Lost in Salt Lake City

Cousins Greg and Karen, me and my brother Alan


The summer after I was in first grade ( age seven) we went from McGill to Salt Lake City, as we did every year, to visit my grandmother and Aunt Opal and her family. One afternoon my Uncle Francis took my cousin Gregory and me to a movie downtown. After the movie, Francis told Greg and me to wait for him in a particular spot in the lobby of the theater while he went to the restroom. While we were waiting, Greg decided he had to go with Francis and left me to wait alone. I got tired of waiting and went to the ladies’ restroom. When I came back neither Francis nor Greg were at our designated spot. I thought they had left me. Well, I guess I have always been a problem solver--even at that age–so I decided not to worry about it and to find my own way home.
My grandmother’s house was at the top of East Capitol Street on the hill above the State Capitol building. My cousins and I often went to play on the capitol grounds, so I knew my way home from there. I remember thinking that, if I could look up the hill and see the capital building, it would be easy to walk home. I planned to walk to the corner from where I was, turn right, then walk east along the street, looking left at each intersection (one of them would be State Street), until I could see the capitol. No big deal. But I had a big problem. My directions got turned around. When I turned the corner and didn’t find the capitol, I turned another corner and ended up walking south instead of east. I was blocks from where I had started and completely lost!
As I got further from my destination I was scared to death, embarrassed, and afraid to let anyone see me cry. Finally, I passed a teen aged boy working on his bicycle. Trying not to show how upset I was, I gathered up courage to ask him if he could show me where the capitol was. We walked up the street and over a block or two until we could look up the hill and see the building. Now I knew where to go. With great relief I started on my way. When I was about a block from my grandmother’s house, a car full of family pulled up beside me. Was my mother glad to see me! Of course, Uncle Francis felt responsible for my being lost. The police were looking for me. They all wanted to know how on earth I had found my way home. I was just glad to be there.