Who Are They?

Ivy, Grandpa and the Great Salt Lake

Now that there are seventeen of you I am struggling to keep up.

It was only recently that I looked back through all of the photographs on my computer and found these. These are scanned photographs since my non-digital photos are not on my computer except in scanned form.

Grandpa and I used to love to take our older grandchildren to The Great Salt Lake. That was before most of you were even born because Ivy is only 8 in these photographs and she is now 24 and all grown up.

Time was when the water was quite close to Black Rock, which is where these photos were taken, and even though we could drive to the shady side of the rock and park there, we had to walk a bit to wade in the water.

When the Lake was high, we remember that Black Rock was surrounded by water and you had to swim to the rock. Our children remember that fun.

I had yet to buy my really nice Canon 35 mm camera and so these photographs were taken with a nice Minolta camera with a limited zoom.

Nevertheless, I love these photographs.

That is because they tell a story and stories are the reason why I take pictures. It is a story of a magical place and a beautiful day. It is also the story of what used to be, judging by the place where Ivy is sitting and playing. It is also a place where the wonderful Utah seagulls, our State Birds, became quite friendly as they kept their eyes on Ivy’s lunch.

Seagulls will eat almost anything and if you have paid attention to the stories which your parents have told you, you know that on occasion, they will even eat crickets and lots of them.

This was a time when the lake was high.

You didn’t have to walk far to walk in the water

and if you could tolerate the beach flies, which you could,

you felt like you were in another world.

The lake can cast a spell . . . especially in the evening.

Time truly stops when you visit the lake.

It is unique and breathtaking.

These photographs cannot compare in quality to those I can take today with advanced cameras. Nevertheless, they are priceless for the story they tell.

As children, both Grandpa and I rode the Bamburger train to many of the resorts on the Great Salt Lake including the original Saltair. We swam in the lake or rather floated on the lake, washed the salt from our suits and bodies in beachfront showers and ate hot dogs and cotton candy. Compare old-time photographs of the lake with the lake today and you will see what treasures this photos are.

“You simply cannot sink.

If you think that you want to try,

I would suggest that you have someone

standing by with a bucket of clean water to pour over your head.

“You will not like the salt in your eyes.”