Have Fun!

Where I live, everyone has a Lagoon story. Lagoon amusement park is just 10 minutes from my home-town. One of my first jobs was there, working at Pioneer Village. The village was originally in Salt Lake City but was moved to its current location in Farmington in the seventies. Even then I loved history! So, I was happy to don a red-printed pioneer dress and station myself at various buildings to answer any history questions from visitors. The most fun place for me was the Music Shop. I got to demonstrate the gramophone, and the earlier Edison cylinder phonograph; if I remember right it played an operatic number from Enrico Caruso. There was also a player piano and an old metal-disc music box.

My least favorite station was the attic in the barn, where they displayed pioneer quilts. I not only dressed like a pioneer, but I also felt like a pioneer. I remember spending one 4th of July in the quilt attic where there was no air-conditioning!

I soon left behind all other buildings when I learned a skill. I was one of only two employees who could operate the machine that wrote names on hats. Yes, just like you can still get at Disneyland! So, from then on, my shift was always at the hat shop. We had a large selection of hats, and people could pretty much choose whatever they wanted to write on them. It was a busy place. The building is still there; it’s a wooden building that sits just to the left as you enter Pioneer Village. The last time I was there, I think it had an old coin display.

Pioneer Village captures a moment in time, but even it has changed over the years. There are no longer any pioneer ladies guiding your tour, the General Store is now an Arby’s restaurant, and there are no staged shootouts on Main Street. But I still feel nostalgic there, with the memories I made.

top photo: Dave Gottwald