school every day, how you can hear the band practicing and the football announcers when you're sitting on my parents' front porch, and the spot we used to run to on the corner to watch the firetrucks drive by on the old highway.

Payson Canyon

I'd show her the back roads I learned to drive on, with my Dad sitting next to me in his old blue truck. The patchwork design that the farmlands make on the side of the mountain that still takes my breath away every time I see it. The softball field - and home plate - that was MINE for four years, where I learned some of the most important lessons of my life. The local fast food joint with the best french fries and shakes and the local fast food joint where the whole choir would go after every concert to get ice cream.

The Farms on West Mountain

My tour would include the place Adam and I went on our first date, the place we first kissed, the place we first fought. The church gym where we danced on our wedding night. The hospital where my babies were born.

Our Tree, Payson Canyon,
the spot of our first date

There are also lots of things I couldn't show her about my town and why I love it. The sound of my elementary school principal's voice and the hug of my 7th grade English Teacher. The way my softball coach would hit my helmet and the way my bishop shakes your hand. I would take her to the high school and try to have her understand what it felt like there after school was out - staying for sports practice, play practice, weight training, homework, detention, or just because you didn't want to go home. How the Primary President when I was baptized was also the Young Women's President when I turned 12 and is now the Primary President that I work side by side with each week. How our volunteer fire department and volunteer EMT's are people I've known my whole life - and how comforting that is when you need them.

Of course I'd show her the temple site, even though right now it's just a big stretch of dirt, and I'd tell her how excited I am to have the temple built here.  How it will feel like it belongs to my children - it will be 'their' temple.  How I will serve there and how when people go, they will see so many familiar faces that it will really be a taste of heaven.

I'd show her how neighbors plow and shovel the snow for the whole block just because they know it needs to be done, how cars passing each other can stop in the middle of the road to have a conversation and everyone is okay with it because "that's Payson".  I'd show her the gas station where I used to work and how it has the best Hot Chocolate in the history of hot chocolate, as well as the hill we used to iceblock on, and our park that has so many trees it's amazing the sun gets through to the grass at all.  I'd show her what it feels like to lay on the sidewalk after running through the sprinklers (or -heaven forbid- the irrigation water) and what it feels like to lay in the middle of the street on a warm summer night and feel the heat of the blacktop underneath you.

Payson Memorial Park

Basically, I'd try to show her how I am who I am because of this crazy little town.  How I'll raise my family here and my kids will love it here sometimes and hate it here sometimes and want to get out I'm sure, but hopefully they'll come back because it's where I'll be. And where their memories will be.

And it's awesome.