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Davis Young
- Oct 5, 2021

DY: In Just a Few Words (#51)

It's illegal to come home empty handed, isn't it?

One of the great things about traveling is the opportunity to spend hard-earned dollars on mementos. I’m always in search of good stuff at a good price. You know what I’m talking about. Those amazing, unique items you can ONLY FIND in (fill-in-the-blank city you are currently traveling in). They are worth EVERY penny, right? I highlighted two such purchases in blog #34 (scroll down to check that one out - I’ll wait…) The truth is those were just the tip of my “Davis’ Hall of Fame Travel Purchases” iceberg. Here are more examples.

On our first trip to Italy, I got a taste of Orvietto wine while having lunch in the Tuscan foothills. I wasn’t the wine drinker then that I am today, but I figured this wine would make a great gift for family and friends. The restaurant had the wine nicely packaged in 3-packs. So, to keep my balance going through airports I bought two of them, one 3-pack for each arm. The Saturday after we got home, I went to the local beverage store and - lo and behold - there were multiple bottles of the identical Orvietto wine sitting on the shelf. I shlepped through the Rome Airport, JFK and Cleveland Hopkins when I could have simply gone to my local store. Not smart.

Some years after that, we went to Zimbabwe. We picked up various items along the way, most particularly a wonderful mask that sits on our mantel to this day. I did an accounting of the items we bought in Zim and it was $450. For an additional $600 I had a crate built to ship our goodies home. We live in the era of the new math, but that certainly doesn’t add up. Not smart again.

Another day we found ourselves in Saigon. This is not an easy story for me to tell and, momentarily, you will know why. My dearly beloved purchased a hookah, which is a pipe that can be shared by multiple people. I just need to say this, so please cut me some slack. My research indicates a hookah is frequently used as an opium pipe. I want to be very clear I would never purchase such a thing because I would have no use for it. I used to smoke Winstons, but never opium. That pretty much says what needs to be said about either of us. What makes this even more concerning is that Karen’s hookah is on display in our house for all to see. I don’t want to throw her under the bus, but readers need to know what I have to deal with. Transparency is a good thing. Opium is not. Also, I later discovered you can buy a hookah in the US. Who knew?

And then there was a trip to Chile when I came upon a spectacular marble bird. I knew it was valuable because it weighed a lot. I had never seen anything like it. Wonderful colors. A real keepsake I had to have. Surely it was unique. We arrived at the airport for our flight home. As we went past the shops in the duty free area, we came upon a long table with what must have been at least 30 birds absolutely identical to the one we purchased. In case you are wondering, the bird is still in our house today if you’d like to stop by and see it at the same time you look at Karen’s hookah. So much for uniqueness.

Here’s another narrative. The very first cruise we took stopped at a section of Haiti owned by the cruise line. There, we came upon a wood carving perhaps two and a half feet high. It was heavy, too. The detail was beyond description. So, one more time, we rigged up some sort of box with some cardboard and rope from the cruise line. We got it home o.k., but it was winter and within weeks the treasured memento had split in multiple places and went out the door on trash day.

And then there was our visit to a marketplace (aka souk) in Tunisia. Before being let loose to deal with greedy vendors, our guide gave our group a little talk. Never give the vendor what he asks. In fact, never pay 50%. Get him down below that. And so off we went. One of the ladies stopped at a stall and appeared to like something. She asked the price. The vendor said $5 U.S. Putting the good advice she had received from the guide, she replied, Oh no, I’ll give you $10.

Be assured that nice lady will not be on my next shopping spree.

DY: In Just a Few Words is a blog that comes out when something needs to be said or every Tuesday - whichever comes first. Davis Young is a communications professional who adds 50+ years of experience and perspective to issues of the day. His emphasis in DY: In Just a Few Words will be humor (a touch of sarcasm here, a pinch of facetiousness there...). Once in a while, he will touch on something a bit more serious - but hopefully not too deep or depressing.

This blog is a product of DY Author & Speaker LLC. Feel free to quote content with attribution. Respond. Agree. Disagree. Share the content with your friends. Heck - even invite him as a speaker for your group! Enjoy!

Davis Young
- Sep 28, 2021

DY: In Just a Few Words (#50)

Construction on our home course begins next week.

I don’t know about you, but I was sad to see the Olympics end this summer, even though I thought the Games were a bit of a yawner - the lack of spectators and the ever present conversation about athletes testing positive for COVID didn’t help. I felt very sorry for the under-appreciated competitors and their families that couldn’t attend to watch them. And I felt sorry for NBC having shelled out multi billions of U.S. dollars to televise this event.

CNN reported TV viewership for the Tokyo Olympics was down 45% from Rio. I saw another source that said 49%. That’s not good if you’re NBC and the advertisers who paid a fortune to be featured on your network. Who knows? Maybe those numbers are conservative and the damage may be even more severe. Let me just be polite and say the 2020 (2021) Olympics lacked energy. Thank you, COVID. It certainly did not help that Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of New York and we often learned of results before we saw an event.

All this got me thinking that perhaps we should consider re-inventing an Olympics format that will be so exciting it will compel viewers to tune in. Maybe the International Olympics Committee can learn a thing or two from a TV show we have on at our house on Monday night. Do you ever watch American Ninja Warrior? That’s an NBC property that is really compelling, at least for my Golden Age wife who thought the Olympics were boring. She basically didn’t watch the Olympics, but get out of her way Monday night when the Ninjas do their thing. That’s her time, too.

I used to tell her she was a couch potato, but American Ninja Warrior has turned her life around. She now has a full-on training schedule, filled with sessions like “Cardio Drumming”, “Zumba” and just plain old “Cardio” - not to mention her aquatic training all summer at the pool. American Ninja Warrior may just be the TV equivalent of the Fountain of Youth. I can actually envision Karen flying through the air from apparatus to apparatus, knowing a single mistake could cause her to end up in the pool below. What an embarrassment that would be.

As the training schedule progresses, we may soon be setting up an American Ninja Warrior course - Seniors Division - in the lower level of our house. And, once Karen has worked her way through local and regional qualifying events, her American Ninja Warrior finals destination will be a short three-hour plane ride to Las Vegas where she can party like the animal she is - not a brutal 13 hours in the air to Tokyo to be quarantined in a hotel room with a glass of milk.

Bye-bye Olympics. Hello American Ninja Warrior. Thanks for re-energizing America’s senior citizens. I am up for being a Ninja. I’d get a lot more respect from my neighbors and golfing buddies.

Davis Young
- Sep 21, 2021

DY: In Just a Few Words (#49)

The more you know...

Not long ago, I wrote a blog about my great-grandfather, Joseph Young, and his birth in 1835 in our neighboring community of Kirtland, Ohio. Today’s blog continues that story.

Everyone has famous ancestors. We’re all descended from Adam and Eve, and they’re certainly well-known. Next to them, the most famous person in my family is Brigham Young, Joseph’s father. He has been gone now for 144 years, but his influence and accomplishments will live on forever - not only as a major figure in the development of the American West but also as leader of the Mormon faith (the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints or LDS).

Brigham Young led the first major migration to what is today Utah, taking 1,200 Mormons west under very difficult conditions. He is often referred to as the American Moses for leading his people to the new Jerusalem - what is today Salt Lake City. Among other accomplishments, he would plan the layout of SLC, serve as Utah’s Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Utah Militia, and become founder of what are today both Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. As an interesting aside, he was a major supporter of the arts and was also the inspiration behind the founding of the renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

How am I descended from Brigham Young? I am the second son of his first son’s first son’s first son. Did you follow that? You won’t find a more direct lineage (except in the case of my older brother, Peter).

Today, Brigham Young is widely credited with colonizing as many as 300 towns and cities in the West. Primarily because of his ongoing efforts, there are large LDS populations not only in Utah, but also in California, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho and Wyoming.

Any balanced look at Brigham Young must include his - shall we say - active role in polygamy. Estimates of the number of Brigham’s wives vary, but seem to be generally in the mid-50s. Some were wives in the traditional sense. Others were the widows of friends whom Brigham had promised to care for. The author of the book Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, refers to Brigham as probably the most oft-married man in the 1900s in America. The LDS church banned polygamy late in the 19th century. Which is a good thing. Personally, I have always felt one wife is enough.

Brigham’s marriages produced something on the order of 56 children by 16 different wives. Nobody knows, but the estimate of Brigham’s descendants today is at least 10,000 and maybe as many as 30,000. That’s a very large footprint. And a LOT of cousins for me to find on ancestry.com.

So, why am I not Mormon? My grandfather, Walter S. Young, left Salt Lake City as a teenager, eventually ending up in New Jersey, where he was a voice teacher, choir director and music critic for New York newspapers, but no longer a Mormon. There are a number of family stories about what caused his break with the Church, but no one who knows any side of the actual truth is still here to set the record straight. Regardless of what happened, that broke our branch of the family’s relationship with the Mormon faith. But not our relationship with Utah family members. Walter S. stayed in close touch with siblings and they shared visits back and forth through the years. And Karen and I - and Denny and Tracy and other family members - have visited Salt Lake City, getting to know our heritage and many of the family members still living there and still active in the LDS faith. (More on that in the near future.)

In the meantime, if a friend asks if you know somebody with famous ancestors, tell them you have a friend who is descended from Adam and Eve - plus Brigham Young.

Thanks for letting me share this story of my family.

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