24th of July - Inglewood Style - My Recollections

The last three weeks I have written about and included other people's recollections of our pioneer ancestor, Sarah Pippin Jolley.  It was for people like her that the State of Utah declared the 24th of July,  the day Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley, a state holiday.  At the mouth of Emigration Canyon he declared, "This is the right place.  Drive on."  And from that time on, tens of thousands of pioneers did exactly that,  they drove on.  They drove their wagons across the Great Plains and over the Rocky Mountains to the valley of the Great Salt Lake.  Some stayed in the Salt Lake Valley.  Others were called to settle other areas of the Mountain West.  Henry Rampton went to Sessions Settlement, which later became Bountiful.  Henry Jolley was called to settle Pleasant Grove (I will write more about him next week).  Sarah Pippin Jolley was called to help settle southern Utah.  It is for these people and the tens of thousands more like this that we honor their memory on the 24th of July. 

 There is another person whose memory we honor on that day, Grandma, Mom (Lois Fae Linnebach Rampton).  She, too, was born on the 24th of July, again, a state holiday in Utah where she was born.  And it was the custom of her family to go fishing on that holiday.  Hence, she never had a birthday party with her friends with cake and ice cream and presents.  She never mentioned celebrating her birthday on the family trips, although I'm sure they must have done something.  I'll have to ask Uncle Glen.  I think, for that reason, birthdays were a big deal to her.  But, the 24th of July was also a big deal to her, particularly in her middle age years for reasons I will mention below.

When our family moved from Salt Lake City to California in 1957 we settled in the city of Inglewood and became members of the Inglewood Ward which was part of the Inglewood Stake.  On the week end before the 24th of July the Inglewood Stake would hold a massive Pioneer Day Celebration at the stake center in Westchester.  People of today who did not experience it do not realize how huge it was.  There were games, food, a Country Store and Road Shows.  Oh yes, Road Shows, when they were taken seriously and some did actually go on the road.  As much as I disliked them in my teenage years, in my twenties I starred in two that actually were regional winners and went on tour to other stakes.  I was the bumbling tour guide in a George of the Jungle type production called "The Son of John Lemay."   In the other I set the pattern for Ryan Seacrest as the Master of Ceremonies for the "Great American Talent Contest."  I can still remember original songs from both of them. 

Come gather round us if you dare

And listen to a tale of terror
Of savage natives, please beware.
They stole the son of John Lemay..... away.

It was some twenty years ago

A man, his wife and son did go
Into to jungle full of foe.
They stole the son of John Lemay..... away.

It was a pleasure trip that ended in a scare

Mr. Lemay and his poor wife searched everywhere
But jungle natives never leave a single clue.
They took away... the little boy.  They might get you.

Now twenty years have passed away

And the Lemays returned today
To find those natives, they must pay.
They stole the son of John Lemay..... away.

So come with us to jungle land.

If you're afraid then hold my hand.
We'll catch those natives like we planned.
We'll find the son of John Lemay..... today.

And then the curtain opened there I was, the mighty jungle guide, with Mr. and Mrs. Lemay, in a large pot ready to be eaten.  But I digress.  I take that back, I don't digress because for this production Grandma was the producer.  Steven Purdy may have been the writer, composer and director, but Grandma was in charge.  In fact, she was in charge of many before that and many after that.  She made sure scenery got built and that it could fit in and out of the stage door of the stake center.  She made sure that each participant had a costume.  She didn't do all the sewing, but enlisted the help of everyone in the ward who could.  She chauffeured kids to and from practice and the closer to the 24th the more frequent the practices.  And she was the "Enforcer."  When kids acted up at the practices, they incurred the verbal wrath of Sister Rampton.  It didn't affect Roger and Jim as much as everybody else.  They were use to it.  But no one else wanted to be yelled at.  First, she would give them "the look" and if they continued, they got the verbal tirade, which of course, stopped everything because people wanted to see who she was yelling at.  And, if it ever was Roger or Jim, they got a double dose of it when they got home from Grandpa, although he never yelled.  He, however, had a way of talking to you that really made you feel remorseful.  I know from experience.  And then, she put on cast party the night of the last show.

A few years before Grandma passed away, I bought Grandma and Grandpa tickets to see "Wicked" up at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood.  I got them preferred parking and told them to make sure they got there early, which they did.   As they were sitting in their seats they began to converse with people around them.  One man said he was a producer of TV programs.  Grandpa added that Grandma produced Road Shows.  The man wanted to know what a Road Show was.  I believe Grandpa simply stated that it was a musical stage production.  Then everyone around wanted to talk to Grandma, thinking she was a famous musical producer. 

Back to the Inglewood Stake Pioneer Day Celebration.  Part of the festivities included the judging of vegetables, fruits, jams, pies, cakes, etc. like you would see at a regular county fair.  Many years they gave out blue, red and white ribbons.  Other years they gave out gold, silver and bronze medals with the persons name and category engraved on the back.  This was such a big deal that the medals were handed out in sacrament meeting.  Grandpa was always a first or second place winner for zucchini size.  There was something about the soil in the back part of his yard that zucchinis liked.  He also did well in tomatoes and squash, but never very good in carrots.  Baby carrots were not in fashion back then.  Grandma was also a winner for zucchini size because Grandpa could only enter one and he had many big ones.  But every year that I can remember, Grandma would be the gold medal winner for bottled/canned peaches.  I loved those peaches.  Every year we would take some friends and neighbors and drive out to Pearblossom to the pick your own peaches orchard.  It was a family responsibility to go.  We would pick baskets and boxes full of them, enough to fill up the back of our van or Vista Cruiser.  When we got home, Grandma would take out a few that we could eat raw.  The others got put in the giant pot of boiling water.  I don't remember how long they stayed in there, just long enough to make it easy to peel the skin off.  Then she would cut each peach in half and fill up a Mason Jar bottle with them.  She would also add some sugar and other stuff that I never knew the name of.  Then she would put the lid on and heat up the bottles in boiling water to seal the lid and cook the peaches.  I'm not sure of the exact process, but that is how I remember it.  The bottles were then cooled off  and put out in the garage with the food storage.  And from then, every night for dinner, among other things, we would have bottled peaches.  And they were gooooood!!  I especially liked them over cottage cheese.  Grandpa liked his with vanilla ice cream.  And the judges at the Pioneer Day Celebration always agreed.  Hers were the best.  But, you can't have all those peaches without making peach jam.  She always won first place for that also.  I can still taste the peach jam on the toast she would make us for breakfast.  She knew just how to mix the butter and jam on the bread.

Part of the Country Store was a bakery.  Each ward was assigned to bring so many cakes, pies and cookies each day.  Then those who attended would buy them.  This was a great fund raiser.  Grandma always made apple pies and chocolate chip cookies to donate.  (This was in addition to her work on the Road Shows.)  Grandpa and I would always hang out around the bakery booth at the times the foods from the Inglewood Ward Relief Society were going to be put out.  I bought all the chocolate chip cookies and he bought all the apple pies that Grandma had made.  We should have just donated the money and saved her the trouble of transporting all those delicious baked goods to the stake center.

Her participation in the Pioneer Day Celebration did not end here.  Every year our ward was in charge of the hamburger booth.  I'm not sure what year this began, probably the fifties when two brothers, Kay and Cal Rohner, built a huge grill and put a restaurant quality process of putting out hamburgers in place.  When Kay Rohner became bishop of our ward, people began to call the hamburgers "Rohner-burgers."  Grandpa became bishop after Kay Rohner, but they still remained "Rohner-burgers."  When I became bishop they remained "Rohner-burgers."  The secret to burgers was the thick-sliced tomatoes, crisp lettuce leafs and hamburger meat full of fat.  Every year that I can remember Grandma would go to the produce market in downtown Los Angeles early, early in the morning and compete with the restaurant chefs for the best tomatoes and lettuce.  And she always got what she wanted.  She would then bring them back to the hamburger booth ready to be washed, sliced and served.  Lines would form down the length of the parking lot with people waiting for their "Rohner-burger" which the Ramptons really perfected, but that's another story.  Not only did she do this, but she managed to spend time in the hamburger booth slicing the tomatoes. 

One other thing:  during my time as bishop we did not have her do the Road Shows.  Instead, I called her to be the Primary President in our ward.  Even this calling had a Pioneer Day responsibility.  On the Saturday morning of the celebration was the Primary Pioneer Parade.  The kids from each ward dressed up in pioneer or native American attire and pushed or pulled their wagons and hand carts through the streets of Westchester, many times with a police escort.  Grandma was in charge of making sure each child had a costume and transportation to get there on Saturday morning by 8 a.m.

So, the 24th of July Pioneer Day Celebration in the Inglewood Stake was a big, big deal for the Ramptons, especially Grandma: Road Show producer, food contest winner,  baked goods provider, parade master and quality food purchaser.  That was her 24th of July for most her adult life.

But, we, her sons and husband, made sure she always had a family birthday party, either directly on her birthday if it did not conflict with the Pioneer Day Celebration or if it did, then on the Sunday after the celebration.  Nothing fancy, a nice dinner, cake, ice cream and presents.  Oh yes, and that Happy Birthday sign that she always hung up in the kitchen for all our birthdays was appropriately displayed, even then.

The actual prop I used for the guidebook.  Found it in the bottom of my file cabinet.