Thread by @wildcat_media

Interesting #GeneralConference weekend, to be sure. Including those temple announcements at the end. #TooeleValleyTemple, huh? Who'da thunk it?

I have no idea about the history and lead-up of other temples, but I have some insight into the Tooele Valley area (thread...)

I spent my childhood in Grantsville - tiny cookie-crumb farming town, yet it was the second largest city in Tooele County. I have family history there, grew up being related to most of the town. Kind of annoying - I've heard all the inbred redneck jokes, trust me.

My family owned a farm, I grew up a farm kid. That's pretty much all that Tooele Valley was up until about 20+ years ago. Farms, farms, and more farms. And the last gasp of the Army Depot, I suppose. Walmart and Wendy's coming in were a HUGE deal.

Small Town, USA. Complete with the gossipy ladies airing out everyone's dirty laundry at all the Relief Society functions. Everyone all up in each other's business. If you sneezed funny, someone across town knew about it in five minutes.

Everyone knew my parents and both sets of grandparents. We weren't anything too special.

Then the housing boom hit in the mid-90s. Farming was becoming less profitable in the area. My parents decided to sell our land to a developer and start relocating our ranch.

People from Salt Lake City wanted to move out there, especially those who wanted horse property and who wanted to live farther away from the city, but still be able to commute to their jobs in SLC. We were hardly the only farm family selling property in Grantsville or Tooele.

We probably weren't even the biggest outfit selling, either. City folks were going nuts for large housing lots at the time and if you had land to sell, you were crazy not to go for it.

This should have been a relatively simple proposition.

TL;DR - It wasn't.

When the gossips and the local news rag got hold of the fact that OUR family was selling a huge chunk of land that would draw hundreds of new people to the area, the old timers were LIVID. How DARE some good ol' boy try to "ruin" this sweet little town with dreaded CITY FOLK?

They might be gang members! They might bring drugs and violence to our sleepy little hamlet! They might ruin our kids' chances to be the star player on the football/basketball/tennis teams! The teenagers won't be able to sneak off south of town to make out anymore!

What do you mean you aren't going to stick around and grow pretty green hayfields for us to coo over? You're going to make MONEY! You're nothing special! You're taking away our jobs!

(I really don't understand that last one, but it was an argument that was made. As was the "Save Our Makeout Point" thing too. It's been twenty years and IDEK...)

For some reason, the local newspaper made a point to mention my parents by name in EVERY article that talked about the rezoning and developing efforts. Like I said, our family weren't the only ones selling, but we were the face of "controversy."

Did I mention I was in middle school at the time? Kids were absolutely HEINOUS to me over this. Their parents talked about my parents, and those kids - who I'd gone to school with since preschool - suddenly decided I was an acceptable target for gossip and shunning.

Eventually, we did move. It was always in the plan to leave Grantsville and establish the ranch somewhere else. I was relieved when that day finally came. I've not had a desire to return.

At the time, Dad continually said that this was Heavenly Father's plan for us. Dad and Mom felt right about what they were doing, even when they were gossiped about and people tried to take advantage of our supposed newfound wealth.

I always laugh about that. People thought we were going to be millionaires, when really all that money went right back into the ranch and our family - paying down debt, taking care of our needs, buying a new ranch. True, we were slightly better off, but not by much.

Also, Dad told me about a stake conference her attended back in the...70s, I want to say. The visiting General Authority made a prediction that the Tooele Valley would someday be populated from mountain-to-mountain. Even that there would be a temple there one day.

Nobody really thought that it was going to happen anytime soon - Dad hardly believed that he would have a hand in that growth. Of course back then, new temples were rare as hen's teeth. Just having a second one in the Salt Lake Valley was a huge deal.

Fast forward to now. Tooele Valley is a far cry from those little backwoods farm towns that I remember in my youth. Wonderful people have moved there (including some of my in-laws, ironically enough) and have brought a level of class and decency that was sorely needed.

True, there might be some bad apples, but nowhere near the level that the doomsayers and jealous gossips predicted.

The church has seen remarkable growth in the area and today, as I think back on those experiences I had in middle and high school - the announcement of the #TooeleValleyTemple almost makes those lonely moments worth it.

If I could go back and talk to myself at ages 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 - tell her that all those idiots treating her like crap won't matter someday, that this growth is going to result in something amazing... she would think I was nuts, but it would be something to file away later.

So, there you go, #TooeleValley - you're getting a temple. You have enough people, enough faithful Church members to warrant a temple.

That is awesome. It's not just "oh, Utah gets another temple." This Means Something to people - even those of us who don't live there anymore.

I guess we didn't completely "ruin" Grantsville or Tooele after all.

Now, I don't know if any of those skeptics or bullies from way back when are still around and it seems hardly appropriate to gloat...

Oh, screw it.