“I ain’t got no quarrel with the Viet Congs” Muhammad Ali 1967 Required by law, I registered for the draft in 1968 when I was 18 years old. I had done enough homework and was frightened enough to know that…
It seems I grew up around taverns. My father was landlord to a few working man beer joints. As a child my favorite days were spent accompanying him as he went around to count the coins in the pinball machines…
As a young man, Howard E. Phelps lived in the shadows of his father Henry Enon Phelps, a Salt Lake merchant pre-dating the Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI,) and grandfather, William W Phelps, an important figure in early Mormonism. Both…
I began my Salt Lake City life the very week of my 16th birthday. My parents never really embraced homeownership and were anxious to leave our rural Midvale and the three bedroom home they had raised 4 children in. My…
County Antiques – Wardell’s Barbershop – 426 So.State St. These businesses evoke great personal memories. Ken Newberg was owner/operator of County Antiques, across the street from the the iconic castle-looking Salt Lake City and County Building. The shop was cluttered…
My dad, like many people in 1911, was born at home in his parents apartment, without the assistance of medical professionals. My grandmother Phelps lived in that apartment above their store from the time it was built in 1906 until…
VIETNAM – KEN BURNS & LYNN NOVICK I watched the PBS Television series on the Vietnam.War. I did not serve – I made no apology then and find no need to apologize now that I anguished for years to not be…
It was just dumb luck that in 1985 I befriended Pat Newman., a septuagenarian woman who had connections in the community. I found her stories fascinating, and let her know, as I would hang on the tales she would tell.…
Jimi Hendrix, Grace Slick & The Jefferson Airplane were guests Judge Willis Ritter was a resident I was an interloper. The Hotel Newhouse was an elegant 12-story Salt Lake hotel built in 1912 on the southwest corner of 400…
Bill Harrah, the Nevada casino owner, was known for his extensive automobile collection. Living in Reno he also collected Virginia City, Nevada and surrounding California gold country gambling memorabilia. Like most collectors after a while he purged his own excesses.…