The original Old Folks outings blessed the people working on the committees also, not just those people being served. Many years ago about six young couples were called to be on the committee for the Hyrum Second Ward Old Folks Party. They formed a bond that has lasted to this day. They have gone on vacations together, meeting for dinner several times a year, and other activities. Most of the people in that group are deceased now, but the ones still alive continue to be best friends.

I don’t remember this tradition at all from my youth, but I do know that I grew up with a sense of respect for the past, and the people from it who were still living among us, that I now think was something regionally and culturally distinct. Memorial Day, for example, was always about so much more than military remembrance, it was a day to go to the cemetery and as my parents put it, “visit with family.”

I’m also reminded of numerous older folk, directly related to us and not, that my family used to visit with when I was a kid: to take them on some small kind of outing, or just to stop in and say hello. I am blanking on the name of one such dear old lady, very well known, in Heber. Unfortunately, my parents are currently airborne enroute to a Ute football game in Seattle or I’d call my Mom for her name. I’m guessing you would likely know her, Ardis.

If Old Folks’ Day lasted until 1970, surely there are readers out there who celebrated it or heard of it in their youth?