The Perpetual Salmon Bake
One of the long-standing traditions of the Issaquah 2nd LDS ward we attend is that of an annual adults-only salmon bake. It is a nice activity that involves the Folkman's lake side home (and dock), boating, the best attendance of any ward activity all year, and (of course) plenty of salmon to eat. Many, like us, are more than willing to leave the kids at home and attend a party to load up on succulent salmon. Yum yum.

While at the party I spoke with a few of my fellow ward members, including Mike and Shonna Linford. Mike and I first became acquainted in the 7th grade at Wasatch Junior High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. We were lab partners in a computer class the second half of our 7th-grade year. We worked on Atari 800s and we both remembered being equally annoyed with the tape cassette recorders that we had to use to save/load our programs. Michael and I were in the same computer classes throughout Junior High and High School. Now we are 25 years older, live 800+ miles away from Wasatch Jr, and live less than a mile away from each other. It's a small world.

I was also talking with one of the hosts, Patti Folkman, while standing around the fire. The land we now own used to be owned by the Folkmans. Bob and Patti had a small horse farm away from their lakeside home that they decided to develop and turn into residential dwellings. Those dwellings became our home and the homes of our 15 neighbors. Bob and Patti are longstanding members of the ward, there may be just one or two that have been here longer. They raised their kids here and have seen them move away. They now have a couple dozen grandchildren.

I was talking to Patti about how many salmon bakes have been held in their backyard. She rolled her eyes, "too many to count" she said. She wasn't sure how many more they would have - almost as if she was intimating that they may move or something. A lot of her friends have moved away and now there is just a small core of members in the ward that have been around for more than 20-25 years. A majority of the membership in our ward is younger families, like ourselves, that have been around for just 6-10 years (or less!). Shonna made the same observation earlier in the evening (about how much of the ward membership has moved into the ward since they moved in 7 years ago), but Shonna's observation didn't really hit home until I was talking to Patti.

Patti left to attend to her guests and I stood there by the fire isolated in thought. I thought about the aging cycles that we observe in life. For example, my own parents moved away from the area (and LDS ward) that I grew up in. They stayed in the same ward for 20+ years, from the time I was 5 until well after I had moved away (I think they moved out of that ward when I was around 27 or 28). I know there are still members in that old ward that were leaders when I was growing up, i.e. ward members like Patti, who have seen quite a few 5-yr-olds grow up into 30-yr-olds and then move on, never (or rarely) to be seen nor heard from again. Someday I guess that Bob and Patti will also move on, to another location here on earth or in heaven. They will be remembered by the few of us that will stay around here for 20+ years. Then a new group of young parents will move in, get to know each other better at a salmon bake some 25 years hence... and the cycle will repeat itself.