It was fun to travel with just the boys. Leaving Moab and heading up to the SLC area to pick up Starr left us driving through Green River and Price to get there. Oh, the memories. My grandma and grandpa Curtis used to live in Green River…since I can remember. And so did their parents. This is where my dad was raised and where my parents met – when they eventually married, they even lived here briefly at one time.
The sad thing about Green River, is that it really hasn’t changed much during the past 40 years…okay, maybe just a little. The population is under 1000…and holding. The town just seemed older to me this time as we drove through it. Buildings were shut down and falling part, paint peeling, and doors and windows boarded up on what used to be the main buildings downtown. It just wasn’t the same, especially since both my grandparents have since passed away. It seems so strange to drive by their old house and not stop to visit them. I miss it….a lot! It brought back a flood of emotion to see their old house, the baseball field across the street from their house where we used to sit and watch games. The big awesome park with the huge rocket that had the best and fastest merry-go round. And then on the same street as their house, the LDS church building where we would often walk to church with them – and everyone could tell we looked like a ‘Curtis’ ….the same building my grandparents celebrated their 50th anniversary over 20 years ago – and a place where I said my last good-bye to them – 13 years ago and 5 years ago. Oh, how I miss them.
This is their old house where my great-grandparents lived..as well as my grandparents. Even my grandparents on my mother’s side lived in this house.
Eventually, my grandparents put in a manufactured home next door and moved there.
Jeff asked to see the cemetery – I guess he’s heard us talk about it. It’s a very….ummm unique cemetery. It’s just not very pretty – lots of dirt and sagebrush. But my family is here – so it will always mean a lot to me.
After giving my son a brief family history lesson on Green River, we drove on to Price – an hour long drive of nothing but dirt, and sagebrush along mountains I have more than memorized during my lifetime.
I was born in Price and lived there until I was 11. So I had to find the house to show my sons….
Yep, looks the same, except for the fence in the front. It’s a corner lot so we always had people cutting through our lawn – I guess this solved this problem. I drove to one of my best-friends house up the street and saw her mom sitting on the porch – how fun it was to stop and introduce myself briefly – and yes, 30 years later, she still remembered me. Or so she says…:)
I showed my boys our neighborhood, the great parks….and the swimming pool 2 miles away we used to walk to as kids.
It was mentally exhausting – but therapeutic. Two hours later we made our way up near Provo where we explored the BYU area and finally picked up Starr. During this time she had been on her ‘girl trip’ (see below posts) and we hadn’t seen in her almost 2 weeks. So slowing I’m accumulating family as we make our way up to Montana.
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