Golden Spike 150 Year Anniversary Celebration (May 10, 2019)

This kicked off one of our first adventures this summer - the celebration of the uniting of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads at Promontory Point, Utah 150 years ago.

Eloise with choir buddy, Stella at bus drop
off at 7am that morning

We knew Eloise would be singing at it - it had been on her choir schedule since the fall. She has loved her year with Cache Children's Choir - was so delighted to sing in the Nutcracker it practically broke my heart. (I think her joy was that this was the only way she'd found to participate in this production - she'd auditioned for dancing parts but never made it. And she'd asked for dance classes SO she COULD make it. But the parts are so few, and casting is so political. I've known all along she isn't into dancing, but IS into friends and performing. And when I see her smile on stage as she sings, even sneaking little waves at us, this choir thing absolutely seems to hit the spot.)

So I was frustrated and shocked when they said she could NOT sing at this event. Apparently the invitation was for 5th graders, and I had put on Eloise's choir registration that she was in 4th. As it turned out, there were a number of things on the choir schedule like that - I signed up thinking, "Wow! This will be such a fun year with so many amazing opportunities," only to realize that they just didn't put the age specifications on the calendar and the opportunities faded away. Having Eloise NOT sing at the event would make our lives easier. Over that same weekend, Kai was set to perform with Ballet West, and EV had a dance recital too. But not performing was NOT Eloise's preference, so I went to bat for her.

When I got one of her choir directors on the phone, I pointed out that Eloise COULD be in 5th grade. Her birthday - August 31 at 11:54 pm - officially allows her to be. And she is tall enough to blend in with the older kids. Her director agreed that her behavior was not an issue either. So they told me not to tell anyone, but that they would allow her to perform! Hooray!

Eloise in her choir uniform for the broadcast.

Earlier in the spring, we'd gone to see a preview of what this performance would look like. Her choir performed with the American Festival Choir and... we didn't care for the songs related to the Golden Spike event much. In fact, we had attended this earlier event and paid for our seats with the express purpose of NOT attending the Golden Spike event - I knew the event was huge, that it would be crazy crowded, that we'd likely not even be able to see Eloise. And we'd been to the re-enactment before, which is the same every year, so we didn't NEED to go on any level. Eloise would even be bused there and back. But... BUT how could I not share this experience with her?

Thankfully, though my conscious plan all along had been to NOT attend, in the back of my mind was this quiet prompting to "prepare to go," "prepare to go." And because it simply "seemeth me good," I registered for event updates, put myself on a list to receive one of a limited number of parking passes, and kept the date and times marked on my calendar. In the end, they would up cancelling the last concert of Eloise's choir "because the kids had been so busy with these other performances," (ignoring the fact that not ALL the choir had been able to be so busy - Eloise WAS kicked out of a recording session for her age), that this was the last and culminating chance to see Eloise perform and we WENT! How could we not?

In years past, we'd invited in-laws, friends, and had a blast at the re-enactment. This year I was relieved it was just me and Arthur and EV. (We did invite Dianne, but it was so last-minute when we decided to got that she had other obligations. And as for friends, tickets did sell out, so we could only invite anyone who could fit in OUR car.) Anyway, because this was the 150 year celebration, it was MAJOR, and what should have taken just an hour to drive took 2 - for the last 8 miles we only went about 5 miles an hour! The line to get there stretched for miles. EV and Arthur were amazingly patient about it, and I tried to distract them by engaging their imaginations too. I said we might be driving about as slow as a wagon train moved - in fact I think it was still faster. And we tried to count 100 cars up ahead of us - about the number of wagons that might have been in a company - but we couldn't count that far, and in fact, the line was much, much longer than a wagon train.

Eloise was given a t-shirt, and engineers hat and scarf to wear for the even. But we went in our pioneer garb - we even took a pioneer picnic of sandwiches, apples, and strawberry rhubarb pie! The even was crowded enough we didn't feel like the rock stars we had in years past, but it was still fun to be in costume, and we did have quite a few pictures taken of our family.

When we finally arrived, perhaps some time right around when the official program began, I could see that there was no way we'd get close to being even able to make out where Eloise was, let alone watch her for all of the show. So I contented myself to be there and experience the event WITH her, and I didn't make the kids sit and watch the jumbo-trons. Instead, while the crowd was at the event and broadcast, Arthur, EV, and myself roamed about the "Hell on Wheels" tent city. We purchased some sasparilla from the saloon and EV played on their piano. We chatted with the gentleman outside the tent serving as the Masonic Lodge, and visited with other shop keepers and folks camping out in period style. We poked our heads into a few teepees. Finally, we plopped down in the middle of it all and had our lunch, part 1. Then with a slightly lighter load, and feeling the broadcast was probably wrapping up and I wanted to get a sense of where Eloise would be when it was over, we moved a bit closer - off to one side watching the jumbo-tron, to see the end of the show. It turned out I liked it much better than when we'd watched earlier in the spring. The dancing, costumes, etc. really added a lot. Musically, it was a pretty boring composition, but the staging dressed it up nicely. And the 150 children singing sounded great, Eloise included, we assumed. Here we broke out the pie, and as always, food lengthened all our attention spans.

After the broadcast ended, things were far more chaotic. I made my way to the tent where the choir was gathered and succeeded in extracting Eloise from the crowd and signing her out. But their lunches were on the bus and she wanted hers. I began slowly tromping through the crowds with her group, but then decided I would try to get back to the car to retrieve Eloise's pioneer clothes so she could change. I told her I would catch up with her. But then they were moving the trains about and the single pathway to the parking lot was closed. This cut off hundreds of departing guests from their vehicles, and cut Eloise's choir in half - she being lucky enough to be with the group that was making it's way to the buses. I thought it would be a brief delay, but they kept moving the trains and the guests trying to depart swelled and crammed. I abandoned the idea of getting back to the car, and made my way back to where I'd left EV and Arthur to update them on why Eloise was not with me, and where I'd been for the last 20 minutes. Then, because Eloise did not know where we were, I needed to go find her, and left EV again, this time taking Arthur with me. We tromped off in the general direction of where I could see the choir kids headed and buses in the distance. I did our family call/yodel from time to time, and finally found Eloise near her assigned but. BUT the lunches were not there - they had been left on another bus, and that bus was off in another area of the vast property. I told Eloise we had food - potato salad and PIE - and she was persuaded to abandon her lunch and come with us. And content to stay in her uniform because she liked the strangers telling her she'd done a great job.

So at last we were re-united. Together, we took Eloise back to all the things we'd seen, got another sasparilla from the saloon so she could enjoy it. We even got to sit on and in some covered wagons and in stage coach. In years past, the kids had been able to climb on the trains, and they were a bit disappointed that was not offered this year. But the crowds were thick and maneuvering was a trick, so mostly I was grateful we had a sense that we'd done this before and we could do it again in less crazy circumstances. We even sat for a spell and heard some bands playing after the broadcast. The weather was perfect, breezy and not too hot, and perhaps we might have hung out for hours, but we'd finally finished our food, seen all there was to see, and felt ready to go home. Thankfully the exit was far more quick and smooth than the drive in. We DID have a wonderful time, and felt so blessed to share this moment in history with our dear performer, Eloise!

We got home with just enough strength, time, and energy to shower the dirt off and head out to Black Bear Diner to celebrate the day!