After 30 Years, You Can’t Go Back

May 21st, 2024

During the summer of 1992, I worked as a Database Administrator (DBA) for a company in Downer’s Grove, Illinois called Infotronx. The spring and early summer were a little strange as the company seemed to be having some difficulties. The project I worked on was relatively safe as it was half owned by Deloitte and Touche, a large accounting firm. In the spring, they flew 2 of us down to Atlanta, Georgia to let us know, that whatever happened, we would continue to work for them and they would guarantee our salary. This was fortunate, as we soon discovered that the other employees began to miss their paychecks.

By July, we were notified that Infotronx had filed bankruptcy, and sold their assets to a firm in Jacksonville, Florida. The assets included the software that we had created for Deloitte. In order to keep working, we would have to be re-employed by them, as they now owned half of the Deloitte project. However, the “vibe” I was getting from the Jacksonville firm was not a good one.

About that time, I received a call from Field’s Software Group (FSG) in Park City, Utah. They were a direct competitor of Infotronx. They, fortunately, were not interested in the assets, but rather the intellectual capital of the company. I was offered a job in Park City as a “C” programmer with the intention of being their future DBA, once they completed a new conversion from existing flat data files to a relational database.

Being single at the time, the opportunity seemed perfect. There was little risk, good benefits, and I could live in the Utah mountains, enjoying backpacking, bicycling, trout fishing, and best of all backcountry and Telemark skiing in some of the best powder snow in the country. Three of my Infotronx co-workers were also moving, so we all rented a 4 bedroom, 2 story house in Park City for the first year. FSG would even pay Allied Van Lines to move my belongings. So, in late August, I loaded up my Bronco II with my most valuable possessions, my skis, bikes, and backpack gear, and started the long 25 hour drive. Allied would get the less important stuff.

Field’s Software Group was located on Main Street in Park City, on the 3rd floor of a small mall. The basement was the location of Mrs. Field’s Cookies headquarters. She was the wife of Randy Fields, who had created her company’s retail software. He decided to sell that software to other small retail chains, and thus, FSG was created. I would be working on enhancements to the scheduling software for Mrs. Fields Cookie stores, Disney Stores, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Wilson Leather, and National Pizza (owners of Pizza Hut). I would even get 30 free cookie cards with my first paycheck of each month.

`We settled into our new home, complete with a hot tub on the deck from which we could see all three local ski areas, Deer Valley, Park City, and Park West. We each purchased a season ski pass. Most evenings found us sitting in the hot tub, eating Field’s cookies and awaiting the first snow of the season.

And we waited, but no snow. All the news on the local TV station, was about the 7th year of a draught in the area. In fact, when I interviewed for the job back in July, the nearby Jordanelle Reservoir was full of boats and personal water craft. But by, late August, that reservoir was just a huge mud flat through which a small creek ran. It had been drained to keep Salt Lake City and Provo supplied with water. The news was that water would have to be rationed in Salt Lake City the next summer. Even record rainfall and snow would not alleviate the situation by spring.

Every day was the same. We woke up to sunny skies, daily temperatures of 72-75 and no wind. Hot air balloons drifted slowly just over the rooftop of the house, with an occasional whoosh of the propane burner igniting. We heard the Magpies searching for dropped garbage, and the click-clack sound of automatic sprinklers keeping the lawns green in the arid mountain climate. We got up and drove up to the covered garage behind Main Street, walking through the underground passage and into the mall for another day of coding. At lunch, we would scurry out onto Main Street to one of the dozens of dining choices. We paid an average of about $6 for a meal that at dinner time, cost the tourists and skiers about $20.

Several of us made a fall fishing trip up to Yellowstone (about 5 hours of driving) and we went on a 3 day backpacking trip to the high mountain lakes of the Uinta range. But, our favorite habit, was to head down the Provo River Canyon to Sundance for Sunday morning brunch. It was all you could eat gourmet food in the Timber Room (a large pine tree grew right through the dining area and on through the roof). The Timber Room was also known for its rustic western decor, and the many photographs from the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid movie filmed with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Mr. Redford owned the Sundance Ski Area and resort where the Sundance Film Institute was located.

Three days before Thanksgiving, it began to snow. We had about 18 inches every night for 3 consecutive days. So, we went skiing. We could leave work at lunch and jump on the Town Lift, do 2 or 3 runs, and be back at our desks in an hour.

It snowed some more. By New Years, the reservoir had filled up. By late winter, the talk of draught was over, as we had over 600 inches of snow. Our driveway was a trench, deeper than the roof a car. Wildlife, having difficulty in the deep snow, came into town at night. We had moose on Main Street. One family left their garage door open one night, and the next morning found a Mountain Lion sleeping. It had eaten their cat during the night. Elk and Mule Deer were everywhere.

Alas, for various reasons, I left Park City at the end of March 1993. My friends continued to work and ski. Their last day of skiing that year was July 4th. It was June before all the snow melted from the yard.

Thirty-one years have passed since then. I am camped at the state park on that once empty reservoir. Fishing boats, personal water craft, and kayaks now cruise the bays. I drove into Park City this morning, pulled into the parking deck, and parked in the same spot I did each work day back in 1992. I walked through the tunnel to Main Street and the mall where I worked. Except, it is not a mall any more. At some point it became individual stores and apartments. FSG is gone, as is Mrs. Field’s Cookies.

I recognized many of the buildings on Main Street. But the stores and restaurants are all different. Of the many places we would frequent for lunch, only one remains, The Wasatch Brewery. And, the famous Egyptian Theatre is still across the street. The Sundance Film Festival is still held there every February, though I have heard this past year may have been the last one. The current movie is called Gwyneth Goes Skiing. It is about the notorious Deer Valley Ski accident where Gwyneth Paltrow and another skier crashed into each other on a downhill run. The other skier sued in court and Paltrow counter sued for $1. She won when another skier that day, came up with a video showing that she had been the down hill skier and thus had the right of way.

All the diners we liked on Main Street are gone. Most buildings now contain art galleries or high end clothing stores. The book store and outdoor stores are gone, and of course, The Barking Frog is no longer there (we called it The Barfing Frog). Our favorite Japanese restaurant is gone. Whenever we ate lunch there, the waiter would use his knife to turn a radish into a rose for each of the ladies at the table.

Main Street does not seem to have the charm that it did back in 1993. Many days we would see film crews shooting scenes. And often, teenagers would race down the sloped street on their skateboards. At the bottom of the street, they would latch onto the bumper of a tourist’s car or UPS truck, and get pulled back to the top. It was fun to watch them turn and dart into the side alleys whenever a police car cruise by.

Off of Main Street, things are also different. The Hardees is now a Burger King. Albertsons’ grocery is now a Fresh Market. Nacho Momma’s Mexican Diner went out of business in 2011. We used to leave such large tips there, that the waitresses got in a big fist fight over who was going to get our table. I drove onto Holiday Ranch Loop Road. Our house is still there on the corner where the road looped back over itself. From there, I looked back up at the ski area. Even in late May, the run I used to ski at night is still covered with snow.

So many stories can be told about that house. Like how the hot tub turned into a bubble bath. The lighted ski run experienced a power outage, and my friends had to ski down in the beam of a Ski Patrol snowmobiles headlight. There was the shrimp we cooled and ate from a bowl of snow gathered from the front yard. And the nightly scent of skunk that permeated the air for the month of October.

All that is now just memories. Nothing seems the same. The excitement is faded. All my friends are gone, mostly relocated back to the Midwest.

Back in the autumn of 1992, I would drive my Bronco II 4×4 above town just beyond Empire Pass. I would climb up a rutted side track, sometimes with only 3 tires touching the ground to a circle of rocks on the top of a small peak. You could see most of the town below you and on a clear day all the way north to Wyoming. To the east you could glimpse the snow covered peaks of the Uintahs. As the sun went down over the Wasatch ridge, you could often hear the whistling bugle of a bull elk somewhere off in the distance. Tomorrow I will try to find that spot. Now it is most likely under or between newly built condos, or maybe cleared for a new ski run from higher up.

Visiting now, Park City is just a place. I could not re-capture the feelings I had when I lived there. You can’t go back, as even if over the years it stayed the same, I did not.