Not Forgotten Podcast

S2 Episode 5: Gail Smith – Growing Up in the Town of Washington

Host: Lyman Hafen
Guest: Gail Cooper Smith
Date: February 10, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of Not Forgotten dives into the lived experience and pioneer heritage of Gail Cooper Smith, who grew up in Washington, Utah—a community deeply connected to its Latter-day Saint and Southern roots. Through rich storytelling, Gail sketches the enduring influence of “Dixie spirit,” the landscape, and her ancestors on her upbringing and values. Together with host Lyman Hafen, she weaves family history, personal recollection, and local color, illustrating how the past and present intermingle to shape Utah’s Dixie.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Dixie Spirit and a Close-Knit Community

• Gail opens by affirming the ever-present “Dixie spirit” and the deep bonds of small-town life (00:00).
• Community life was inseparable from church culture: “The church was the community and the community was the church.” (05:26)
• Parental oversight extended through neighbors; children’s actions were everyone’s concern, enforcing a shared sense of accountability and togetherness (05:26-06:38).

Ancestors’ Pioneer Roots: A Blend of Wales and the American South

• Gail shares fascinating, personal accounts of her great-great grandparents, blending Welsh immigrant journeys with frontier romance and hardship (06:46-16:24).
• Family migration stories:
  • From Wales: Bravery, faith healings, love formed on the plains, and a harrowing confrontation with Native Americans at Moggeson Springs (06:46-15:48).
  • From the South: Conversion narratives, fleeing religious persecution, and the founding of settlements focused on southern crops like cotton (17:00-21:31).
• Her family’s connection to the historic Washington cotton mill, which “has so much history. You just walk in it, and you can feel it just come from the walls.” (22:36-23:11)

Childhood Memories: Bridging Pioneer and Modern Worlds

• Gail’s early years were spent in a pioneer adobe home, using a fireplace for heat, drawing water, and using Sears catalogues as toilet paper—a practical continuation of pioneer ways into the 1950s. (32:49-36:53)
• Engaged family traditions like gathering wood beside the river, harnessing horses, and pine nut foraging for both sustenance and economic barter (e.g., trading pine nuts for a vacuum) (34:04-39:43).
• The delight in simple things: “The delight it was when we’d get a sock... and just get a piece of an orange.” (40:28-40:52)
• Childhood ingenuity and collective play—daily swimming at the warm springs, bonfires, and games in the street—created a vibrant communal youth culture (41:35-44:34).

The Role of Work, Gender, and Opportunity

• Despite being one of several daughters, Gail embraced farm chores: “I’m the outdoors person, I’m the athletic person, I’m the tomboy. Probably the only boy my dad ever came close to.” (41:35-41:39)
• Vivid stories of caring for animals and learning self-reliance (41:39-42:05).
• Athletics as a gateway to self-expression: She credits her Dixie upbringing for her abilities and opportunities, culminating in playing on—and winning—a women’s basketball championship team (46:17-48:27).

Educational and Social Tapestry

• Describes schooling in one-room classrooms, the importance of shared meals, and community events: “Everybody came, Santa Claus came and we were all in the play and the parents had to make the costumes for whatever we were.” (44:05)
• Reunions and enduring bonds: Even after 65 years, the Dixie reunion radiates community and service, and still includes figures like Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (49:14-50:01).

Deep Connection to Place and Heritage

• The land and community traditions are integral to identity: “I have been all over the world, and I’ve met tons and tons of people, but still where my roots are, I know where I’m at because of where I was raised.” (51:27)
• Describes Utah’s unique landscape and the beauty and challenge of living off the land: “This landscape is, as far as I’m concerned, the center of the earth. I can’t get enough of it. Its beauty, its desert.” (52:58)
• The landscape teaches resilience, faith, and gratitude: “What it teaches you and how it helps you appreciate God’s creations and what we’re totally blessed with here. It is rougher... But it’s okay. It’s worth the beauty.” (54:04)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Community and Roots:
  • “It’s that Dixie spirit. We were all so close, no matter where we were from. I know where I’m at because of where I was raised.” – Gail Cooper Smith (00:00, 51:27)
• On Faith and Pioneer Hardship:
  • “She describes, I saw the white doves fly by, and I was healed.” – Gail, relating an ancestor’s story (07:10)
  • “When an apostle calls you, you go.” – Gail, reading from ancestor’s journal (28:03)
• On Childhood Simple Pleasures:
  • “I literally learned how to roller skate with those skates that you clenched on with the key on the hard beaten path to the outhouse.” – Gail (36:17)
  • “We had this Sears catalog for toilet paper. You know, very thrifty.” – Gail (36:53)
• On Family Traditions and Adaptation:
  • “My parents... had a bag, a gunny sack full of the old ways, but as new ways came, they were willing to take out the old ways and put in the new ways...” – Gail (50:32)
• On Enduring Connection to Place:
  • “This landscape is, as far as I’m concerned, the center of the earth. I can’t get enough of it.” – Gail (52:58)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:00] – Gail reflects on the Dixie spirit and her small-town upbringing.
• [05:13–16:24] – Deep-dive into Gail’s family stories: Welsh and Southern ancestors, pioneer trials, and adaptation.
• [22:36–23:11] – The historic Washington cotton mill and family working life.
• [32:49–39:43] – Memories of childhood: living in a pioneer adobe home, living off the land, the pine nut vacuum story.
• [41:35–47:15] – Rural chores, gender roles, learning through doing, athleticism, and joy in simple living.
• [49:14–50:01] – Community endurance: 65th class reunion, lasting friendships with notable locals like Elder Holland.
• [52:58–54:34] – Gail’s poetic love for the land, living off it, and her gratitude for the beauty and challenge it provides.

Tone and Style

The episode maintains an intimate, reflective, and warm tone. Gail’s approachable, vivid storytelling brings both humor (roller skating to the outhouse, the Electrolux pine nut trade), pathos, and wisdom. The conversation celebrates resilience, compassion, and the importance of remembering—central tenets of the Dixie spirit and the podcast itself.

Final Thoughts

The episode is a moving tribute to both personal and collective memory in Dixie. Gail Smith’s storytelling is a reminder of the bridges between past and present, the ongoing grit required to live in southern Utah, and the unbreakable bonds forged by history, landscape, and community. Through her eyes, listeners gain a deeper sense of what it means to belong to a place and a people “not forgotten.”