February 26, 2002 // 10:28 p.m. // Ogden streets

Today's first trip to Ogden in twenty-something days the morning before school resumed took place because I wanted to do two things.

First, I went to see my alma matter play in the state basketball tournament at my current school's arena. We won, and I found myself pulling for the same two kids who were the sophomore standouts when I was a senior. They were just two of the four kids who took it upon themselves to make things difficult on the rest of the gym class. Whenever we'd play basketball in class, the four would form a team, and would take it way too seriously for a gym class basketball game. Of the four, two are playing for East, one transferred to rival West High to play and the other graduated but the legacy lives on in his

href="http://www.fuck-dale.com/">Dom DeLouise wannabe looking father.

I stayed to watch another game featuring Highland High, the other public high school in the Salt Lake School District. By the end of this game, it was 2:00.

The main reason for venturing up to Ogden was to inquire about a service learning project. Volunteering is a great thing, but when you're forced to do it in college and you only have five choices in which to choose from, it really makes it less enjoyable. We could only choose projects that were on a sheet that our professor provided.

On top of this, all five were located in Ogden, meaning that in order to complete my twenty hours, I'd either have to spend a day in Ogden or travel the 65 mile round trip as much as five times a week. My professor should know that Weber State is a commuter campus and that only 60% or so of students live in Ogden. We come from Layton, Kaysville, Morgan, Bountiful and even Salt Lake. The latter three are at least 20 miles each way. But I had already waited until the last minute to start this project, I needed to get on it.

I had a difficult time finding the address of the school I was to report to for information. In order to understand why, I must first explain the difference between Salt Lake and Ogden streets.

In Salt Lake, it's harder to get lost than it is to arrive at your destination. The streets are nicely laid out in a grid system

href="http://thediastema.diaryland.com/notdave.html">(explained better here) in which you first find one half of the address (lets say south) and then you find the other half of that address (lets say west) leading you safely to the address. If you still don't understand, just think of the math classes where you graphed points like (3,5) or (4,7). Find X then find Y. A nice system if you ask me.

Ogden works in a truly confusing but educational way.

Ogden has decided to split itself into three unified but separate cities. They are: North Ogden, Ogden and South Ogden. As you enter South Ogden, you encounter addresses such as 5600 South and 1300 East. It follows the grid system.

As you venture further into Ogden and just before you hit Weber State University, the streets change. Suddenly, the "south" address becomes XXth Street. Fortunately, common sense will likely lead you to figuring out that after going through a light that reads 4200 South that the next light, even if it says 41st Street, means 4100 South. That's right folks. Ogden strips the direction at the end of the south addresses and turns them all into a numbered street. As if this isn't confusing enough, they go back to the directional addresses as you enter North Ogden.

12th Street, 11th Street, then 10th South.

This is a generally easy to understand concept. The following isn't.

Ogden also does something else unique with their streets. Those that run north/south feature President's last names in the order that they became President. At about 400 East is Washington. The next is Adams. Followed by Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, etc. I expected this to be a breeze, as I have long since memorized the list chronologically.

But Ogden throws another loop in the form of "breaking the chain."

Harrison Blvd. (a major street and the location of Weber State. Don't even ask me how the man with the shortest tenure got one of the better streets.) comes at about 1300 East. 9 blocks after Washington and President number nine. Following this pattern, if I continued to drive east, eventually I'd find Lincoln Street (16th President) and the school I was trying to find.

I drove east for miles finding no Presidents before I stopped at a few phone books to locate the street.

Frustrated, I drove west to 15th Street (the other half of the address) and suddenly stumbled onto what had frustrated me, and the problem with Ogden roads.

Going east, they start with Washington and end somewhere around Harrison or Taylor. On the other side of Washington going west, they start with Grant (President 18) and count down until they get to President number 10-12.

The only reason I can think of as to why they would do this relates to the time the city was settled in the early 1850's, It corresponds with the date of the Presidents. After coming to close to the mountains and running out of room for streets, they likely began to continue the theme on the other side of Washington.

This is all very difficult to explain and understand. I guess I could say the streets (starting with the westernmost street and heading east) feature President's that became President in the order listed below.

11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (Lincoln), 17, 18, 1 (Washington), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

See how it'd be easier to start with 1 and work up to 18 instead of dividing them?

Is your head also hurting? I'm sorry.

Jason

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