4 The Lovell Chronicle August 6; 2015
Fun to meet up
old friends
It’s old home week for the Peck family.
Susan and have the opportunity this week to get together with
some old friends who we only get to see every few years. Both are
classmates of Susan’s, but they’re also good friends of mine since
we played together in the Riverton High School band in the 19705.
As of this writing, we were planning to
head to Powell Wednesday night to meet up
with my old trumpet section friend Stuart Da-
vidson, who retired a few years ago after a
spectacular career in the US. Navy. Stuart’s
father, Don, moved to Powell after his River-
ton days, and when I encountered him at a
recent church service, I asked him to pass
along a message for Stuart to call the next
time he was in town. To my great delight, he
did, and we were to share memories over
pizza on Wednesday.
Stuart was the guy in school who nev—
er even came close to earning a B. It was
straight As for Stu, and after college at the
University of Wyoming, he became a nuclear propulsion specialist
with the Navy and soon found himself serving aboard nuclear sub-
marines, where he quickly climbed the ladder with his leadership
skills.
My brother James and I visited Stuart in Washington State a
few years ago when we attended a Wyoming vs. U of Washington
football game. Stuart was at that time the second in command, the
XO, at the Bangor, Wash., Naval submarine base, one of the home
bases of the Navy’s Ohio Class ballistic missile submarine fleet.
It felt good to James and l to see a guy as smart, dedicated
and honest as Stuart in charge of a key part of our military. He’s
now working in the private sector for a defense company.
Friday, we’ll meet up in Denver with another 1979 RHS class—
mate of Susan’s, Scott Acton, who played trombone in the band.
Scott is an optics specialist who now works in Boulder, Colo., as
a “wavefront sensing and controls scientist” for the James Webb
Space Telescope working at Ball Aerospace. He’ll be part of a
team aligning the space telescope when it is launched in 2018.
He formerly worked at die Keck Observatory in Hawaii and before
that worked for the Lockheed Missiles and Space Co.
Scott’s uncle, Loren, was a space shuttle astronaut and phys-
icist who is now a professor of solar physics at Montana State
University. Scott, too, applied for the astronaut corps, though with
NASA downsizing he was not accepted.
Scott is also an avid bicyclist who came through Lovell a few
years ago on a cross-country trip. His next adventure is bicycling
around the world to promote the space telescope, offering a se-
ries of educational talks along the way.
These are guys far smarter than me, and while our North Big
Horn County readers don’t probably know them, I thought it would
be good for folks to know that there are some brilliant people born
and raised in the Cowboy State. And not only are they successful,
they’re great guys who were fellow members of our high school
Spock Baby Generation jazz band. .
I also made contact with a former Lovellite this week, former
Pacific Power manager Larry Bekkedahl, who now lives in Portland,
trying to go three for three in my quest to see old friends. Larry
and wife Denise will be out of town when we get to Portland next
week, it turns out, but I did get to chat with him for quite a while
the other night. He remembers his days in Lovell fondly.
The great thing about old friends is that you may not see them
for years but you’ll pick right up where you left off once you see
them again. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing Stuart and
Scott this week, kind of like “old band week,” I guess.
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Observations
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CHRONICLE
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Our discombobulated town needs to get along
Dear Editor,
The term discombobulated
is not used much anymore and I
am sure many young people have
never heard of it. Today most peo-
ple I am sure would use terms
such as messed up, screwed up,
in a state of chaos or going to hell
in a hand basket.
Actually, all fit the descrip-
tion of the Town of Lovell today.
There are resignations, accusa-
tions, finger pointing and gener-
al discourse around town. I have
heard complaints at the grocery
store, gas station, restaurant and
convenience store.
Some people have asked me
to write and complain, knowing
that is what I do, but I cannot
repeat some of the complaints I
heard so I will use my own word—
ing. It is time for all parties in-
volved to use the FFCGA analo-
gy. For those not into the using
of initials like the federal govern-
ment does I will explain. FFCGA
stands for forget, forgive, cooper-
ate, get along.
It is time for all parties to ex-
tend a hand, shake and get back
to the business of running this
town in a proper manner. In life
all people are not going to agree
on every little detail and that is
where compromise comes into
play.
The hand used in a hand-
shake is a powerful item. With
the thumb you can signal a
thumbs up or down. With the in-
dex finger you can always point to
someone else to blame. The third
finger can be used in the middle
finger salute. Next, the ring fin-
ger is often used to wear a ring,
however, I have seen hands with
rings on every finger, sometimes
on both hands. And, of course, the
pinkie is used by many to exend
while drinking a cup of tea.
Enough complaining and gib-
berish, it is time for everyone to
start acting like mature adults,
quit quibbling and get back to
working together. If not, we
soon may see residents taking to
the streets in a vigilante type of
movement or perhaps a call to the
governor to call out the National
Guard. Government at all levels,
local, state and federal, often for
get they work for all residents
and personal ideologies and feel-
ings should be put aside.
Jim Szlemko
Guest Column
A tale of two relgious tours
Important religious buildings, such as
synagogues, mosques, temples or cathe-
drals, derive their significance from their
members’ activities in the building. Believ-
ers may gather there for worship; they may
make personal pilgrimages to it; they may
believe that their god dwells there. In oth-
er words, the building’s fame and attraction
comes from its role as a place of religious ac-
tivity for its religion’s adherents.
So, What about tourists, people who trav-
el away from their homes to visit important
places? Tourists who visit religious sites, as
opposed to pilgrims, do not come to worship
and rarely belong to the religion associated
With the site. They come to a cathedral or a
temple because it is famous. They wish to see it and
learn more about it; they rarely want to participate
in the religious activities held there.
So, how does a place of religious importance
treat tourists?
Some religious places allow in no one not belong-
ing to the religion. That was true with the ancient
Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and it remains true for
the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
Other places give the tourists a tour. The char-
acter of that tour reveals what the religion, or at
least the religious officials who run the site, think is
important for visitors to learn.
Take Westminster Abbey in London, for in-
stance, the church linked to the British Houses of
Parliament. Thousands of people visit it every day.
Its tour is a well—oiled business that describes the
building’s history and its place in British history.
Highly trained guides lead groups around the en-
tire, large building.
The guides are experts in the church’s history
and in its relationship to the government and the
monarchs. They know the significance of every tomb,
memorial and monument, and can provide key infor-
mation about everyone buried in the church, from
king or queen to poet, playwright or scientist. They
can explain the purposes of every side chapel and
Cloister.
Buildings as old as Westminster require ongoing
upkeep, and the wear and tear of the many daily vis-
itors just adds to the building’s deterioration. To pay
for the building’s maintenance, the church has nu-
merous money-raising ventures, from entrance fees
to the bookshop and the gift shop, to say nothing
of the café. In this, the Abbey is just like the many
palaces, castles, manor houses and other historical
The Lovell Chronicle welcomes letters from
its readers and will make every effort to print
them.
Letters longer than words may not be
printed. Letters must be signed and include
the address and telephone number of the writ-
er. Unsigned letters will be discarded. Writers
Paul V.M.
Flesher
Religion Today
buildings throughout Britain.
Between the historical presentation
and the fundraising, Westminster’s on-
going role as a place of worship is near-
ly invisible. Tourists often fail to real-
ize that three to seven worship services
take place daily, including at least one
celebration of the Eucharist.
The Temple of the Church of Je—
sus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt
Lake City provides a completely differ-
ent presentation.
Tourists can keep their wallets in
their pockets because there is nothing
to buy: no food, no souvenirs, no books
and no entrance fees.
The tour guides are quite different. Instead of
trained, older professionals, the guides for Temple
Square are college-age missionaries. They know the
Square, from the Temple itself to the Tabernacle
and other buildings, but are not extensively versed
in its history. Indeed, being able to give detailed his-
torical information is not their job, and they some-
times simply tell questioners they cannot answer a
question. The tourists’ curiosity about the past may
be better satisfied by the short videos viewed on the
tour.
The tour guides at Temple Square make up in
faith and friendliness what they lack in historical
knowledge. Their task is to provide an understand-
ing of the Mormon religion, the place of the Temple
in that religion and, perhaps most importantly, to
give a sense of the vital immediacy of their beliefs in
their own daily lives. There is no “hard sell,” but the
tour guides mention their faith when relevant, and
the tour itself ends comfortably in a contemplative
room before a large statue of Jesus Christ, with the
two guides each giving a minute or so of “witness”
about their religion.
The treatment of tourists at these two reli-
gious sites could not be more different. At Westmin-
ster Abbey, the guide delivers a historical message
of English/British continuity and importance, reli-
gious and otherwise, to which the Visitors will al-
ways remain outsiders. At the Mormon Temple, by
contrast, the guides deliver a personal message, one
that links the founding of Salt Lake and its Temple .
to the guides themselves and, through them, the of-
fer is made to the visiting outsiders that they can be-
come insiders, too.
Flesher is a professor in the University of Wyo-
ming’s Religious Studies Department.
are limited to two letters in any 30 day peri-
od.All letters must conform to the law of li-
bel and be in good taste. They may be mailed
to The Lovell Chronicle, Box 787, Lovell, WY
82431, or delivered to our office at E.
Main St., Lovell. A strict 1:00 p.m. Tuesday
deadline will be enforced.
