Saga of the Sanpitch Volume 13, 1981 - Sanpete County

"Sarah Fat' seemed well deserved or, at the least, descriptive. I looked at my skinny arms and then at hers, and
wondered about growing up. Intimidation must have a great deal to do with size.
It was Sarah's music class, however, that left its mark in my nervous system. She loved to sing, and she
liked boys and girls who could sing. My introduction to the mysteries of two-part harmony began when she
divided the class into two groups, which she called Bluebirds and Robins. A special class for Canaries, the
fortunate few who could sing a solo part, was for a future time.
Sarah's ability to divide the class into Bluebirds and Robins was demonstrated with the precision of an
electronic computer. With a dispatch that brooked no middle ground, she assigned the students here or there
as befitted their talents as 'Bluebird' or 'Robin.' Indeed, the feeling came over me that one of life's desirable
goals was to be one of Sarah's Song Birds. But to my dismay there were two of us left over. With a thumb
under her chin she mused - we were certainly not Bluebirds, nor Robins. In a flash she had it - we were Crows!
Her announcement of this new group increased my bewilderment. How could she use the raucous squawk of a
crow in a song? The answer was not long in coming. After arranging the Bluebirds and Robins in appropriate
positions, she pointed a reproachful finger at the door. "The Crows will go out into the hall and close the door
until the class is over."
Now, I have no quarrel with letting the punishment fit the crime, but in this case it did not serve as a
remedy. I am still a Crow!
A SIGHT TO BEHOLD
Elizabeth Jacobsen Story
1513 Madison Avenue
Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001
Non-Professional Division, Honorable Mention Anecdote
In the early days before the turn of the century and up until 1903, the sheep owners and cattle owners
of Sanpete could graze their flocks of sheep or their herds of cattle on the Wasatch Plateau east of Sanpete
County absolutely free. Then in the winter they would move the herds down from the mountain pastures to
the East Desert — or to the West Desert. The West Desert was Jericho where most of the Mt. Pleasant
livestock were taken. The sheep were herded by young men from Mt. Pleasant, some of whose families
owned the livestock. It was a pleasant job for a young man to spend his summer on the mountain and to have
his own horse and sheep-camp wagon, with a white canvas cover for his shelter and, inside, a stove and table
and bed.
Each herder had his sheep dogs to help him control the herd. In the morning there was much work to
be done and also in the evening to get their herds bedded down for night time, but in the afternoon there was
time for the herder to spend as he pleased while the sheep were resting in the shade of the trees. Some boys
rode their horses, some rested and some spent hours foolishly carving names on the lovely white barked
Aspen trees with their pocket knives; but there was one boy from Mt. Pleasant who did not waste his time or
talent. Each afternoon he got out his paints, brushes and turpentine and painted lovely things — birds, trees,
horses, small animals and his dogs and sheep and the lovely mountains and streams. Then at the end of the
summer when it was time to bring the herds west to Mt. Pleasant and over to the West Desert, they all came
with their sheep-camp wagons down to the valley.
Some wagons and herders were not needed on the Desert. Many of the camps were left in Mt.
Pleasant until needed again in the springtime the next year.
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