Last Friday night, my wife and I had a “date night.” It doesn’t happen every Friday, but it’s sort of a goal. It was kind of a last-minute decision to grab something to eat and see a movie.

The “something to eat” was each of us getting a fish fillet sandwich at “The Golden Arches Restaurant” in Ephraim. We were in a rush. And there was a rush going on at Mickey D’s.

We went inside to place our order thinking that would speed things up. That’s still a theory that’s yet to be proven.

If all the employees had been working as fast and efficiently as one girl seemed to be working, I think our fast food would have been delivered faster than it turned out to be. She could have been the “training video” employee for how to be employee of the month.

We stayed calm, though we were under pressure. I dislike missing the beginning of movies more than I dislike missing the beginning of church meetings. (Well, who doesn’t?) I was tapping my toes — suffering the consequences of our own self-inflicted tardiness.

Order No. 978 finally came up and we were off and running. We may or may not have broken the speed limit between 549 South Main Street in Ephraim and the Zions Bank’s parking at 10 South Main Street.

In whatever time driving that “Formula 1 course” took, we snarfed our sandwiches down like starved wolves in an unattended Purina Dog Chow factory. Please note that I didn’t use “flock of sheep” in that metaphor.

I try to be careful about what images I might put into my reader’s heads. But since I did just now mention sheep, that does finally get us to the general topic for this column — sheep.

The movie that we saw Friday night was “The Sheep Detectives.” I’ll say right off that we enjoyed the show. Evidently others do too. The popular online movie review site “Rotten Tomatoes” indicates that 94% of critics, of 165, gave positive reviews. Audience reviews, over 1,000, were 96% favorable.

The technology in making the movie is “photo-realistic” CGI (computer-generated imagery). Real sheep were scanned using about 50 cameras in a 360 degree set-up. That’s about all I know, other than it was very effective.

The story is engaging and clever. The sheep decide to solve the mystery of the murder of their shepherd (Hugh Jackman). It’s a “who-done-it” with a moral tossed in for good measure.

The movie made me think about Sanpete and sheep. Sanpete has more sheep and lambs than any other county among the 29 counties of Utah. The “golden age” of sheep in Sanpete, though, was a hundred years ago.

There’s lots of history to be found in Sanpete’s sheep industry. John H. Seely of Mt. Pleasant is one of the key names. He was just a young, little kid when his family moved to Sanpete from California in 1859.

By 1896, Seely had a herd of 6,000 Rambouillet sheep (a French Merino breed). In 1918, he sold a 2-year old ram for $6,200 — a record price. An internet search tells me that in today’s dollars, that would be over $135,000.

It’s no wonder that Sanpete was known as “the fine wool capital of the United States.” Fountain Green was called the “Wool City of the West.” And, of course, Fountain Green continues to hold the annual “Lamb Days” festival.

My daughter-in-law attended Lamb Days for the first time some years ago. She was a bit dismayed when she discovered that the celebration seemed to center more on the lamb sandwiches which were served, rather than the cute, little, cuddly young sheep.

The sheep in the movie “The Sheep Detectives” would have been “on her team.” The town butcher is not a sympathetic character in the show. By the way, I don’t think I told you that we made it to the movie in time to get popcorn and get seated before the show started. Hooray!

Whenever it fits into a conversation, I’ll often tell the story of the Michigan girl who married a Sanpete boy. They’ve since moved away, but I knew them.

One day she told of her frustration when she had caught up to a herd of sheep on the highway in Sanpete. She was in a hurry. The sheep were on the pavement and she couldn’t get through them.

She hadn’t yet learned what most Sanpeters know. You don’t stop for the sheep when they’re headed the same direction you’re going. You slowly keep moving and they’ll make way for you, even if it’s an “up close and personal” passage.

This city girl finally determined that she’d had enough of not making any progress in trying to get through the flock. She triumphantly told us, “I finally decided that I couldn’t wait any longer. I was just going to have to go through them — what the heck!: Pork Chops!”

It’s peculiar that, as far as I know off hand, there’s not a restaurant in Sanpete that currently offers lamb chops on their menu. As I sometimes say with a smile on my face, “I could be wrong, but I seldom am.”

I think that lamb as a menu item comes and goes over the years at Sanpete eateries. You can, of course, get pork chops.

Quite a few years ago, a Sanpete restaurant had “Sanpete Oysters” on the menu. I ordered them and ate them. In case you’re wondering, I wouldn’t say that they tasted like chicken.

If you know what Rocky Mountain Oysters are, and transfer the concept to sheep, then you know what I’m talking about. If you’re lost on what I’m referring to, the hint would be that female animals wouldn’t be a source for this menu item.

I’m hoping that Sanpete can continue as “sheep country” for generations to come. Our U.S. congressman, Burgess Owens, was in the county a couple of weeks ago. He’s attempting to help the sheep industry with trade policy and the tariff situations. Let’s all cross our fingers. — Merrill

P.S. What do sheep wear for Christmas? (A sweater with Fleece Navidad written on it.) What would you call a dancing sheep? (A baa-lerina)