Safety Tips in Salt Lake City

To those of you visiting in the winter there are good reasons to stay in the ski resorts rather than the valley. Salt Lake has what is referred to as an inversion that seems to hang around most of the winter. It is very bad air quality. Normally warm air rises, but during the winter inversions a layer of cold air traps the warm air formed by heating and vehicles in a warm layer close to the ground. Trapped as well of course are all the pollutants. Anyone with lung trouble is encouraged to stay indoors.

Very rarely does the inversion climb up to the ski resorts. It is very nice to drive up the canyons or over the mountains and look down on the grayness and see blue sky instead.

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What that means is that you cannot buy alcoholic beverages in the supermarkets, 7-11 stores, hotels, or even some restaurants. There are only TWO state liquor stores in Salt Lake City. The stores are closed on Sundays and Holidays and by 7pm. On New Year's Eve, we thought we would purchase a bottle of champagne to have in our hotel room. What a sight! A line going into the liquor store!

This is the first time I heard or even knew they did this. That at each of the crosswalks the signals made a sound letting people who were visually impaired know when it was safe to cross into the walkway. That is pretty darn cool!

Ahh, I like the fact they try to remind everyone about looking both ways before preceding into the walk way. I will say that mostly everyone did not run the red lights and did not encounter any rudeness. Everyone seemed pretty laid back:-)

Be very very careful when you venture to Utah in a car. The first thing you will probably notice is the unprecedented number of police officers patrolling the streets. Watch out, they are mean and viscious and will ticket you for just about anything (I got a ticket for going 70mph on the freeway). They take pride in issuing the most citations per capita in the nation, and you will see so many of them lurking in the bushes and behind trees that you might wonder if you have stumbled onto a murder investigation...alas! It's only the SLCPD starved for action. They don't have anything to do because, let's face it, the Mormons out preaching the gospel and having bake sales daesn't exactly keep them on their toes. So, when they nab you for going 70 in a 65 zone, they will treat you like they caught you robbing the bank...proceed with caution!

I just got back from 10 days in Salt Lake City. What a beautiful place! I have never felt safe in a major metropolitin area (I live in Pittsburgh, so I'm sure you can understand why.) I could walk around freely at any time in this city and I never once felt harassed, unsafe, or unwelcome. All this crap about no nightlife, and crazy mormons is all ridiculous. I had nothing but good memories. And you MUST stop by The Gateway, it's quite an experience!

In my husband's family there were two men named John Baptist Beasley. The first one (c 1735 to 1790) married Elizabeth Blount whose father was John Blount. The second one (two generations later) 1796-1855 married Mary Alexander.

John Baptist Beasley is listed in the Family Search Ancestral Files of the LDS church as the husband of both Elizabeth Blount b. 19 Dec 1697 and Mary Blount b. 8 April, 1696. Both Elizabeth and Mary are the daughters of John Blount and Elizabeth Davis. Both have him listed as a second husband. Mary is alleged to have married him in 1735, the year he was born and she died, and Elizabeth in 1753 when he would have been 18 and she would have been 56.

This confusion arose because of the similarity of the names. I think that he married Elizabeth and Mary's niece Elizabeth, daughter of John Blount (Mary and Elizabeth's brother) and Sarah Vail.

So, not all of the information in the library is accurate. You have to double check everything and go back to original sources.

The man pictured is the son of the second John Baptist Beasley and Mary Alexander. He was my husband's great grandfather.