"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]

I got back to Mammoth and parked near the general store and service station, which were located side by side. I wanted to take several pictures of those structures, from different angles.

After getting the shots I wanted, I walked over closer to the Mammoth Terraces. I wanted to see if I could determine where the old gift shop from 1969 had been located. This was the store that had employed most of the people who ate at our dining hall. I had read some time before my trip that the store had been torn down in 1984, not being worth the money it would take to modernize it and bring it up to code. I had seen aerial photos of the site, both with and without the store, but I was somewhat confused when I walked to the area. I took several pictures, and thought perhaps I could look at the aerials again when I got home and match my shots against them.

[Stir Young]

Now this WAS A trash receptecle....about as bear proof as it could be! This was located at the picnic area I'd just stopped at on the way back to Mammoth from the Blacktail Plateau Drive.

[Stir Young]

In 1969, here I was trying to get into a typical trash container for the times. The next picture will show how things have advanced in forty years.

[Stir Young]

I entered the park again on Friday morning, the 14th of August, and I passed through Mammoth and headed towards Tower Junction. I wanted to go on the Blacktail Plateau Drive, which was one way, and came out just north of the Petrified Tree site that I had visited on my first day in the park. It turned out to be another really cool place, the road was cut into the side of hills in places, and it was quite narrow. Even though I was there pretty early in the morning, almost every turnout had a car, or cars in it. some places were a litte tight getting through. Perhaps there was some wildlife visible, but I couldn't see any. I contented myself to drive the length of the road, and I headed back to Mammoth. I stopped at a little roadside picnic area to use the facilities, and then I took a couple of pictures.

[Stir Young]

Here's Arky!

[Stir Young]

When I got back, this cloud formation had quickly formed over the mountains. It looked like we would be in for quite rain storm, but actually it resulted in just a few spatters.

I took my pizza to the room, and headed back down to the laundry room to get my dried clothes. The dryer cycle had just finished when I walked in, so I gathered my things up, congratulated myself on successful multi-tasking, and headed back to my room, and my pizza.

I was really hungry, and I dug in to the pizza, only to soon realize it had a BBQ sauce on it to go with the chicken. It was so sweet that it was like eating candy. I didn't really care much for it, but ate my fill, and put the rest in the fridge for later. I folded up my clothes, and went out to my car for something. Once outside, I noticed that it was almost balmy again. I never remembered mountain weather to be so nice, especially when evening started settling in.

I sat down on a bench outside the front door. I was just relaxing, and looking off over the mountains, when Arky came by and sat down too. We sat there for quite some time, just chatting and getting caught up. It was very enjoyable, kind of like when a couple of guys go fishing.

I always enjoyed Arky's company when we worked here. We were from totally different backgrounds, but the workers all came from a lot of different places. We had different accents and beliefs, some of us were urban in background and some were rural .

I used to see Arky at mealtime, as the service station guys ate with the Hamilton employees. Mealtime was like a big melting pot of people all thrown together. Arky never hesitated to say what was on his mind. If he felt a certain course of action should be followed, he followed it. I remember, as a show of solidarity with The Senator, who had got fired, Arky quit. He was close to completing his own employment contract, which would have ensured him a bonus, but he did what he believed was the thing to do.

I still remember the day he announced that he was leaving. He said he thought he would go in the service. I remember shaking his hand that day. I had a lot of respect for him. I never would have thought in a million years I'd ver see him again though.

We finally headed back to our respective rooms. I had decided earlier in the week that I would leave the next day, being Friday, somewhat open. Accordingly, I was going to stay close to Mammoth.

[Stir Young]

Arky and I shook hands, and even gave each other one of those man hugs that are now in vogue. He invited me in, and introduced me to his wife Rhonda.

Arky said he had seen me at my car when I checked in, but wasn't sure it was me, as my FaceBook picture showed me with a buzzed head. After I lost my job last December I started growing my hair, and it was pretty shaggy by the time of this trip. Perhaps I had let it grow as a final gesture of defiance for having to get it cut 40 years before for the Yellowstone job. Nah, I was over that! I did make a mental note to either get a buzzcut when I got home, or update my picture to the aging hippy look.

One of the first things Arky showed me was a recent email he had received from The Senator, another of our former co-workers (No, he wasn't really a senator, that was one of his nicknames from the summer of 1969. At that time he had aspirations of getting into politics.). The Senator was also known as Tennessee, as that was his home state. The Senator explained, over the course of two pages, that he wouldn't be coming to the reunion, and why he wouldn't. Arky and I were disappointed. Arky and The Senator had both worked at the service station in Mammoth, and I always enjoyed being around him. Those two guys had been the best of buddies. This reunion was going to suffer without The Senator regaling us with his take on the summer of 1969, but I felt sure we had several others coming who could take up the slack.

Arky, Rhonda and I sat and chatted for some time. Where do people start after a 40 year absence? Through several emails back and forth with The Senator a couple of years earlier, I had quickly found Arky. After a humble start, he had steadily built what looked to be a very nice resort in Arkansas. We talked a lot about the resort....having at one time owned a business for several years, I knew what went into such a venture, the blood, sweat and tears.

Arky sat on a bar stool so he could watch the parking lot. Our official reunion wasn't to start until the next day, but he had notified the rest of us that he would be there one night early. As I was already going to be in the area on vacation, I gladly jumped at the chance to meet up a day early. We didn't really know if any of the others would be there early or not.

We had a great time, Rhonda was very nice, she made me feel very welcome. At a point she decided to go into Gardiner to get something to eat. Arky had found that he felt a lot better if he didn't eat a evening meal, so we broke things up, and decided to reconvene our group the next day, in the late afternoon.

I wanted to do some laundry....the Yellowstone Village Inn had facilites, so I went back to my room and gathered up what I wanted to wash. After getting the wash started, I just chilled in my room until it was time to move the clothes into the dryer.

About this time I started getting very hungry, so after I started the clothes dryer, I got in my car to drive back into the main part of town to get something to eat. Right away, though, I saw a pizza parlour called Outlaw Pizza on my right. It wasn't even a block from the Yellowstone Village Inn, so I pulled in there and ordered a pizza to go. I thought maybe it would be a good idea to have something to save in my room's fridge for another time. I ordered a "Montana", which had chicken on it. I decided to wander around the nearby stores while I waited. Outlaw Pizza was located in a type of strip mall, but the mall was actually shaped like a "U".

I moseyed over to a shop across from the pizza place, where two ladies were sitting outside smoking. I stopped to exchange pleasantries with the pair. They told me to feel free to wander in their adjoining stores....if I saw anything I liked just let them know. I didn't bother to go in either place, but stayed out and chatted with these ladies. One of them said she had the flu. As an ex smoker, I still marvel at what a smoker will endure to keep puffing. Speaking from experience, there is nothing worse than filling one's lungs up with smoke while sick. When I smoked, i was prone to respirtory illnesses. After I quit, I've had the flu twice in eight years, with very little lung problems.

After a bit, I went back across to a little shop next to the pizza joint. It was called the Wapiti Silver Company, and a lady with an English accent was working there. The place had lots of jewelry, not really my cup of tea, but I noticed she also had bowls of small pieces of petrified wood. This interested me, as I'm always looking for items to put in wooden wagon kits that I assemble as a hobby.

I asked the lady how she came to be in Gardiner, Montana, what with that accent and all. She succinctly informed me that the had lived there for over thirty years, she had been a U.S. citizen for that long, and why shouldn't she be anywhere she wanted to be? U-h-h-h, I felt kinda like a dumb ass for asking the question, so I bought some of the petrified wood, picked up my pizza, and headed back to my motel room.

[Stir Young]

I passed through Mammoth and down the paved road, back to Gardiner. I went through the Roosevelt Arch and on back to the Yellowstone Village Inn.

When I re-checked in, the desk clerk told me that Arky had arrived, and was in one of the suites in the adjacent building. I dropped my bags off in my new room, and headed over to the suites. A guy came out of one of the doors, flashing a big grinn......it was Arky! I hadn't seen him in person, or talked to him, in 40 years.

[Stir Young]

In 1969, the trip between Mammoth and Tar and back to Mammoth with Tar's receipts and money always seemed to be delayed by bear jams. The National Park Service started taking steps to remove black bears from the sides of the roads soon after my summer working there.

Traffic would often come to a complete standstill both ways. The bears were skillful beggers, and people would foolishly get out of their cars to get close up pictures. Once I remember an elderly lady focusing a Kodak Brownie camera on her chest, not more than three feet from a bear. People actively fed the bears, and had children out of the cars. Of course if there ever was an incident of mauling, or worse, the offending bear would be killed.

These bear jams probably added at least an hour to our travel time every day. Sometimes it was irritating, but one needed to remember that Mom Nature ruled, not some accountant type with a pickup carrying tattered cigar boxes full of money.

[Stir Young]

At Canyon Junction, I headed north for Tar (Tower Fall, of course). I wanted to go over Dunraven Pass again. For some reason, once again I did not take any pictures along this segment of road.

This drive was incredible again. Here, driving itself took more than a normal amount of concentration. I guess I was one with the car!

I came down that long grade again, and passed through Tar and went past Roosevelt Lodge. I had driven a fair amount, and I wanted to get back to Gardiner. Arky and his wife Rhonda were due to check in on this day, and after forty years, I really wanted to see Arky again.