What would happen if the Old American West met Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol? The American West Heritage Center in Logan attempted to answer this question with surprisingly fun results. My friend from Park City came along for the experience.
We attempted to try to find era appropriate costumes. I think we could have succeeded if I had noticed the event a little earlier. We only had two days to figure out our dress. My original thought was to rent some costumes from a costume shop. We found plenty of stuff for me...but for some reason costume shops only carry saloon girl outfits. Yea, I didn't think that was the best idea. After consulting with various families and friends we wimped out. Jeans and flannel shirts it was.
Entering the center we were greeted with the sounds of young voices singing Christmas carols and a table full of cookies and brownies. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was more interested in the cookies than the singing. There were good sweets! I couldn't spend the entire time eating so I decided to talk to my date. While we occupied several chairs a well-dressed British gentleman talked briefly to us. We had spent too long sitting in our chairs; he wondered if we had paid for them or not. Moments later our British "friend" was accosted by an angry miner/ghost. Miner Marley warned our British friend Scrooge that he should make some changes in his life. Scrooge wasn't very receptive to the message.
At that point the horse-drawn wagons showed up and we proceeded to our dinner appointment. Half-way our wagons stopped. Our British friend appeared to have found a friend on a horse. They were watching a bunch of kids throw snowballs at each other. One child was off just watching. Our British friend and his companion on a horse had a short conversation. I'm sure it had something to do with the kids throwing snowballs at each other. I couldn't tell because their voices weren't loud enough to reach us.
Shortly thereafter we arrived to a dining hall filled with food. Dutch oven cooking smells really good; just saying. I ate too much of course.
Our British friend got a visit from a plunger bearing ghost before dinner. I'm not quite sure what the first visitor was attempting to say. It had something to do with a family in the back who was only eating broth while the rest of us were feasting. Our British friend for some reason chose to eat with us on our tables rather than with the broth family. Can't imagine why. He had to make rounds around all of the tables though. He claimed that none of us were good dining companions. Maybe because he spent the entire time insulting everyone at the table; just a thought.
As we were finishing up the grim reaper showed up. Pallbearers and a gravestone showed up in the room at the same time. Our British friend seemed a little freaked out by the gravestone. He had a rapid chance of heart and started to give gifts and candy to everyone. He even gave me a fistful of gold coins. To celebrate his change of heart we pushed back the tables and danced. A square-dancing crier then proceeded to teach us how to square dance. I can't even remember the last time I square-danced.
It was a fun date.
