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Posted

We just got the July 28 issues of the Church News the other day. I looked at the cover (don't know how to post a link to it), and after seeing the picture the first thing I thought was, "Ellen DeGeneres was in the Pioneer Day Parade?"

Posted

It's the Primary general president. The event was the children's parade held the weekend before Pioneer Day.

And other than the short, blonde hair, I don't see the resemblance.

But whatever.

Posted

It's the Primary general president. The event was the children's parade held the weekend before Pioneer Day.

And other than the short, blonde hair, I don't see the resemblance.

But whatever.

I do.

So there.

Posted

I never realized they brought the temple across the plains in a handcart. That must have been hard.

I'm just wondering how they got it inflated once they got to the valley.

Posted

A homespun children's parade can be an easy target for mockery -- if one is so disposed.

I don't think anyone is mocking it. It's not sacred so there's nothing wrong with finding different parts of it amusing or funny.

We don't always have to take everything so seriously. Smiling is fun! :D

Posted

I never realized they brought the temple across the plains in a handcart. That must have been hard.

I'm just wondering how they got it inflated once they got to the valley.

You know if I was standing next to you at that parade I'd slapped you upside the head and said "you silly, they are pulling their hopes and dreams...nothing could be lighter!". ;)
Posted (edited)

There will be lots of Pioneer Day parades, but never again one as cool as this one from 1947 (the 100th anniversary):

700392910.jpg

700392945.jpg

Edited by cinepro
Posted (edited)

I don't think anyone is mocking it. It's not sacred so there's nothing wrong with finding different parts of it amusing or funny.

We don't always have to take everything so seriously. Smiling is fun! :D

You're right, of course, in that there is nothing holy about a parade float and it is OK occasionally to laugh at ourselves.

Still, my caution is about letting the propensity toward good-natured teasing stray over the fine line into pseudo-sophisticated derision and finger-pointing. We have quite enough of that to put up with from antagonists and apostates without inflicting it upon one another.

Our stake was one of those involved this year in the children's parade, and my wife is a ward Primary president (though our stake's float is not among those pictured in the links). And some friends of mine were in charge of doing a float for our stake several years go in the main parade that takes place on July 24. So I'm somewhat acquainted with the process.

Holiday observance of the day Brigham Young and the Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley is a tradition in Salt Lake City that goes back to the days of President Young himself. But it takes a good deal of effort to sustain it from year to year, and it doesn't happen spontaneously.

Individual stakes in the area receive the assignment from Church headquarters (I think they rarely, if ever, volunteer for it) to prepare a float, and the task is typically delegated by the local stake presidency to stake members who, likely as not, have no experience in float building and who, more than likely, have had no inclination ever to do such a thing in their lives. But they cheerfully and enthusiastically receive and fulfill the assignment. The children's parade, in particular, has little-to-no commercial component, as I understand it, so when I characterize it as "homespun," I do so advisedly.

While we were at the staging ground for the parade, I chatted with a member of my stake who was involved in producing our float. I told him I wouldn't know the first thing about creating a parade float and that I consider it one of the Lord's tender mercies that I have never been called upon to do so. He replied that he had been in much the same condition, but with everyone involved giving their best efforts, they were able to complete the task satisfactorily.

I guess I would simply point out that those Church members who live elsewhere conceivably might one day, through some unforeseen set of circumstances, be living in the Mormon corridor of the Salt Lake Valley, at which time they may well find themselves, through no choice or initiative of their own, either in the role of a stake leader casting around for some group of people to build a parade float or in the role of someone receiving that assignment. Then, they too might be prone to having the product of their work subject to public jeering, be it good-natured or not.

Edited by Scott Lloyd
Posted

There will be lots of Pioneer Day parades, but never again one as cool as this one from 1947 (the 100th anniversary):

This one had its charms. But it is eclipsed in coolness by the one from 1997 (the sesquicentennial).

Posted

We just got the July 28 issues of the Church News the other day. I looked at the cover (don't know how to post a link to it), and after seeing the picture the first thing I thought was, "Ellen DeGeneres was in the Pioneer Day Parade?"

Well, Ellen is a pioneer of sorts. :)

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