Part II

PART II

Chapters 11–18

Junior High, Shame, And Becoming Visible

Walking my old routes and revisiting familiar places helped me carry these memories forward. Over the years, as I returned to Murray for holidays and family visits, the landscape grew less familiar. The smoke stacks came down. Hillcrest Junior High was demolished. Even part of Hillside Drive disappeared. I photographed what I could before more was lost.

These images cannot restore the places themselves. Sometimes memory grows more potent precisely because it has been withdrawn from the shapes that formed it.

Hillcrest Junior High

8 March 2004

Photograph by the author

Hillcrest Junior High at left, with Murray Library and the Take Five Drive-In beyond a long, grassy, athletic field.

Hillcrest Junior High, Murray Library, Take Five Drive-In

8 March 2004

Photograph by the author

Hillcrest Junior High viewed from the north end of Hillside Drive, beyond a neighborhood street and patches of snow.

Hillcrest Junior High from the north end of Hillside Drive

23 December 2010

Photograph by the author

Hillcrest Junior High drop off area

23 December 2010

Photograph by the author

Front entrance of Hillcrest Junior High, with brick facade, shadowed steps, shrubs, and the school name on the wall. A bright blue sky rises above it.

Hillcrest Junior High front entrance

29 May 2012

Photograph by the author

Mount Olympus visible beyond ink black evergreens beside the shaded brick wall of Hillcrest Junior High.

Olympus view from Hillcrest

26 November 2013

Photograph by the author

Hillcrest Junior High stretching from the bottom and across the top of a steep green grassy hill.

Steep grassy slope below Hillcrest Junior High near the pedestrian bridge over State Street.

Hillcrest Junior High baseball field with the gym building in the background.

Hillcrest Junior High stretching from the bottom and across the top of a steep green grassy hill.

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Hillcrest Junior High building and grounds

29 May 2012

Photographs by the author

Empty Hillcrest Junior High entry hall with trophy case, benches, framed displays, and banners hangi

Hillcrest Junior High entry hall looking toward the glass front doors, with trophy cases and benches

School corridor with vending machine in an alcove beside framed team photographs.

Empty Hillcrest Junior High entry hall with trophy case, benches, framed displays, and banners hangi

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Hillcrest Junior High entry hall

26 November 2013

Photographs by the author

Empty Hillcrest Junior High corridor extending deep into the distance where a dark staircase rises into the ceiling lights.

Long hall into the ceiling

26 November 2013

Photograph by the author

Wide stairs leading into a corridor above e the fluorescent lights.

Stairs to a landing leading to more steps that disappear into the ceiling above.

Hillcrest Junior High upper ninth grade hallway with tall blue lockers and a blindingly lit window a

Wide stairs leading into a corridor above e the fluorescent lights.

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Junior high interior views

26 November 2013

Photographs by the author

Hillcrest Junior High cafeteria

26 November 2013

Photograph by the author

Wide view across the Hillcrest cafeteria, with folded tables along the wall and an American flag above them.

Hillcrest Junior High cafeteria back wall

26 November 2013

Photograph by the author

Weathered bouncing ball with orange and white swirls effecting the turbulent cloud pattern of Jupiter.

Five translucent polyhedral dice in yellow, orange, emerald, and ruby.

Faded yellow-and-green Scout neckerchief with red number patches reading 376.

Small brown leather Scout pouch with orange stitching, snap flap, and beaded hanging loop.

Round black compass with degree markings and a red-and-white directional needle.

Rolled green woven Scout belt with a brass buckle.

Narrow brown leather case with dark stitching and a round metal snap.

Canvas tents scattered through dry grass at Bear Lake Aquatics camp, with rounded hills rising behind them.

Embroidered Bear Lake Aquatics patch showing a white sailboat, yellow sun, rope border, and signal flags.

Bear Lake Aquatics Camp, Summer 1991

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Triangular Bear Lake Aquatic patch with a white sailboat and small activity symbols around the border.

Scouts gathered around an open wooden A-frame pavilion near the shore of Bear Lake.

Gathering at the A-frame

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Troop chest

Privacy silhouette applied over Scout leader in the pavilion

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Springbar canvas tents set with guy lines taut under high peaked hills covered in green scrub and parched grass.

Afternoon among the hills

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Scouts gathered for lunch around a cooler under a wooden A-frame pavilion with cross beam labeled "Dolphin" in faded paint.

Twine hammock stretched beneath the wooden rafters of an A-frame shelter, with Bear Lake visible through the opening.

Camp stoves

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Dolphin pavilion

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Yellow plastic camping flashlight with a wide reflector.

Twine hammock in A-frame

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Clouds spreading across the deep blue sky above Bear Lake's pale expanse and the surrounding hills.

Clouds over Bear Lake

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Daniel with squirt guns

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Water fight at camp

Photographs by Brian DeWitt

Daniel in sunglasses and a black tee-shirt holding plastic squirt guns at Bear Lake Aquatics camp.

Brandon and Tyler walk beside a camper whose tossed water bottle is turning over his shoulder.

Tyler and Brandon dodge water thrown from a black pan by a camper hiding in the shadow of a Springbar canvas tent.

Campers running between canvas tents during a water fight at Bear Lake Aquatics camp.

Brandon caught midair, launching an arc of water from a plastic bucket towards a camper falling on his bottom beside a tent.

A splash of water and spray ripple out from Brandon's bucket as he lunges toward a camper hiding around the corner of a tent.

Bear Lake camp at dusk, with tents and A-frame shelters beneath hills glowing orange in the last light.

Last night at Bear Lake

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Newspaper clipping with a portrait of Brandon in Scout uniform and an article announcing his Eagle Scout Award.

Brandon in Scout uniform and his grandfather Glade Peterson standing beside the Soren Petersen Meado

Glade Peterson and Brandon digging with shovels among wildflowers during Brandon’s Eagle Scout proje

Brandon standing in Scout uniform at his Eagle Award ceremony, wearing his merit-badge sash beside h

Brandon in Scout uniform and his grandfather Glade Peterson standing beside the Soren Petersen Meado

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Brandon's Eagle project

18 August 1991

Photographs by Glenna Sorenson Peterson

Blue Boy Scouts of America neckerchief with red-and-white edging and an eagle emblem.

Granite Trail District Spring Camp-O-Ree patch showing a covered wagon pulled by oxen.

Boy Scouts of America Historic Trails Award patch with pioneer wagons.

Round Granite Trail Klondike Derby patch with snowy mountains and January 1990 lettering.

Round 1990 Utah Heritage Jamboral patch with an eagle, American flag, beehive, and Great Salt Lake Council lettering.

Great Salt Lake Council 1991 Scout-O-Rama patch with a globe and the words “Improving Our World.”

Blue 1993 Scout-O-Rama patch with a globe and the words “World of Discovery.”

Round 1992 Utah Heritage Jamboral patch with an eagle, American flag, beehive, and Great Salt Lake Council lettering.

1992 Great Salt Lake Council Scout-O-Rama patch featuring a magician’s top hat and colorful symbols.

Bronze Faith in God medal suspended beneath a rectangular bar.

On My Honor Scout medal with a green-and-yellow ribbon and silver fleur-de-lis.

Duty to God Scout medal with a green-and-white ribbon and silver religious emblem.

Memorabilia from Brandon's Scouting collection

Photographs by the author

Brandon and his cousin standing in Scout uniforms in front of a large canvas tent at Camp Maple Dell.

Brandon in Scout uniform beside an open car trunk at Camp Tifie, with forested hills behind him.

An exhausted Brandon standing at home in a T-shirt and Scout shorts after returning from Camp Tifie.

Brandon in Scout uniform looking through papers beside a car after arriving at Camp Tifie.

Brandon and his cousin at Camp Maple Dell

Individual in foreground removed for privacy

Summer 1992

Photograph by Alan DeWitt

Brandon arriving at Camp Tifie

Summer 1992

Photographs by Elaine Peterson DeWitt

Brandon returning from Camp Tifie

Summer 1992

Photograph by Brian DeWitt

Brandon's eighth and ninth grade ID cards

Curving fenced pedestrian bridge over State Street, with the newer Murray High School building beyon

Ramp spirals up in a gentle slope to the pedestrian bridge sweeping over State Street in a long curv

Fenced pedestrian bridge crossing State Street beside Hillcrest Junior High, with the Wasatch Mounta

Northward view through the bridge’s chain-link fence along busy State Street toward the Salt Lake Va

Fenced walkway curving across the pedestrian bridge, with snow-covered Mount Olympus ahead.

Mount Olympus framed through the arched chain-link enclosure at the end of the pedestrian bridge.

Rocky twin peaks of Mount Olympus silhouetted beneath a wide blue morning sky streaked with white cl

Northward view from the pedestrian bridge over multi-lane State Street, with traffic and commercial

Southward view from the pedestrian bridge along State Street, lined with car lots, businesses, and m

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Pedestrian bridge over State Street between Hillcrest Junior High and Murray High School

Photographs by the author

First page of Brandon’s typed ninth-grade essay “Why Biology,” marked 20/20 with a red star and handwritten teacher comments.

Second page of Brandon’s ninth-grade biology essay, with "man must have a heart and not just a mind" underlined in red ink.

Brandon's essay for ninth grade biology

August 1992

Teal cover of Hillcrest Junior High’s 1992–1993 literary magazine Excursions, with a collage of an open book, shuttle, towers

Hand-drawn fantasy character sketch titled “Coventina,” created by Brandon in early 1993.

Fantasy character sketch of Percival the Unmerciful, mouth shouting, dripping sweat, in a thickly layered uniform.

Pencil cover sketch for Tales of Akaria, with the title arcing above two figures wearing scorpion armor.

Brandon's sketch of Percival the Unmerciful

Early 1993

Brandon's sketch of Coventina

Early 1993

Brandon's cover art for Tales of Akaria

Part II

Junior High, Shame, And Becoming Visible

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