Things my father told me

My dad was born in Salt Lake City but grew up in Scipio, Utah, a small cowtown in the middle of Utah.  One day Dad knew Jack Dempsey was going to be driving through their town.  He and his young friends decided they would throw rotten tomatoes at Jack as he drove through town and did so.

 Dempsey --known as the "Manassa (CO) Mauler"--was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1919-1926. His parents had converted to the LDS faith through missionaries who had met them in W. Virginia. The family moved to a small LDS community of Manassa, CO and then had moved to Provo.   Jack was raised in the church. The boxer later described his own religious beliefs:  "I'm proud to be a Mormon.  And ashamed to be the Jack Mormon that I am."


Dad also told me that there was a canon of some sort in the town which someone  would fire it off at 4am on each July 4th to start off the celebration.  Big event for this little town.

Scipio also had a rodeo on the 4th of July or perhaps July 24th for Mormon Pioneer Day.  My cousin Paul had entered the calf-roping contest for the kids.  He got his calf but he also got his head kicked in by the calf so Paul had to spend the day on the couch with a cold compress.  He did not win his division.