Pioneer Day

I remember as a child that the 3 stakes in our area always got together and had a huge Pioneer Day celebration. It was bigger by far than the 4th of July, as a matter of fact the only time there was a bigger "celebration" was during the county fair and only because for that one weekend there was a carnival in town. Anyway Pioneer Day was always accompanied by a large parade, lots of food, a big dance and fireworks. For weeks before we would talk about pioneers in primary. One year we even did thing they would do, my main memory of the primary activity was washing clothes on a wash board. I don't know why but that has always stuck with me. We as a family always had an interesting array of "pioneer" dresses, mostly long dresses resurrected from the early 70's, I was always jealous of the girls who had bonnets because my sisters and I never did. Of course dressing up was a prerequisite to participating in Pioneer Day, even when it was 115 degrees outside.

So as I was thinking about Pioneer Day today, I pulled from my bookshelves the Brown family history. These are the words written by my gggg grandfather Benjamin Brown upon reaching the Salt Lake Valley in September of 1847 "...we found the Pioneers and others of the Saints that had gone into the Valley, had been hard at work sowing all the winter, for every wagon had taken about two bushels of grain to raise wheat and the first inhabitants had raised a considerable quantity of vegetable also." He goes on to comment that 2 weeks after their arrival a large feast was held in celebration and everyone was invited. Unfortunately it left them in short supply of vegetables until the following summer. The tanacity of these people always amazes me. I am so fortunate to have such ancesters who bore such extreme hardships in order to provide the gospel for their posterity. What wonderful testimonies they leave of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon. I am truly bless with such wonderful examples.