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1 Prelude
I’ve lived all my life in a sht in the center of the state, and people from the town like to joke about how Levan is ‘navel’ spelled backwards - "We’re the belly button of Utah," they say Not very distinguished I know, but it seems to help people remember the name Generations of my family have lived in Levan - all the way back to the first settlers in the late 1860’s, when the settlement had the nickname ‘Little Denmark’ Those first few fa to find a place to finally call home and be left alone, to raise their families and worship in peace
Most of the people in the toere descendants of the fair-haired Danes My Jensen ancestors were a those early settlers froenerations later My mom, with her rich brown hair, was the only non-blonde in the faene My dad, my three brothers, and I all share the sareat, Grandfather Jensen who crossed the plains as a very young man, settled in early Levan, built a house, and built a life
Many years ago, Levan was a thriving little town, or soMain Street there was Shepherd’s Mercantile Store and an ice cream parlor where the ice crea the su ice pit covered with earth, salt and straw There was a healthy elementary school and a town hall Then the new freeas built, and it bypassed Levan by a few miles The town had never been built to draw attention to itself, but it began a slow death as the trickle of new blood slowed to a stop The ice creaone by the time I was born, and then the rade school fell into disrepair, shrinking to a one roorew up and left without anyone to fill the desks they vacated The older kids rode a bus for a half hour north to a neighboring town called Nephi for junior and senior high school, and by the tih for elearten through 2nd grades and another for third through sixth grades Some people enerations hung on and stayed
All that reeneral store where the townsfolk could purchase anything from milk to fertilizer It boasted the name ‘Country Mall’ I have no idea why – it was the furthest thing froo, the owner added a room on each end of the store and rented out the space for some locals to set up shop
On one end it had a few tables and a little kitchen that served as a diner where the old"Sweaty Betty" Johnson (we called her Mrs Johnson to her face) ran the diner and has for longer than I can remember She’s a one woes it all on her own She reasy french fries on the planet Everything she makes is deep-fried, and her face has a perrease and the heat – which is how she got the nickname Sweaty Betty Even cleaned up for church on Sundays her face glows and sadly, it isn’t from the Holy Spirit
On the other end ood company for most of the women in Levan Her last name is spelled Ballow, but it’s pronounced Ba LOO with the accent on Loo - so she called her shop ‘Ballow’s ‘Do’, but most people just called it Louise’s
Out in front of the ‘er, a snow cone shack called Skinny’s that Louise’s kids (my cousins) ran in the suone a lot, and Louise had five kids she needed to keep busy while she cut hair Louise decided it was time for a family business Skinny’s Snow Cone Shack was born Bob built a si a little like a tall skinny outhouse, hence the naeneral store sold blocks of ice so they had a convenient source for ‘snow’ Louise bought an ice shaver and so with some straws, napkins, and some styrofoam cups in 2 sizes It was a pretty simple business model with a very low overhead Louise paid the kid on duty 5 a day, plus as many snow cones as they wanted My cousin Tara, who is the sae as me, ate so many snow cones that summer she made herself sick She can’t stand them to this day; even the smell of snowcones makes her retch
There was a tiny brick post office down the street and a bar called Pete’s right next to the church - interesting location, I know And that was Levan Everybody knehich skills each person possessed, and we had blacksmiths, bakers, even candlestick makers My dad could shoe a horse better than anyone; Jens Stephenson was a great ard, a handy carpenter, and so on We had talented seamstresses, cooks, and decorators Elena Rosquist was a mid-wife and had delivered several babies who had co no time to make the drive to the hospital in Nephi Weon our skills, whether we had an actual sign out front or not
Eventually, a fe fa it wasn’t all that far to coood place to settle in and a good place to have and create roots In very small towns the whole town helps raise the kids Everybody knoho everybody is, and if soets back to the parents before a kid can get hoer than a squarefarms, but as a child it was my whole world