Utah’s Colonial Heritage Festival at Orem Part 2

Sorry this blog is a little late but that's how it was scheduled. So I went back to Orem's Colonial Days on the 4th of July. There were a few changes to the festival that were not there the Saturday prior to the 4th. For instance we went back to the blacksmith shop to see Liam, my little artist buddy who drew my portrait for 99 cents now he had made is booth bigger and was now charging 2 dollars to do people's portraits. I think I created an entrepreneur. There was a tent around the guy boiling wax for candles now. They also had a wood worker who was advertising his business for selling wooden coffins to anyone who dared be buried in one. The following pictures help show our day at the park.

Military Muster: Ready, Aim, FIRE!

A Colonial Cannon

Colonial Calligraphy! Our names written with a Feather Quill

A blunderbuss this redneck farmer's gun is what helped take down the British in the battle of New Orleans

As I was talking to some of the volunteers/colonial impersonators, one of them mentioned about how they are trying to find a more permanent theme park for them to do this year-round in Utah Valley. Do you think a permanent historical park would benefit our community or ruin it? What are your thoughts?

The Albino Women of Amoonguna

While I was serving a mission in Australia I got to spend a lot of time out at a few Aborigine camps one was called Amoonguna. Every Monday night we were invited by Rosemary, the matron of the village, to spend Family Home Evening (FHE) with her and the rest of the women and children of Amoonguna.

Rosemary, Elder Baxter, & Regina

We would always have FHE outside around a camp fire where we would entertain the children with primary songs and simple lessons and then we would invite one of the grown-ups to share something.  One particular night one of the women named Regina told us one of her scary stories from the bushy outback.  This story she called the Legend of the Albino (she pronounced it albeeno) Women of this village. Here is her story:

“Three sisters lived in this village many years ago. They were spinsters and kept to themselves mostly.

One day they wanted to make some stew but were so poor that they needed to borrow a pot from their neighbor who happened to be the village’s witch-doctor. They were ungrateful and returned the pot without even cleaning it. This enraged the witch doctor who immediately cursed these three sisters which disfigured their bodies. They all turned ghostly white. They were unable to go out in the daytime because the sun would kill them. The worst thing about the curse was that they could never satisfy their hunger nor could they die of starvation.

The albino women moved into a cave nearby Amoonguna, and they always prowled the outback at night looking for flesh that they could consume.

Rumor has it that they kidnapped a young man who was touring around Alice Springs which is the tourist trap of a town closest to this cave. They took him to their cave but they could not eat him because he was so handsome instead they broke his legs and fed him the meals they made for him for the rest of his life.”

I heckled Regina by bursting out in laughter and saying, “Undead Albino women? What a load of hooey!” “I’m serious Elder.” Regina proclaimed “You shouldn’t tease, they might come for you.”

After I laughed at her story for a good four minutes she challenged me to go to the cave with her since she knew exactly where it was. I agreed to go with her on my next preparation day.

The following Thursday, I went with my three other missionary colleagues which included my zone leader to meet Regina at her home. We followed her car in our Toyota Tacoma about three miles east of Amoonguna, deep in the bush. She immediately pulled over on the road and led us out not even ten yards to what appeared to be three foot wide in diameter hole in the ground.  

Cave Entrance

“You see Elders now do you believe me? Here is where they live.” I peered into the hole which disappeared into darkness there was no guessing how deep it was.

“Elder Bennett,” I said, “back the Tacoma up over here and get the tow hitch.” Regina asked, “What are doing Elder?” I said “I am going  down that hole to meet the Albino Women!” “Oh Elder you are crazy!” The strange thing was that my zone leader nor my other companions were not the least bit concerned with what I was about to do. My zone leader actually had a camcorder and taped this whole ordeal. I am still trying to contact him for a copy of it. So I was lowered into the dark hole which turned out to only drop down 12 feet into a small cavern that was no bigger than small car. I had a flash light and looked for any other pathways or tunnels. There were none, the floor had a lot of garbage from people throwing litter down the hole. There were mostly empty beer bottles and cigarettes.

As everyone up above looked down at me I said “Albeeno women! Where are you? I am a handsome unsuspecting virgin that you can take and keep! What’s for dinner?”  I was laughing so hard that it angered Regina. She threw her lit cigarette at me. Elder Bennett immediately followed me down the hole with his camera to catch all of this footage.

Luckily, Regina and I were close enough friends that she didn’t hold a grudge for busting her urban legend of the Albino Women of Amoonguna. Have you ever done anything this crazy?

Seven Deadly Sins 7 of 7

Pride is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self.
I had two images come to mind while I was contemplating this design for Pride: one was gay pride, the other was sports. I was a little hesitant to try yo find images for gay pride so I stuck with plan B and of poking fun of the predominant football team here in the valley. This can be manipulated to fit what ever sports team you would want to tease. I really do love my friends that love BYU and hope that they can take a joke.

So after reviewing my final project for Photoshop what do you think of my ability? Beginner? Intermediate? or Expert?

Seven Deadly Sins 6 of 7

Envy is characterized by an insatiable desire. Envy is similar to jealousy in that they both feel discontent towards someones traits, status, abilities, or rewards. The difference is the envious also desire that entity and covet it.
I wanted a picture of an ordinary man looking enviously up at Donald Trump. Do you think the green tones of this collage are too cliche?

Seven Deadly Sins 5 of 7

Wrath also known as rage, may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. Wrath may persist long after the person who did another a grievous wrong is dead. Feelings of anger can manifest in different ways, including impatience, and revenge.
For this collage I was trying to find a series of explosions but this was the best I could do. If you were doing this project what images would you use to depict wrath?

Seven Deadly Sins 4 of 7

Sloth is sometimes defined as physical laziness, spiritual laziness is emphasized. Sloth has also been defined as a failure to do things that one should do. By this definition, evil exists when good men fail to act.
I was trying to stick with cold tones, but now when I look back on it I am wondering if is too clieche. What images come to your mind when you think of sloth?

Seven Deadly Sins 3 of 7

Greed, is applied to a very excessive desire and pursuit of material possessions. As defined outside of Christian writings, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth.
For this collage, I was trying to collect images of a lot of very rare dollar bills. I myself have never physically seen or touched any dollar bill worth more then 100 bucks. How about you?

Seven Deadly Sins 2 of 7

The next collage is on gluttony derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow, gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste.

I wanted a candy land background with as many fast food symbols I could cram in here, and still make it aesthetically pleasing. Does this make you want to hurl or by ice cream?

Seven Deadly Sins 1 of 7

In college I had to take an Adobe Photoshop class to learn more about design. For my final I had to do a project that would take at least ten hours to accomplish so I decided to do seven different collages interpreting the seven deadly sins

My first one was trying to find images that had to do with the sin lust.

Lust or lechery is an intense desire. It is usually thought of as excessive sexual wants, however the word was originally a general term for desire. Therefore lust could involve the intense desire of money, fame, or power as well.

I did my best to show what the sin lust looks like. I did my best to not make it pornographic. I figured the dilated eyes would help with the tone of the collage.

What do you think is it too sexy?

Utah’s Colonial Heritage Festival at Orem

Laura and I had the opportunity to attend "The Sixth Annual Colonial Heritage Festival" last weekend. It was fun and free. This living museum, called the Village at Aubin’s Grove, features a gathering of Colonial artisans, military exhibits, and period craftsmen and women.The village celebrates the Colonial period from 1607 Jamestown through to the signing of the Constitution in 1787.

You can view Laura's future blog http://lauranielsonbaxter.blogspot.com/ on our adventure there if you want to see pictures she took of it. We have a friend who is one of the organizers of Colonial Days and she has asked me if I would be one of the dressed up historical figures in it next year. What do you think? Should I go for it? I can teach people all about bed bundling!

I think the most memorable moment for me was I noticed at the blacksmith shop the blacksmith had a young son who was drawing pictures of people for 99 cents. I let him draw me as well.

He signed it, and signed my name too. What do you think? Does it look like me?