We Love Whales!

Quote of the blog:

My mom to a runner on the sidewalk (many years ago) as she drove by: “Run Sucker! Run!!”

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Years ago, when I was in junior high and my brother Ty was in high school. My parents drove us up to Salt Lake City. We were going to pick up my sister and do some shopping. As we drove through the city we stopped at a red light and waited to make a right on South Temple to State Street. There was a gap in the pedestrians and my dad started to turn as a group of people started across the street. Most of them were on the heavy side but the couple at the front of the pack was, well, corpulent. As they walked closer to the car my Dad slowed slowed and then rolled down his window and yelled, “We love Whales! We love Whales!”

Ty and I, in dismayed horror, actually dove for the floorboards. My mom gasped and hit my dad on the arm. If I didn’t hiss, “drive! drive!” I certainly thought it. Other pedestrians looked at my dad and then the couple – who looked at my dad and smiled and waved.

We were mortified. My dad explained himself:

The evening before he had been in Salt Lake on business. As he drove out of Salt Lake towards 6^th to get on the freeway home he stopped at a Maverick gas station to fill up. As he finished a cute couple walking by stopped to ask him for directions. “Excuse me. Can you help us? We’re trying to find Zickmees.”

My dad said: “Sorry, you’re trying to find what?”

The couple: “Zickmees. The World Famous Store in Salt Lake City.”

My dad: “Zickmees?”

The couple: “Yes, Zickmees.”

My dad couldn’t figure out what they could be talking about so he asked them to spell it out. Using a napkin from his car they wrote out the name and handed it to my dad. When he saw it he started laughing. On the paper was written Z.C.M.I. pronounced: Z.C.M.I. The store was founded in 1868 by Brigham Young and was one of the first department stores in the United States (they were sold to Macy’s and Dillard’s in the late 90’s).

The couple was from Europe and my dad told them how he and my mom had lived in England and traveled around etc. He had even visited beaches near their hometown and talked about how lovely it was. They talked for at just about five minutes and my dad gave them directions to Z.C.M.I. and they walked on their way and my dad drove away on his.

The next day, when we turned the corner in downtown Salt Lake, my dad recognized the couple in the front of the tourist group as the couple looking for Zickmees the night before. He rolled down his window, and shouted out something they had in common – a love for their home country, “We love Wales! We love Wales!”