Comments on: West Side Story

By: Magna and West Valley area - Salt Lake City area - Utah (UT) - Salt Lake County - Davis County - Weber County - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:50:47 +0000

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By: The Normal Mormon Husband

The Normal Mormon Husband — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:18:19 +0000

Great post, big sis. You nailed exactly the way I felt about our WVC home both then and now. We had a happy childhood, a great ward, and parents who worked hard and loved their kids. What more could we have wanted?

I remember as a 7th grader playing for Cyprus in little league football. During warmups our coach would tell us to, “Face the beautiful Oquirrhs” for a drill. Then, when we had to rotate, he would tell us to “Face the dreaded east side!” To this day I think the Oquirrhs are beautiful. Great post.

By: mom of boys

mom of boys — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:26:54 +0000

Ahh, West Valley’s nothing, try living in….ROSE PARK! My WV residing Aunt was horrified when we moved there. I didn’t grow up there, but lived there as a married woman. We moved recently to a much nicer area and……I miss Rose Park.

I used to hate the reactions we received when I would say “Rose Park” and now I hate the reactions I get to where we live now. So, you can get it on both sides. It’s unfair but doesn’t seem like we can do much about it. It’s not easy changing peoples minds. I am glad, however, that I’ve lived on both sides so I can defend them both!

My only worry is how where we live will affect our children. No diversity, but less crime; more affluent snobs, but less gangs ; more members, but, then, sometimes that comes with its own set of problems; better schools for sure, but, but, but….I’m sure I could go on. Everywhere has pros and cons and I’m sure some day my children will gladly let me know the numerous ways I messed up, regardless of where we lived!

By: Sue

Sue — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:40:08 +0000

I grew up in California in the 50′s and 60′s and was never privy to the stereotyping you describe. In my school and community, young people were taken pretty much at face value, depending upon whatever talents and abilities they possessed.

I’m sorry to say that I never realized how fortunate I was.

By: Sage

Sage — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:52:58 +0000

I’ve always been fascinated by this topic. I also grew up in the Bay Area–in a wealthy stake, but from a more middle class ward. Lots of the youth parties were in huge, amazing mansions–five or six times the size of my house. But I still had a party and invited the rich kids. I think I was blessed to value myself for who I was as a daughter of God and to see wealth as a temporal, temporary thing. I served my mission to Peru also (Lima East mission) and continued to learn there about wealth vs. poverty as more of a mind set. I have tried hard to learned not to judge people by their apparent lack or abundance of money. I’ve also learned to manage money! Everyone needs better financial literacy. I also have chosen to live in a predominantly blue collar neighborhood where we probably make more on one salary than many of our neighbors do on two. I don’t want my kids to feel entitlement–they have to pay for many of their own things even though we could afford to buy them more stuff.

Thanks for bringing this topic up. I do believe that we must overcome our prejudices toward both the wealthy and the poor. Incidentally, I live in probably one of the wealthiest stakes in the US (New Canaan CT is in our stake) and so my teenager also goes to church parties in luxurious homes–probably worth 20x the price of ours..

By: Naismith

Naismith — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:15:23 +0000

I had no clue. The Salt Lake area has always been monolithic to me, had no idea there were such differences.

By: rk

rk — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:10:13 +0000

I had several friends at BYU from Hunter that attended Cypress High. They were really smart, fun and cool.

I also had relatives that lived in that area. They were always talking about the West/East side differences and felt rather inferior about it. I came from a very small town in Idaho. I could never really understand what they were complaining about. It seemed to me that they couldn’t understand that they had so many opportunities in school that I didn’t have. Their ingratitude perplexed me.

I went to very small rural high school. Sure there was a lot they couldn’t offer, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I made up for it in college.

By: Melissa M.

Melissa M. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:36:59 +0000

I think that the “east side/west side” prejudices must be universal. When I was on my mission in Arequipa, Peru, one of the poorest missions in the world, I served for four months in Puno, up on the Altiplano–one of the poorest areas in my mission. I was amazed to find out that a division existed in the ward; members who lived up on the hillside were seen as being poor, while those who live at the bottom of the hill were “rich,” although they all lived in mud brick houses with dirt floors. Maybe the ones who lived at the bottom of the hill had more guinea pigs. Anyway, there was a definite class division and it caused problems amongst the ward members. It must be human nature.

By: b.

b. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:55:33 +0000

I’m a proud Spanish Forkian/Salemite (our house sits on the absolute border of both small towns).
I grew up in one of the poorest houses in a wealthy ward.

I went to drug rehab with the poor and downtrodden AND the rich, famous, and entitled. The differences in economic/social status didn’t matter much when you’ve reached rock bottom. The latter group seemed to have the hardest time with recovery.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:07:25 +0000

I just had to comment on the “mission field” comment–I hadn’t really heard that much until we moved to the East Coast (US). I guess growing up in CA, there were enough members that we didn’t have that church culture, but I’ve heard it several times since moving out here (and actually, I now remember that we heard it in our ward in Provo just before we moved out here, in reference to our move.) It does rub me the wrong way. And i don’t even know what it’s supposed to mean–judging by my BIL’s experiences in his mission, south SLC, there is plenty of missionary work and baptizing going on in Utah, too. Way more than we’ve seen in our ward out here this last year. . .