CHRONICLE
eo e
Caden Zeller
and Kaitlyn
Mickelson of
Lovell performed
with fellow music
students from
nine schools
in the district
at a musical
performance
hosted by Lovell
Middle School on
Feb. 28.
Gavin Wilske of
Lovell took part in
district-wide music
performance and
clinic held on Feb.
28 at Lovell Middle
School.
Photos by
Patti Carpenter
The Byron News
Tales from the Byron Marco Polo
E. DENNEY NEVILLE
548- 7829
nevilleart@tctwest.net
In grade school, I first read
about Marco Polo's travels around
the world to distant lands and
faraway places. The names were
too difficult to pronounce, but I
was quite amazed by their exotic
sound. Names like Kublai Khan,
Shangri-La, Mongolia and the
Gobi Dessert had an exotic, poetic
sound that intrigued me like the
lesser, exotic names of Shoshoni,
Meteetsee, Chugwater and Gebo,
Wyoming. Smitten I was, thus, by
language exotica.
Mario Polo's stories filled my
mind with images of great trea-
sures of gold and precious stones,
feared rulers of armies wearing
leather and metal armor, flags,
swords and lances, memoriz-
ing and enchanting me almost as
much as catching chubs, carp and
suckers in the Shoshone River, or
perch in a gravel pit near Powell.
I could have never imagined that
one day Byron would have its own
Marco Polo--John Petrich, a tall,
laid-back, hometown gentleman
with obvious eyebrows like a lynx
cat. John traveled some of the
same roads to exotic places and re-
turned with stories and treasure,
as did the legendary Marco Polo.
I remember standing in an al-
ley with my dad, here in Byron
years ago, talking to John and
his father Art. During the visit,
John and I struck up a conversa-
tion about an old car in the alley
by their house. At the end of the
conversation, John told me the
engine of the old car had a slight
problem but it still ran, and then
added, "If it is OK with your dad
you can have it." Dad OtCd the
deal and I had my first car. From
what I have read of Marco Polo,
John was just as generous. That
was an exciting summer. The old
jalopy lasted until fall, then it
was converted into a trailer for
my welding shop project.
I doubt anyone else in the Big
Horn Basin can say their first car
was given to them by someone
who later traveled to some of the
same places as did Marco Polo.
I visited with John and Chris-
ty at their home and they showed
me a good part of the interesting
treasure John brought home from
his worldwide travels while he
worked for Weatherford Interna-
tional, servicing oil wells.
John showed me his passport,
a small, 28 page, multi-stamped
record of many dozens of entries
into parts of the world--Russia
(seven times), China, Indone-
sia, Japan, Germany, England,
Egypt, Venezuela, Singapore,
Hong Kong, Malaysia (30 times),
Laos, Burma and Thailand--
multiple visits to all of them over
an ll-year period.
In Laos, he traveled in a Tuk-
Tuk cab for about 10 cents a mile.
A Tuk-Tuk cab is a small, three-
wheeled cab, motorized or ped-
dled. In Cairo, John rode a cam-
el while he viewed the pyramids.
He said the camel smelled as bad
as it was ugly. On one of his sev-
eral trips to Thailand John took
his wife, Christy. After consid-
erable coaxing John was able to
convince Christy to go for a ride
with him on an elephant. The
odor was not quite the issue it
was with the camel.
One interesting story John
told me was about his lynx-like
eyebrows. He showed me some
beautiful hand painted jewelry
and lacquered boxes with beau-
tifully intricate landecapes and
portraits of royalty painted on
them. Only with a magnifying
glass can you see the artist's sig-
nature. These little works of art
are large in quality. John pointed
at his eyebrows and told me eye-
brows like his are needed to paint
these intricate works of art. Any
hair once clipped is not suitable.
The hairs must have an uncilpped
end that tappers to a natural fine
point for a one-hair brush. They
would have purchased and picked
him clean of his eyebrows if he
would have let them. I can see a
headline in the Moscow Chroni-
cle, "American male mugged and
ripped clean of his eyebrows by
group of starving, Muscovite art-
ists."
I visited with John and pro-
posed that we create a special, se-
cure case in which we could dis-
play some of his collection in the
Byron Museum during the up-
coming Byron Days of 2012. He
has agreed.
A concluding comment pub-
lished regarding the value of
Marco Polo's 23 year journey,
"...so that men might know the
things that are in the world. No
other man, Christian or Saracen,
Mongol or pagan, has explored
so much of the world as Messer
Marco Polo son of Messer Niccolo
Polo, citizen of the city of Venice,"
and now, might I add, Mr. John
Petrich, son of Art and Forrest
Alyne Petrich, citizen of the town
of Byron, with lynx eyebrows still
intact.
"They builded a tower to shiv-
er the sky and wrench the stars
apart, Till the Devil grunted be-
hind the bricks: 'It's striking, but
is it Art?' The stone was dropped
by the quarry-side, and the idle
derrick swung, while each man
talked of the aims of art, and each
in an alien tongue." --Rudyard
Kipling, from The Conundrum of
the Workshops.
Club News
DUP members discuss Honest Abe, ZCMI
The Big Horn Company of
The Daughters of Utah Pioneers
(DUP) met on Feb. 13 with vice-
president Marge Stevens con-
ducting.
A spiritual thought was
shared by Laura Gerstner and
the patriotic presentation, giv-
en by Dorothy Winterholler, was
about Abraham Lincoln, born
Feb. 12, 1809. As a child his
mother, Nancy Hanks, read and
sang to him. Later, he moved to
Illinois with his stepmother, Sar-
ah Bush. He is remembered for
his honesty, his grey eyes and his
six-foot-four-inch stature.
He and Mary Todd had four
children. As U.S. President he is
credited for saving the union. He
was assassinated at the age of 56.
The museum presentation by
Patty Hansen was about Hiram
and Sarah Kimball, and an in-
teresting donation. Renon Jones
of Otto shared a family history
about her Christensen grandpar-
ents, born in Denmark, and how
they came to the United States.
Her grandfather played the vio-
lin by ear and helped many to im-
migrate, but died at the early age
of 40.
Guest speaker Mildred Asay
talked about the founding and
history of ZCMI (Zion's Coop-
erative Mercantile Institution),
which became known as "Amer-
ica's First Department Store."
ZCMI was established in 1866
in order to provide a place for
the pioneers to purchase goods
at reasonable prices. It became a
formidable business force, even-
tually manufacturing its own line
of boots and shoes and a line of
work clothes. It also sold every-
thing from housing needs, lum-
ber and nails to fabric, needles,
thread, food preservation prod-
ucts, furniture, draperies and
beauty products.
Branches were formed in Ida-
ho, Wyoming, Nevada and South
Dakota, as well as many in Utah.
The hostess committee of
Ann and Melba Bridges and Na-
dine Larson shared Valentine's
Day with their table decorations
and delicious refreshments.
The next meeting will be
Monday, March 12, at 1 p.m. in
the Lovell Annex.
March 8, 2012 I The Lovell Chronicle I 15
Cowley News
March weather brings
thoughts of spring
DRUE TEBBS-MEEK
548-6901
March has arrived and it
wasn't quite like a lion, yet we all
are aware that that can change
in a day. Somehow winter has
slipped by. The basketball season
is over and soon the spring season
of track and other outside events
will be here. The Ides of March
from Shakespeare is upon us and
the official date of spring is on the
horizon. The senior classes of high
school are anticipating graduation
and it just seems a few months
ago that my grandson graduated
and here it is, his first year of col-
lege and the university will have a
spring break this weekend.
Years ago, when I was in my
30s, I asked my mother how it felt
to be in her 70s and she replied
that she felt just the same as when
she was young and raising her fam-
ily and that even though you're old-
er you are the same inside even
though your body starts to do tricks
on you. Those were the days when I
was working and planning for a fu-
ture, and I couldn't even imagine 50
let alone 70. I couldn't believe that
she felt the same way at 70 as she
did when she was 35 or so. Well,
here I am and as usual, my mother
was right. Little did I dream that
the years would travel so swifLly
and our generation would be the
older one. It's a strange feeling.
The late Dee and Jennie
Nicholls Lewis lived in a beauti-
ful red brick home ever since I can
remember. It is a one-floor home
with red brick, has a beautiful front
porch, two bedrooms, a den, a won-
derful kitchen, a good-sized dining
area and a master bathroom that
was in greenish-blue tile. Jennie
had rheumatoid arthritis and the
shower was a walk-in. The house
has a garage, a long patio in the
back, with rounded arches of a
lighter brick, a carriage house, and
land for horses and carriages. The
yards are spacious and beauti-
ful. The last time I saw it when
Jennie was alive, there was a back
bedroom filled with antiques, a long
hallway, a sort of parlor in front of
the bedroom, and her bedroom rug
was the loveliest carpet one could
imagine. The whole house was
beautiful and big.
I called Lou Marchant Wil-
son, as she and her late husband,
Charles (we called him Chick), were
good friends of both Dee and Jen-
nie and my Aunt Vivian and Uncle
Lyle Nicholls. She said Dee and
Lyle Nicholls built their homes at
the same time when their families
were young, probably in the 1940s
or early 50s. Dee and Uncle Lyle
worked for my Uncle Lou Welch
in the construction business and
were master carpenters and brick-
layers. Lou said that Dee and Jen-
nie's home had a kitchen, two bed-
rooms, a living room and, of course,
one bathroom when they built it.
Through the years Dee and Jen-
nie built on a garage, more rooms
and the long arched patio outside
that is a dream to observe. When
we were younger and I was playing
with my cousins next door to the
Lewises, I thought the house might
be a mansion.
The next family to own the
home was Matt and Tammy Wahl-
brink and their two children. They
enjoyed the beautiful home until
their children graduated from high
school, then moved to Las Vegas,
Nev. last fall. The home is now
owned by John and Kendy Rich-
ards, who bought the home in No-
vember. John and Kendy have two
grown daughters: Kabre, who is a
special ed teacher in Seattle, Wash.
and Jamie, who is a pre-school
teacher in Reno.
John works for the Natural
Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS) in Lovell and Kendy is a
pre-school teacher for Rocky. She
has three sessions of preschoolers
four days a week from 8 a.m. un-
til noon and she also works as a
Title I teacher. The couple lived in
Deaver for many years and Kendy
has taught in Frannie, Deaver and
now in Cowley for the last 23 years.
They enjoy Cowley, living
in town, their jobs, and they ab-
solutely love Dee and Jennie's
home. Kendy said she likes to walk
to her work, go uptown for a hair-
cut, have paved streets, order piz-
za and other food from Cowtown
and can't wait until planting time
to plant some flowers and be on
the beautiful patio which might
be her favorite part of the lovely
home. We're glad you're here, and
welcome you to Cowley.
Get Growing with Gary
i'm excited for spring
GARY EMMETT
getgrowingwithgary@gmail.com
The time has finally come. I
have ordered most of my garden
seeds from all of the seed catalogs
that I have received in the marl.
I am sure that the postal carriers
are glad to see this time come, too.
However, now they will be busy de-
livering seed packages.
It shouldn't be too bad this
year, I think I only ordered from
four different companies, but then
I had better double check my list.
I started receiving my seed cat-
alogs in the mail the week before
Christmas and then it has just con-
tinued. I think the most I received
in one day was four. Even though
one of those catalogs was a rose
catalog, I still counted it because it
brought visions of spring. My wife
kept her snickers to herself for the
most part, as I would look at each
catalog over and over again, mak-
ing notes in the margins, placing
sticky notes on the front of each
catalog, and then trying to make
sense of the spreadsheet that I also
created to keep track of the variety
of seeds that I wanted to try, who
they were from and how much they
cost from each company.
My wife, Brenda, did get excit-
ed about one catalog in particular
when I showed her a pepper corer
that could be used to core out the
seeds in jalapeno peppers. She then
got hooked, too, but only if there
were kitchen gadgets offered. She
did make a suggestion or two, but it
was usually on the line of "Did you
order that kind that we liked last
year?" Now I had to go back to last
year's notes and figure out what I
ordered and planted. Good thing I
have a spreadsheet from last year,
too.
When ordering seeds, I try to
take into account the number of
seeds that come in each package.
Do I really want or need 25 seeds of
each tomato or pepper variety that
I order? Even the smaller packag-
es that come with 10 seeds, which
is still a lot of plants, sometimes
seem too many. If I ordered, hypo-
thetically speaking of course, eight
different tomato varieties, I could
possibly end up with more than
200 tomato seeds. And, of course,
that doesn't include the peppers
and flowers that I might have or-
dered, too. I wonder if the local
greenhouse would want any of my
extra seeds?
As I wait for the seeds to ar-
rive, I guess I will have to start re-
arranging my seed starting area:
Move my petted plants, set up the
growing lights, plug in the heating
pad and get the potting soil ready.
Thank goodness I have a patient
and understanding wife. I have
amaryllis bulbs still blooming,
poinsettia plants still in full color,
and other plants that are ready
to go outside, however, that won't
happen anytime soon. I will just
have to shuffle the plants around,
and I can't forget about my orchids.
A couple of my orchids have come
back into bloom, with others to fol-
low soon. I have to have them front
and center to enjoy.
Yes, preparing for the seeds to
arrive even has its challenges, too.
However, it is the anticipation of or-
dering the seeds that is most excit-
ing...the thrill of the search. There
is no way that I could settle on one
catalog and say these will do. It is
almost like an eternal quest to find
that perfect variety, seeking for the
ultimate gardening adventure: my
personal search for E1 Dorado. Do
you want to go along, too?
If you have any gardening
questions that you would like to
ask, and they might even help
someone else, please email me at
getgrowingwithgary@gmail.com
and I will answer your questions.
They might even show up here in
the paper. Think spring!
