"Stir" takes to the road again!

[Stir Young]

Hey, its me, Gary Young! You know, the smart alecky guy who was gonna go out west??? I thought I might try doing one of these blog thingies about my trip to Yellowstone Park and back.

So who is Stir? Well, that's been my nickname since I was in high school. I was originally called "Youngster" by one of my friends, I guess because I only looked about 12 years old when I was a Junior. As time went on, "Youngster" got shortened to "Ster", or "Stir", as I prefer to spell it, and people just ASSUMED that the shortened variety came about because I "stirred" up trouble. Why, nothing could be further from the truth....c'mon, you know me....I'm a peacemaker!

Well, anyway, about 2 years ago, I embarked on a quest to find people whom I'd worked with in Yellowstone Park in the summer of 1969. It became a cooperative project as I found others, and they started looking too. Along the way, we've been able to account for about 12 people, and the idea for an employee reunion came about. That reunion took place on August 14th and 15th 2009, in Gardiner, Montana, and the story that follows will hopefully tell a little about the summer of 1969 in Yellowstone Park, and my journey back there 40 years later.

And just who is that mischieveous looking guy up above? Why that's me, in the summer of 1969, of course.

[Stir Young]

The northern entrance to Yellowstone Park is right in the little town of Gardiner. I found the Absaroka Lodge without any trouble....it sits on Route 89, on a high bank of the Yellowstone River, and about two blocks from the park boundary. I checked in to a very nice and clean room, with its own balcony that looked out over the town, and onto the mountains of Yellowstone Park beyond. Directly in front of and below the balcony, was the Yellowstone River rushing over rocks and boulders. I decided to call back to Michigan on my cell, and I had to go back in the room, the sound of the rushing water was making it too hard to hear.

This room was gonna be my home for the next two nights, and it liked it would be a great place.

[Stir Young]

Here's the Mammoth General Store, looking much like it did 40 years ago. Ted was the manager of this store back then.

It was jam packed with cars and pedestrians around the store, and I ended up parking way back behind it, in an area of employee housing. Employees lived in part of the store building in 1969, I don't know if that's still the case.

I went inside and took a quick look around. Again, it was jammed with people, and I didn't stay, or buy anything. I found myself not wanting to deal with so many people at this point. I decided to forego any more sightseeing in the park, and head for my motel in Gardiner, which was five miles away on the northerly boundary of Yellowstone National Park.

I remembered that there was a seasonal one-way two track type road that served as an alternate route to Gardiner. I had read where it still was used, so I found the out of the way start to it, and took it down to where it hooks back in to the main road, right at the park entrance. I regret not taking any pictures from up there, its truly an awe inspiring site. There aren't too many scenic turnouts on that route, so I just kept going. I ended up taking that route two more times when going from Mammoth to Gardiner, and not once did I take a picture. Now I'm wondering what in the heck was wrong with me!!

[Stir Young]

I left my former dorm/workplace/dining room and drove the short distance over to the Mammoth General Store. The old Army parade ground separates the dorm from the store. Back in 1969 there were foot paths connecting the two across the parade grounds, but I saw no sign of them now. There are cordoned off sink holes here and there on the parade ground site, as there were 40 years ago. Due to the proximity to the to the Mammoth Terrace thermal features, this land is very unstable in places.

[Stir Young]

COLD CASE FILE!!!

Here's the same little house in August, 2009. Oh, if those walls could only talk....perhaps the perps could still be nabbed! LOL!

[Stir Young]

Here's an old postcard of the little house broken into in 1969. Notice that it was a store back in the day when this was taken, which would appear to be much earlier than 1969.

[Stir Young]

I took plenty of pictures of the old Haynes Photo Shop building, from all angles, and I took a couple of shots of the house next door to it. Someone broke into that house in the summer of 1969, and Ted wanted to know if I had anything to do with it. That didn't set well with me at all, and I ended up telling Ted off one night, after I'd had a snootful of beer. I've done a lot of dumb things in my life, but being a B & E guy has never been one of them. Amazingly, there were no repercussions from that, but it may have gone on my "permanent record".

[Stir Young]

Here's a picture of "Elmo" from the summer of 1969. A suit wasn't required for our jobs, but Elmo brought one along, just to be prepared.

[Stir Young]

Within a couple of days, the third member of our accounting team arrived. He was David from Missouri, and was 19 or 20. As I recall, he had completed two years at the University of Missouri. David was a bit excitable, and bore a strong resemblance in both looks and demeanor to a roommate Nake and I had in back in Lansing. I wasn't always real original, but I quickly bestowed the name "Elmo" on David, which was the same nickname our Lansing buddy went by.

Elmo came back to Yellowstone Park the following summer of 1970, and I believe he became the Head Accountant in Mammoth that year.

We couldn't find him in our recent searches for former co-workers, but hopefully he'll turn up at some point.

[Stir Young]

I also met the head cook, Betty, that day. She was a gruff lady, like Amanda, also ancient (probably mid fifties), and she told me the mealtime procedures and etiquette. Even though I was a dumb assed punk, I knew that the head cook was not gonna be someone to tick off. I determined to treat this lady very, very nice.

The next day my new boss, Bob Eilers, showed up, along with his wife Marge. They had just retired, after owning a grocery store in Lexington Kentucky. They had a big Winnebago motor home, and they were not going to stay in the dorm, or eat in the company dining room. They parked the motor home in the driveway to the vacant house next door, and set up housekeeping there. Marge's job was going to be one of Betty's helpers in the kitchen.

Bob was a great guy, a good boss, and very loyal to his employees. He was a character, but maybe didn't even know it. He had a deep, smoking/drinking kind of voice, and enough of an accent that I found it hilarious to hear him talk. As the summer went on, several of us smart asses copied his speech and mannerisms.....we also used a lot of his phrasings and words.

First off, as I mentioned earlier, Bob refered to Tower Falls as Tar. We just loved that, and quickly incorporated that into our speech. Nake and I still say Tower with Bob's pronunciation of Tar.

Bob was a heavy smoker, and he smoked Pall Malls. Once a day he sent either me or the other assistant over to the General Store to get him a pack of smokes. He would never give us anything smaller than a twenty, so he always got back a lot of change, yet the next day it would be another twenty. We always found that hilarious, because, after work he and Marge never went anywhere to spend the remainder of that days's twenty. Why did he always pay with a fresh twenty? He would reach into his wallet, pull out a twenty, and say, "here's a twenty".

Whenever Bob addressed Marge, he always started by saying "Marge honey",........It didn't take us long to refer to her as Marge Honey, and we refered to Bob as "the Old Guy".

Bob had a habit of sometimes breaking into song, but always just a few words of the old country standard "Mountain Dew". He would just boom out "oh, my Uncle Mort"....or "the buzzards in the sky". He never started the song at the beginning, and he never finished it....just one little snippet occasionally.

Bob wasn't above using a little salty language if the situation called for it. He often started his statements with "Christ",....... that was another one we quickly copied.

Whenever we were through work for the day, Bob also told David, the other assistant, and me, to "have fun, don't fight".

I wrote to Bob and Marge once after that summer, and got a reply from them in Arizona. I never tried to contact them again after that, and I wish I would have. They were good people.

[Stir Young]

I was told to report to a guy named Ted at the General Store in Mammoth. I duly looked him up when Nake dropped me off. Ted told me that the Accounting Office hadn't actually opened yet, but the next day the Head Accountant, Bob Eilers, would be there and we would start then. In the meantime, Ted told me to go over to the kitchen/dining hall/dorm and ask the housekeeper to set me up with my room. He would be over directly.

The housekeeper was a nice little old lady (ancient, by my standards back then), and I think I recall that her name was Amanda. She showed me to a dorm type room set up for two people, but said accountants only had to be one to a room. It looked like my job would have some benefits.

Ted came over directly, and showed me what would become the accounting office. He also took me into what had previously been the store portion of the building, and told me that I would never have any business to be in that part of the building. If he ever caught me in there I would be fired.

And so started a very strained relationship with Ted that summer. I don't know if headquarters had called him ahead of my arrival and told him to watch me, or what. Ted was not a seasonal employee, he was the manager of the General Store in Mammoth, and it was open all year long. He certainly outranked all other employees, but then again, it seemed to me that the Accounting Department was an independant operation, and we would report to the main office, not to Ted.