Saturday Eavesdropping

Saturday I flew from Salt Lake City to Boston - - well, actually Salt Lake City to Providence, Rhode Island to Boston. (We initially could not land in Boston because of fog, went to Providence for more fuel, and would have been off to Hartford, Connecticut had we not been able to land the second time.) Once in Hartford we would have either spent the night in a hotel or been bused to Boston.) Saturday morning I had taken a shuttle from Provo to Salt Lake City International Airport. On the way it occurred to me that I might emulate a feature from "The Student Review," a student-run paper not sponsored by BYU during my time there. The feature, called "The Eavesdropper," would report on snatches of conversations overheard on campus. In the shuttle, a passenger told a bit of his life. Technically, I may not have been eavesdropping. Judge for yourself - - I was seated behind him, his speech was not directed to me, but he spoke loudly enough that anyone could hear. He hold how he left Utah for the east in the early 1920s. There were 8 in his family, and they all made the trip in a single Model T. He said his family often remarked that "The Beverly Hillbillies" must have been based on them. During this journey they would stop near a stream each evening, and his mother would bathe the children in the creek (pronounced "crick"). Once back east, his family lived on the estate of the 6th wealthiest man in the world. I assume they were working there, apparently with horses being raised there, racehorses. He saw a beautiful horse they bought, and a man on the estate asked him to guess how much they had paid for the horse. My fellow passenger guessed $100,000, but was told the price had actually been $1,0000,000. I thought my eavesdropping on the shuttle had gone pretty well, so I continued my efforts through the day. Unfortunately, I was unable to pick up anything very remarkable after that, other than when I overheard one man say to another: "I'm going to go get some yogurt." At BYU, I once overheard a conversation I considered submitting for publication in "The Eavesdropper." A young woman with a cast on her leg, using crutches, approached the doors of the Joseph Smith Building - - home of BYU's religion department. A professor in a suit, with scriptures under one arm if I recall correctly, opened the door for the young woman. This may have been on a Monday morning. I believe the exchange between the two went something like this: Professor: Did you break that skiing? Young Woman: No. Professor: That's good.