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Lydia Taylor Skewes

“My people came to the little Grand Valley in wagons and forded the Colorado River, and I’ve flown in jet planes.” A daughter of one of the earliest families to settle in Moab, Lydia Skewes grew up watching Moab grow up: horse races on the sandy road in front of her house, Fourth of July dances in Castleton and, always singing. As did other women, Lydia attended to the welfare of family and friends, especially when the mills shut down during World War I by making robes, socks, scarves and bandages for the Red Cross. And always participating in activities that she thought would better her community.

 

Lydia Taylor Skewes talks about her Chickering piano, Moab's first.

Historian Bruce Louthan asks Lydia about how people got around in the winter before cars. Hear her talk about the time of horsepower.

Life  before modern refrigeration, says Lydia, meant getting by, and making ice cream, with big blocks drawn from the river in winter.