Hurricane Peach Days 2012

     Recently I was involved in the Hurricane City Peach Days Celebration.  My son had been playing the role of Alf Hall in the drama based on the historical facts of the digging of the Hurricane Canal.  He got a job which hours made it impossible for him to participate.  I was informed that I was taking his part on the day of the dress rehearsal.  It was a struggle.  I've never been good at memorizing lines.  I would study, sweat (the cooler was on the brink in the old auditorium as well), and rely on the encouragement of other wonderful cast members between scenes.  I ended up ad-libbing without changing the meaning more often than not.  I never could get my verse right in one song, but it was a humorous one so the audience didn't seem to mind my word-changes.  But, as it rolled on into the third evening I had a sense that those men, and their supportive families, who built the canal were aware of our acting.  Not that every word was exactly as they would have said, but the real-life drama of heart-break and sacrifice they actually took part in was what we were conveying to the audience.  I had an impression that it is important to them that we understand that they did go through with it, that they did not give up, and that our present blessings here would not have been if they had not done.  I could not help but feel, standing backstage peeking through the curtains waiting for my next appearance, that they want us to be aware that they carried on, keeping faith in God, even when things seemed unlikely to work out.

     What we celebrate at Peach Days is what some determined families were able to do by getting a little water to the Hurricane Bench. They were told by the experts of the time that that part was impossible. All they had were picks, shovels, 

wheelbarrows, and a little black powder to dig and tunnel 8 miles through rock slides, steep talus slopes, and sheer cliffs. Without asking for handouts (only an investment from the LDS church), they did the impossible.
     The following conversation took place not long after the canal was finished. James Jepson, along with John Steele, had been the inspiration and leader of the project: 

     "Do you remember how Brigham Young called a group of people to Dixie?" asked James Jepson of an incredulous G.H. Brimhall (then president of BYU) as they viewed the final product. 
     "Yes."
     "Do you remember that of the half who came,only half remained?"
     "Yes."
     "Well," said Jepson,"the men and women who built this canal are the children of those who stayed!" 

     The canal is not in use any more, but it's still there, what wasn't ruined in the 1992 earth quake.  Take a hike along 'the ditch'.  Learn about the "Ditch Riders" (I knew Billy, the last one...father of the now-famous World Champion Bull Rider Cody Wright).  

You have to see it to believe it (Google "Hurricane Canal" to read about and see photos of what I'm talking about).

     I am one of the many blessed beneficiaries of those early pioneers' hard work. My family and I have been lucky enough to enjoy the peaches and pecans that the early settlers began the tradition of growing here. My children learned to labor for the good of others on the church farm, at its peak having 20,000 of the best peach and apricot trees in the LDS Welfare system (the return on their investment). We have wonderful friends among the progenitors of those original builders and have found many to be unusually generous and friendly. This is why I love Peach Days, and being a part of that play for which I could never get my lines quite right.
     The soil here doesn't look like much, but they were right. Get a little water on it and this is what can happen to your cucumbers and summer squash if you don't pick them for a couple of days: