Growing Up in a Spudtown Introduction
By Wayne J Ririe

This was an introduction that Wayne sent me several years before he actually completed "Spudtown." If you haven't had a chance to read the entire 153 page book, contact me and I'll see what I can do about getting a copy sent to you. I'm trying to get a digital copy of this book to format as a pdf and host here on Ririe.org. This great book is "Classic Wayne" and gives the reader a fascinating insight into life in Ririe from 1933 to 1953. -Steven Jackson

Dedication
To everyone who has passed age 30 and reflected on the perils and promises of life. It is hoped that somewhere in the pages of "Spud Town" you will discover a bit of your life. I wish you to see a reflection of your youth, the one who was, but now only lives in faint memory.

"The end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time"(T. S.Elliot)

In every life, no matter the time and place, there is a certain element of adventure- it only has to be identified and enjoyed in memory. Author Lewis Mumford gives a vivid description: “There comes a time-it is the beginning of manhood or womanhood-when one realized that adventure is as humdrum as routine unless one assimilates it, unless one relates it to a central core which grows within and gives it contour and significance. Raw experience is empty, just as empty in the forecastle of a whaler as in a chamber of a courthouse: it is not what one does, but in a manifold sense, what one realizes that keeps existence from being vain and trivial."

SPUD TOWN REVISITED

I know who my people are
Only time has distanced me from them
Their bodies now rest in covered graves
Yet they exist as beings who think and feel
Grey stones announce a life once lived
Glorious angels announce they will live again.

There stirs in each of us an inner drive to progress. Great are the perils faced in the past by adventurous souls who longed to find new hope. Doors of opportunity open in many ways. Vistas of dreams realized came sometimes naturally, sometimes miraculously.

The story of "Spud Town" began a long time ago in far off Scotland. There stands a small house of stone surrounded by grassy splendor. Trees on the West provide a shield from the summer sun and a break from the winter wind. The challenging climate helped produce a hardy people. The Scots are in a word 'tough'. The ancients were called Picts, of Celt origin. Later others migrated from Scandinavia, Ireland, and England to Scotland over many decades. The Picts no longer survive as an identifiable race. The new Scot however, still possesses the same drive and ambition of the Picts, tempered with civility.

The Romans invaded England in 43AD. The Scots were still a bit barbaric. The Roman emperor, Hadrian, fenced Scotland in with a 20-ft high 7-ft wide stone wall manned by 5,000 troops. Such was the valiant Romans fear of the dreaded Scots. Hadrian’s wall ran from ocean to ocean between Roman England and free Scotland. Much of the wall still stands today.

David Ririe, founder of Ririe, (Spud Town) was the son of James Ririe, a free Scotchman. James was born in the stone home previously mentioned. The permanence of this ancient home merited a permanent name. 'Walkend' is still the name of James' birthplace. Slate shingles peeked by time and partly covered by moss still cover the room where James entered mortal life.

In 1999, I walked the quarter mile from Old Fraser Castle to Walkend. I sensed a feeling of home being so close to my ancestor's birthplace. It was like I could feel their spirits still in the meadows and groves of trees on their homeland. I felt complete and peaceful knowing I was walking on sacred ground where they walked. The delightful Scottish accent of the people gives me a hint of what great grandfather would have sounded like. The shrill bagpipe music seemed to sink deep into my being, like I belonged part to the past and part to the present.

Religion changed the path of James Ririe away from his beloved Scotland. Mormon missionaries contacted the Ririe family and soon there stirred within them a desire to move on. Move on they did. After arriving by way of a long sea journey, James and his brother David, traveled by covered wagon from Kansas City to Utah.

To be continued...

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