Field Trip

On Saturday, I went with my DUP sisters on our annual field trip. This year's trip was extraordinary and I must say that I learned so much. We went to the This is the Place Heritage Park.

Brigham Young's Forest Home. Originally located in the Sugarhouse area. I learned here that this house once sat on 800 acres of land. That means that at one time, my property was a part of this farm. The well in my yard was once Brigham Young's used for the farm.

During this time period (mid to late 1800's) it was a common belief that if boys did not become weathered to the elements that they would not grow into strong men (or not wimps). In the summer, the boys slept outside and in the winter they slept in the attic with Buffalo hides to keep them warm.

We made a stop to the Barber Shop, often called a Barber surgeon because they did far more then just cut hair or trim mustaches. This is also where you would go if you needed a tooth pulled or if you weren't feeling well and needed to be bled (blood letting). Some of the instruments used for these purposes seemed more like torture devices then medical equipment. I couldn't imagine going to a barber to have a tooth pulled and there was no guarantee that they could take the entire tooth out. If the roots stayed, there was another device used to dig the roots out. Ouch! I found it interesting that the Barber Pole was a medieval symbol for blood letting. The red represented the blood or bloody bandages, blue for the color of the vein and white for the hope of a clean bandage.
Lots of baby chickens running around. (I can't call them chicks because they are much larger then chicks but not a full size chicken yet)
Nearly every historic home or building was surrounded by gorgeous flowers. Iris, wild roses, lavender, peonies and sage just to name a few. I don't think I have seen Columbine this color before.
Also, for the time period, it was believed that if you laid flat to sleep that your heart would stop. Many of the beds in these old homes are much shorter for this reason. They slept sitting up or in a near sitting up position.

One of our last stops was to the printing shop. Inside they were demonstrating the printing process with a replica press printing the first edition of the Deseret News. It is surprising that many of our sayings has come from this industry. Like Mind your P's and Q's. The small type pieces were in a separated box and the person pulling the letters to create the story had to have the box memorized and since the P and Q were next to each other, they were told to mind them.

Also, make a good impression comes from this process. When they printed the paper they wanted to make a good impression.

The term dingbat comes from the newspaper industry as well. Of course it has a different meaning now then what it once did. A dingbat is a decorative piece of type used to fill up extra space.