Where is Pleasantville?

[oldcrowcall]

When I retired recently (well, 2+ years ago) To my collegues I always said I was retiring to "Pleasantville". I did, but unpleasant things keep intruding!! Energy prices, Chicken flue, AlKaieda, floods, etc.
I worked for 45 years straigt (not counting paper routes, etc.) Now, I hike, kayak, fish, take pictures, paint, etc, and I LOVE those things but I can't find Pleasantville. Maybe it is with my Grandchildren but they are far away. Is it in Florida, maybe Crystal River area? That is what I hear. I thought my  portfolio was part of "Pleasantville", but now instead of accumulation it is in distibution and volitility.  Is it in helping those less fortunate? Maybe it is in this Green Apple martini I am having? Has anyone found "Pleasantville"?

 

[yakers]

I think you may know the answer already. Its where ever you are. Pleasantville (or happiness in general) is an inside job. You have enough already, you know which things you do that make you happy, do them. Then just be happy. Anyway, it works for me. Most of the time.

 

[dex]

You are in Pleasantville but, you are passing through Fearsville. I think every state has its Pleasantville and Fearsville. I think we have to increase the population of Pleasantville by inviting good people and activities in. Fearsville needs to be made as unattractive as possible so we don't take too long to pass through.

 

[SteveR]

Due to the high usage of antidepressants here; the Salt Lake City valley is called "Happy Valley" by those not brainwashed of the predominate faith here. There is a real town called Pleasantville, Mount Pleasant and Pleasant Prairie. Probably more but I have not looked them up.

The good thing here is that most people here have a good work ethic and are basically conservative in business. The bad thing is that this area is also one of the highest for personal bankruptcy in the nation. People live way beyond their means.....I guess it is the California influence (same one that keeps the RE bubble raising here).

Have a Pleasant Day.

 

[dex]

Due to the high usage of antidepressants here; the Salt Lake City valley is called "Happy Valley" by those not brainwashed of the predominate faith here. There is a real town called Pleasantville, Mount Pleasant and Pleasant Prairie. Probably more but I have not looked them up.

The good thing here is that most people here have a good work ethic and are basically conservative in business. The bad thing is that this area is also one of the highest for personal bankruptcy in the nation. People live way beyond their means.....I guess it is the California influence (same one that keeps the RE bubble raising here).

Have a Pleasant Day.

SteveR,
Those are two surprisising stats. I would think that in a Mormon community taking of those drugs and debt would be frowned upon. Do you have any insights?

 

[SteveR]

Those are two surprisising stats.  I would think that in a Mormon community taking of those drugs and debt would be frowned upon.  Do you have any insights?

The "church" likes their women to be in compliance with church doctrine. Since it is still a very male dominated cult religion, there is a lot of peer pressure to keep the facade of the perfect happy family to the world. Reality is painful so drugs help to keep the image going.

The overspending it also part of it. The church wants 10% (gross) from all the members. There is also a lot of peer pressure to have it all and to keep up with the Sorenson's (local joke) so that means spend beyond your means. The result is bankruptcy so you can get back on your feet and start it all over again. I know several people that have filed personal chapter (?) several times and still manage to get credit and back into the rut. This is not just the mormans either. The need to consume appears to have infected the whole valley.

 

[justin]

The need to consume appears to have infected the whole valley nation.

There. That's better.

 

[dex]

There. That's better.

Definately agree

 

[Mr._johngalt]

When I retired recently (well, 2+ years ago) To my collegues I always said I was retiring to "Pleasantville". I did,  but unpleasant things keep intruding!! Energy prices, Chicken flue, AlKaieda, floods, etc.
I worked for 45 years straigt (not counting paper routes, etc.) Now, I hike, kayak, fish, take pictures, paint, etc, and I LOVE those things but I can't find Pleasantville. Maybe it is with my Grandchildren but they are far away. Is it in Florida, maybe Crystal River area? That is what I hear. I thought my  portfolio was part of "Pleasantville", but now instead of accumulation it is in distibution and volitility.  Is it in helping those less fortunate? Maybe it is in this Green Apple martini I am having? Has anyone found "Pleasantville"?

Not me! Under my photo in my senior high school yearbook, it said
"Anything for a quiet life." I thought whoever wrote that had nailed
it. Not any more. I don't think I will ever find "Pleasantville"
and the "quiet life" remains a distant vision. It's been quite
a party though, just never really got settled down, and who knows...................................
maybe I'd have been bored silly

JG

 

[Repairmanjack]

Pleasantville is my state of mind when I am achieving or enjoying what I value.

 

[AJL]

I heard that!!
I was in Pleasantville one time as I recall. It was 70 degrees on a nice summer day. I was lying on the grass, my trusty fishing pole by my side, line baited with the sweetest nightcrawler in the can, gazing up at the clouds in the sky, half asleep, holding a can of "Iron City" to my chest - not a care in the world, hoping and praying that the fish were not biting that day!!!

 

[oldcrowcall]

AJL you nailed it IMO!!!  I see my grandchildren about twice a year and try to give them something of the outdoors. What my kids know about nature they say they got from me when they were little but I got it from my Grandma. I have two dogs that are my kids now. I do a lot of kayaking and everybody says I should take my dog with me. But I know there would be a spot between my legs in the kayak that I know will be empty sooner or later. They are not with us very long. Then it would be hard to ever go out again, so I kayak alone and greet the both dogs when I get home!

 

[Gone4Good]

oldcrow - take your dogs with you! Enjoy them while they're here. You can morn them when they're gone but you can also teach a new pup to kayak!!!

You're comment about not wanting to take your dogs kayaking sounds like a metephor for the angst you expressed in your original post. You almost seem unwilling to let yourself find "Pleasantville". Seize the day, enjoy the moment. Pleasantville isn't a place but a state of mind. We only arrive there when we allow ourselves to appreciate life's simple pleasures often - and without guilt or worry.

Good luck on your journey - Pleasantville is waiting for you.

 

[Brat]

The Utah & S. Idaho lifestyle, I wondered how they kept it up!! These are barely middle income communities.  The husband is expected to earn the money, mom stay at home.  Two income households are not always better off financially, but with the church % and keeping up appearances, it just didn't math out to me.  The frequency that Evangelicals and Mormons are taken advantage of financially by their fellow parishioners bothers me a lot.  I wonder if the pressure to keep up appearances temps folks to take risks.

One of the funniest issues I ever dealt with was when an employee complained that she was discriminated against because she was a Jack Mormon.  The facility was located in SE Idaho, owned by a Japanese firm whose divisional management was located in Chicago. The Divisional HR Manager traveled to the facility to meet with me. The night before, at dinner, she asked local management. “What is a Jack Mormon?”  She said the table levitated!!

 

[dex]

Brat,
You needed to explain a bit more.....

What is a Jack Mormon?

According to the Web site Mormonhaven.com., an unofficial LDS information exchange, the term refers to people who are Mormon in name but not in deed. "Just as a Jackrabbit looks like a rabbit but isn't truly a hare, 'Jack Mormon' refers to someone claiming to be Mormon but who does not follow the teachings of the church," the Web site states.

Discussions on the topic with a number of local residents for the purpose of this article revealed a somewhat broader definition.

In the Cache Valley vernacular, a "Jack Mormon" isn't necessarily an outright hypocrite or a closet smoker and drinker, as the above definition implies. Rather, the term is commonly used in reference to all people who were born into the LDS faith but have drifted away from its practices while remaining on the church's membership rolls. Some try to keep up appearances. Some don't.

Cache Valley author and newspaper columnist John Stewart, a devout member and champion of the LDS faith, looks at it this way: "I think a lot of these people are honest about their feelings that the church isn't right for them, but they don't have their names removed out of fear that just in case the church is right after all, they don't want to be left out of heaven."

Stewart points out that the term "Jack Mormon" originally had quite a different meaning than it does today. It first surfaced in the 1830s to refer to non-members of the church who defended Joseph Smith and his followers on principles of religious liberty. Smith's critics mockingly called them "Jack Mormons."

But over the years, for reasons difficult to pinpoint, the meaning morphed.

Is it intended as an insult today as it was in its first incarnation?

That would appear to be largely a matter of context. In his Herald Journal newspaper column, Stewart has used it as a clearly derisive term for outspoken church critics who were raised in the faith. But among church dropouts, it is a label sometimes worn with pride. A group of Logan-linked rock musicians has even embraced the term for its band name: "Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons."

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I assumed it was a Mormon who didn't know Jack

JG

 

[Eagle43]

I assumed it was a Mormon who didn't know Jack 

JG

Argggggghhhhhhh! Now stop that!!

 

[Brat]

What is a Jack Mormon?

,beats me.  What ever it meant different treatment because of religious belief is unlawful.

The cultural contrasts were fascinating. One really needs to experiance SE Idaho and Utah to appreciate it.

 

[TromboneAl]

the sweetest nightcrawler in the can

Tasting the bait does not sound pleasant.

 

[SteveR]

The cultural contrasts were fascinating. One really needs to experiance SE Idaho and Utah to appreciate it.

Brat,

I could not agree more. You sort have to live in the middle of it to really understand it. I have a coworker that is a Jack Morman and he tells more negative stuff about them than anybody I know. He lived it for 30 years and finally saw the light. One could write a book on it. I know....we'll call it the Book of Morman.

 

[haha]

I first ran into "Jack Mormans" in LA. Motel along Interstate 15 coming south and west out of Morman country had signs "Special rates for Jack Mormans."

And I thought Catholic apostates told tales!

Ha

 

[SLC Tortfeasor]

Brat,

I could not agree more.  You sort have to live in the middle of it to really understand it.  I have a coworker that is a Jack Morman and he tells more negative stuff about them than anybody I know.  He lived it for 30 years and finally saw the light.  One could write a book on it.  I know....we'll call it the Book of Morman. 

True.  I moved to Salt Lake City several years ago, and it's really has required a long period of adjusting to the cultural environment here.  I have moved through phases as I've adjusted to life here.  First, I was totally open minded about mormons.  Then I felt completely opressed.  Then I realized that mormons aren't an evil cult, they just happen to seem that way to someone who's outnumbered in a community long-dominated by a conservative, somewhat evangelistic religious people.

I think that it would be a lot harder for me to live in a community dominated by, say, southern baptists.  The stereotypical mormons are squeaky clean and want everything around them to be similarly pleasant, but at least they don't preach that you're going to burn in hell for all eternity if you don't follow their ways.

Another thing about mormons:  I think they get picked on too much.  All religions are, to varying degrees, kooky and mystical and indefensible on rational grounds.  Most Americans would recoil in disgust if you started slamming on Judaism as being a cult, and yet people routinely say the same, and worse, about mormons, and nobody seems to care.

 

[SteveR]

I think that it would be a lot harder for me to live in a community dominated by, say, southern baptists. 

I have lived in such a community and I can say that the Southern Baptists never excluded my kids from playing with their kids and never went through my trash can looking to see how big a sinner I was.

Another thing about mormons: I think they get picked on too much. All religions are, to varying degrees, kooky and mystical and indefensible on rational grounds. Most Americans would recoil in disgust if you started slamming on Judaism as being a cult, and yet people routinely say the same, and worse, about mormons, and nobody seems to care.

I would disagree that they are picked on any more or less than any other religion. I know a few Jews who would argue with you on that point too.

What religion is not based on indefensible mystical grounds?

 

[SLC Tortfeasor]

What religion is not based on indefensible mystical grounds?

None.  They're all inherently irrational.