Pie And Beer Day

Today, July 24th, is a major holiday in Utah - it commemorates the day the Mormon settlers arrived in Salt Lake Valley. It's called Pioneer Day, but saucier members of the community refer to it as Pie and Beer Day.

To me the observance has a very different meaning. It was on this day in the mid- 19-teens that my yia yia arrived in Salt Lake. After a long train trip from New York City, it must have been exciting and a little scary for a teenage Greek girl to arrive in her new home.

She was met, of course, by her brothers John and Nick.  And as they walked from the train station, she witnessed something spectacular: a huge parade. They stopped to watch, waving back at the people marching, and the bands passing by.

 

Yia yia asked her brothers what was going on, why there was a parade.

In what I learned from her many stories was pretty par for the course from her brothers, she was told the parade was in her honor; the town held a parade every time a new immigrant arrived.

Luckily, Yia yia always had pretty darn good BS-detection!