The Diabetic and the Orange

One May several college friends and I decided to go for a Saturday hike in Yosemite. We selected the hike from Glacier Point to Illilouette Falls. I am guessing that was about a 5 mile or so hike. Our original plan was to hike to the falls for lunch and then hike back to Glacier Point. It turned out to be an all down hill hike so we were not at tired when we got there. We had lunch and several of us decided to hike the valley rim and end up at Happy Isles. Sue and another guy decided not to do that part of the hike but go back to the cars and drive to the valley and meet the rest of us. So they went one way and we went the other. Well, the first part of the hike along the rim was up hill and directly in the sun. It had gotten hot by then so it was a little uncomfortable. We had not gone very far and one of the girls Sharon Reise, announced she was about to pass out! She was a diabetic and had taken her normal dose of insulin that morning. Hiking had used up all her blood sugar reserve and she was just out of energy. We gave her all the food we had left after lunch but it was not enough to revive her. She sat down and leaned against a tree and we all tried to figure out what to do. I asked the girl if there was anything that would help and she said that an orange would revive her. She said she always carried an orange in her purse but of course her purse was in the car. By this time Sue and the other guy were well on their way to the cars and there was no way to catch them. As we were all standing around wondering what to do this guy came hiking by. He was dressed all in blue, like a blue jumpsuit. He was the only other person we had seen on the hike all day. He asked us if we were having a problem. I explained to him that our friend was a diabetic and that she was low in blood sugar and was unable to continue the hike. He calmly asked if an orange would help....we said yes and he produced an orange from his pack and went on his way. Sharon ate the ½ orange and in minutes was up and ready to continue the hike. She said she would save the other half incase she needed it later. We had only one choice of a way to go because that was where the cars would be. Sharon made the rest of the hike with no problem and never had to eat the other half of the orange.



Nude Women

Working at Tuolumne Meadows was one of the best experiences of my life. I worked there 9 summers in a row during my entire college career. As time went on I was one of the regulars and had a pretty good place in the social structure of the employees. At that time the male and female employees were housed in tents as far away from each other as possible. The girls lived in tents “on the hill” near the restrooms and among the guest tents. The boys were down below the parking lot near the river. The boys spent a lot of time in the girls' tents. I would often go up to one of the girls tents on my time off and talk to someone. On one occasion I was going to see Sue Arbuckle. She and I were great hiking buddies and for a while would take a hike somewhere between lunch and dinner almost every day. I walked up to her door and knocked but I also peeked between the bottom of the screen and the blind just to see if she was there. Well, she was. She was standing in front of her mirror combing her hair. The interesting thing was that she had no top on. I only watched for a short while and she said to wait a minute and then I could come in. Sone time later I told her this story and she just laughed. On a different occasion I was going to see Lynn Wolf. I did not even bother to knock I just walked in. There was Lynn sitting on her bed also with no top on. I just turned around and walked out. Lynn and Sue got to talking about these incidents and made an announcement in side hall one night that all girls were to watch out for Gene who could be expected to spy on all the naked girls!



Chickens in the Sleeping Bag

Chicken stories could go on and on. By the time I was in college I guess I had fewer and fewer chickens. I would leave it up to my parents to take care of my chickens when I went to TML for the summer. At one point I had Wilhelmina who was a big black hen with a story of her own and a couple of small chickens. I decided to take these to TML with me for the summer. We had two pretty good size cages that were the dog kennels. They were seldom used so I decided that would be where Wilhelmina and the two younger chickens would spend the summer. The beginnings and endings of the summers were very cold at 8600 feet. Wilhelmina was full grown and could handle the cold night but the two little ones could not. So at night I would put them in a little box and put the box at the bottom of my sleeping bag where they would be warm for the night. I usually had a new roommate each summer. It took a while for them to know me well enough to know I would do crazy things. So I would have to put the little chicks in the sleeping bag without my roommate knowing.

I must have taken Wilhelmina to TML more than one summer. She would lay eggs and Sue and I would have fresh soft boiled eggs several mornings a week. We had a routine for cooking and eating our eggs.

One time a guest came to the front office of the lodge. They wanted to leave their dog in our kennels. We had one dog already and then of course Wilhelmina and friends were occupying the other side. I just told the guy that our kennel was full and he would have to leave his dog some other place. He got all huffy and said, “Yeah, full of chickens!” I did not know he had been down there and looked at them before he came to the front desk.

There was always a certain rivalry between the lodge employees and the stable hands. The stable guys were “tough men” and most of the lodge employees were college students of a much more mild temperament. They used to think I was totally crazy to have a chicken there in the mountains. The lodge employees thought it was great. One day one of the lodge employees came running into the lobby to tell me that Wilhelmina was dead! I ran down there and there she was dead in her kennel. When I got her out I realized she had no head! One idea was that she was sticking her head out from the wire and eating grass around the kennel....I always suspected that it was the cowboys that decapitated her. Sad ending for a nice black hen.



Tent Stories

At TML we were not above playing practical jokes on each other. Some years and some people were better than others. After I gained my status at TML I got to live in the White Tent. The advantages were many. All of the other tents were made of a dark golden brown canvas and were dark. Being made of white canvas my tent was always light and just had a better feel. Another advantage was that it was just enough smaller that it was only a 2 man tent and so I only had to have one roommate. A third advantage was that it was the closest tent to the lobby and kitchen. On really dark night it was the easiest tent to get to after work at 10:30 or later. In those days no one had locks on their doors. The normal schedule was such that the day before your day off you worked the early shift and were off work by about 2 pm. We would not have be back to work till 2 pm of the day following our day off so in effect we had two full days off. Very often we would go hiking or on a short trip somewhere and would arrive back minutes before we had to go back to work after a day off. Once I arrived back with about 5 minutes to change clothes and get up to the lobby. I walked into my tent and.....every bit of furniture was gone and the entire floor was covered with dirt and there were plants and small trees sticking out of the dirt every where! I was a botany major I college and this was the botanical garden....I was a bit shocked and most likely late going back to work because I had to fine my clothes and somehow change and get to work.

Another time I came back and my tent was the circus tent. Someone had done all sorts of things such as stuff some clothes with other clothes and sit this thing in a chair and label it, “The Fat Lady.” Other clothes were stuffed and hung from the rafters and labeled the, “Trapeze artist.” A small table was turned upside down with string tied around the legs to make it look like an animal enclosure. There was a sheep skeleton in it with a sign saying, “Don’t feed the animals.” I can’t remember much more but it was pretty clever.

Once the sheep skeleton ended up in my sleeping bag.

Another time I was gone for two or three days. I returned to find a gigantic spider web woven out of white string completely filling the entire tent. Nancy West, famous for the chicken gift certificate, had done this.

Then there was the night I returned to my tent after work very late at night. As I said before it was really dark walking down from the lobby. That was back before there was electricity at TML. I had strategically placed candles and matches close at hand to light the candles just long enough to get into bed. It was usually freezing cold by then and you would want to get into bed as fast as you could. This particular night I was in the process of striking the match when I felt this hand grab my ankle. I screamed and jumped across the tent. I then heard gales of laughter from all around the outside of the tent. Audrey Jung was hiding under my bed and several other employees were hiding in the trees around my tent just waiting for my reaction. I startle easy and usually gave a great yell upon being scared. They loved it.



The Bears

There have always been lots of bears hanging around TML. They would be attracted to the garbage cans at the lodge. The cans were locked in an area right behind the kitchen. The male employees' restroom was at the far end of the garbage can lock up. In the vintage era there were no lights out there so you had to reach the RR by braille. One late evening while doing the books I had to use the restroom. I knew my way and I was walking fast along the deck...when bam...I ran straight into the side of a bear! I stepped on one of his feet. I yelled so loudly that everyone in the lobby heard me and knew exactly what had happened. The bear bolted for the end of the dock and went over the fence and I bolted for the door and back to the lobby where every one was laughing and waiting for my return.

One evening as I was walking down to the male tent area with another employee we saw a young bear near one of the tents. It was the tent of one of the cooks. Now for some reason many of the summer cooks were older men who were alcoholics and rather strange people. Living in the mountains and cooking under our primitive conditions was not their idea of a great way to spend the summer. One of these guys was asleep in his tent with the door open. The little bear decided to explore the tent. We decided to just stop and see what the reaction was. In just a few seconds there was a loud, “oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God...and first the bear came running out then the cook...of course we just stood and laughed.

In the real old days the there was an open garbage dump at the west end of the meadow. One of the lodge jobs was to take the garbage from the Lodge area daily and dump it down there. There were always lots of bears to be seen there. One days I was the garbage man and Sandy wanted to ride along and see the bears. She was not disappointed. I was on the back of the truck dumping out the lovely garbage pails and I heard her say, “Gene, this little bear is getting close.” I said that if he got too close just yell at him and he would go away. I then heard her say, “Gene he is REALLY close.” I looked and the bear was sitting behind the wheel and they were staring at each other!



Mice in Sweater

It was always cold working at Tuolumne in the summer time. I had a few sweaters that I wore when I worked. One was a nice beige one that I particularly liked. One morning I woke up and was getting dressed for work and when I opened my sweater drawer there was a nest of mice in the center of the sweater. A mother mouse had shredded some of the yarn and worked it into a nest and proceeded to have several baby mice there overnight.



Fire in the Kitchen at TML

On summer working at Tuolumne we had a night man that was a very interesting character. He was a typical ‘60s dude very much into mind altering substances. He was interesting to talk to and did his job quite satisfactorily. As the assistant manager I was often consulted for making various decisions. One night about 3 a.m. there was a knock on the White Tent door and it was the night man telling me that the lodge kitchen was on fire and he just wanted to know where to turn off the Flamo (bottled gas for the stoves and water heaters) tanks so they would not blow up! Of course I bounded out of bed and dashed up to the kitchen to see what was going on. It was the hood of the main stove that was on fire. The collected grease burst into flame and the fire was pretty well contained within the hood of the stove. We managed to turn off the Flamo and wake a few more employees by ringing the triangle. He also got Martha and by liberal use of the fire extinguishers we got the fire out. Of course the end result was white powder absolutely every where in the entire kitchen. So the next step was to take every single dish, pot, pan utensil..everything...up to the laundry room and wash and dry it up there. The kitchen had to be wiped down from ceiling to floor. Every shelf and cupboard had to be cleaned. This was a very long job. At 5 am in walks Priscilla the head chef. She was a large, rather stately lady that everyone dearly loved. She briskly strolled through the in door into the kitchen and took a quick look around with her mouth open and turned right around and went right back out the out door. We did manage to serve breakfast that morning. We made coffee on the stove in the dining room and cooked big pots of oatmeal on the pot bellied stove in the lobby and the guests had the choice of cold cereal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or bologna sandwiches! I don’t remember anyone complaining about a thing.

Later in discussing the activities of the fire night with the night man I complimented him on his calm cool composed attitude throughout the whole event. He told me that it was all due to LSD. He said he used to be flighty and not very calm in an emergency but since he had been taking LSD he calmed down and was able to get through exciting times like kitchen fires.



Tahoe with Audrey and Adele

In about 1961 I was working at Tuolumne. I had this old Chevy. It was 3 tone! Dark brown roof, tan body and green doors...yes green doors. I had been driving my dad’s old battle ship grey ‘46 4-door, but I burned up that engine going to Monte Toyon church camp with Nancy and Marcia. So my dad bought this wonderful coupe for me! My brothers thought it was hilarious to have green doors. There was a popular song at the time, “What’s Behind the Green Doors” and they used to taunt me with it. Well, back to TML. That summer Audrey Jung and Adele Bissett were working at Tuolumne. We were great friends. We all had the same day off and so we decided to go to Lake Tahoe. The car was so wonderful that when you drove over 50 miles an hour it shook very hard. Well we went to Tahoe and while there decided to go swimming in the lake. We parked and walked down to this beach. There were tons of people on one side of a fence and no one on the other side. So we said, what the heck, lets take the side with no people. No one seemed to care that we were there. We had been there some time and all of a sudden this plane came right over our heads and landed in the water. We were in the landing area for water planes! We thought that was pretty funny. I don’t remember what we did the rest of the day but then we drove back to TML. We were driving and shaking and laughing all the way home. We got to the turnoff up 120 to TML and we were laughing so hard I could hardly steer. We found out later that Martha had passed us making the turn and she honked and waved but we were laughing so hard we did not even see her.



Walking into Audrey’s parents bedroom

While I was in college I was a member and president of Tri Beta, the college biology club. At one time we took a field trip to southern California. We went to the botanical gardens at the Huntington Art Museum and also at Santa Barbara. At that time Audrey was living in Santa Barbara. Two of my friends, John Brickell and Jim Zeigler, decided to stay in Santa Barbara after the rest of the club left for home. Audrey invited us to stay with her at her parents' house. They lived in a small bungalow type house. We arrived rather late and Audrey showed us to the various rooms where we were to sleep. I had never met Audrey’s parents. I was given a family room at the back of the house. Well, there was a door from that room to some other room and on a whim I decided to see what was behind the door. It was very dark and I was sort of staggering around the room and when my eyes adjusted to the light I realized I was wandering around Audrey’s parents' bedroom while they were watching me lying there in their bed. I got out pretty fast.



Maynard and the Water Glasses

Maynard lived in and worked in Yosemite when he was young. One of the jobs he did was to work as a waiter for the Bracebridge dinner. It is a super elegant affair. He was either a bus boy or waiter at this particular dinner. The water glasses used were cylindrical and red. They were set on the table upside downs. His job was to turn each glass over and fill them with ice water. Unknown to him one man had already turned his glass over. Maynard turned it back over.. upside down.. and poured the water and of course it went all over the table surprising both him and the man.



Martha and the Custard

Martha has worked in Yosemite most of her life. She has had many different jobs. At one time she was a waitress at the Ahwahnee Hotel. It is a pretty fancy place and the service is done elegantly. Once she was serving dessert. As she sat her tray on the side table a bowel of custard slipped off the try and landed in a lady’s purse. Martha noticed it and just quietly reached down and closed the purse and said nothing to the lady.



Open Face Cat Sandwich

Adele Bissett and I went to a wedding. The ceremony was at a church and the reception was at someone’s back yard. We had gone with Jim and Chris Blake. We were in separate cars and we got to the reception early. There were waiters walking around with trays of champagne and open face sandwiches. Well, I had a couple of classes of champagne and a few sandwiches. I grabbed a sandwich and started chewing on it. It tasted exactly like preserved cats smell from anatomy labs. It was terrible. I spit it out in my mouth and was trying to decide what to do with it. Just then a lady walked by wearing a coat with a huge pocket... as she walked by I just quietly dropped the partly chewed preserved cat sandwich in her pocket!



Martha Falling on the Little Girl on the Snow Lift

Martha has been a ski instructor for a long time. She is an expert skier. She loves to take people skiing at Badger Pass. Once she was there with an opera singer friend, Carol Todd. There were some small children with them. They rode the to the top of the hill on the ski lift. One of the little girls sat on Martha’s lap as the went up the hill. At the end the riders are supposed to put down their feet and ski away. Well, somehow Martha’s ski caught in the snow and she flew out of the chair and landed face down in the snow with the little girl smashed face down in the snow under her.



Man Losing his Wallet in the Shower

One summer evening while working the desk at TML a man came rushing into the lobby dripping wet and just clutching a towel around his waist. He came up to me and said, “I was taking a shower (pretty obvious) and I lost my wallet! It has all my vacation money in it... I am panicked, can you tell I am panicked?” Well, of course I could tell he was panicked. So I suggested we go up and look around. I moved the wooden bench and lifted up the duck boards and there was his wallet. He was so happy. A few years later I hiked to Ten Lakes with someone and when we got to the first lake there was a man standing on a large fallen tree fishing in the lake. I just stopped and asked him how the fishing was. He answerd and then said, “you look familiar.” I asked him if he and ever stayed at Tuolumne Lodge and he said yes. I told him I was a desk clerk there. He then said, “Oh, were you the guy who was on duty the night I lost my wallet and came into the lobby all panicked?” I said yes.. And we had a good laugh!



I like Hiking but Hate All this Walking

Having spend many great days in the mountains Anne and I wanted Lucie and Victor to have an appreciation for them as well. We started them out on slow easy walks with lots of interesting things to see. As they got more and more used to our hikes we would increase the difficulty. Of course I wanted them to learn the names of all the plants we saw along the trail. Our bribe for that was M&M's. We would walk a ways, tell them the names of some of the plants along the way and then take a break. For every 5 they could name they got an handful of M&M's. One of my favorite and relatively easy hikes is from the Tioga Road into Bennettville. It is full of wild flowers, the vistas are great and the old buildings are fun to explore once you get there. One day we were hiking along and Lucie looked up and made the classic comment, “Daddy, I love hiking but I hate all this walking.”



Victor with a Fish Hook in His Foot

We often camped at the Tuolumne Meadows Campgrounds. On this particular camping trip we took Paul Murietta. One morning we decided to hike the long way to Gaylor Lakes. This trail takes you through meadows, past little lakes and has spectacular views back at the Cathedral Range. We reached one of the little lakes and we decided to fish. Victor loved to fish and he was pretty good at it as well. At one point he cast out and the fish hook caught him in the ankle. It really went in far. So there he was. Miles from the camp with a fish hook in his ankle. He would not let me or Anne touch it. He sat there for a very long time very, very slowly cutting the skin away from the hook. He would make tiny cuts and then sit back and wait a while. Then another small cut. This seemed to go on for hours but at least he cut the hook free from his skin and all was well.



The Polish Pen

One early summer Carol and Kristin Linder came to TML. They do this nearly every summer. Both are fantastic hikers. Lucie and I were headed east on a genealogy trip to the east coast. Carol suggested we come to TML first and do some hiking with them. We decided to hike to Parker Pass. The trail head is between TML and Tioga Pass. So we headed off. We each had a day pack with lunch and water and whatever. We made it to Parker Pass with no problem. Then we headed back. We got to a small stream and Lucie slipped and fell flat on her backpack in the stream. Well, now, of course we wanted to laugh but we held back. Lucie got up and sticking straight out of the back of her pack was a ballpoint pen. This was just too much and Carol, Kristin and I just couln't help but laugh. It was not that funny but with the pent up laughter it was all we needed to get us going. Of course, Lucie did not see the immediate humor of the situation but with her great sense of humor she soon joined us in the laughter. The pen was purple and she told us it was her favorite pen she got while in Poland. For some reason this made the situation even funnier and we all enjoyed a good laugh... We always laugh when weirre with Carol and Kristin.



Maynard Throwing up

I met Maynard Moe while in college. I had heard about him but had not met him. He was the president of either the Freshman or Sophomore college class. He was also a biology major and we met at a Beta Beta Beta meeting. We hit it off right away. He was very funny and smart and fun to be around. In the long run we ended up being roommates for a couple of years. As it turned out he lived in Yosemite Valley. His dad was the Chief Park Engineer for the government. Maynard was in charge of the swimming pool at the Yosemite Lodge. One summer I would get off work the day before my day off and I would go to Maynard’s house and spend the night. The next day he and I would hike somewhere. Every morning we did this his mother would serve us oatmeal with raisins in it. Maynard always got altitude sickness every time we hiked. This particular time we went up Mt. Hoffman. We were taking a break sitting on a huge rock at the side of the trail. A group of hikers came up and started talking to us. As they talked Maynard had to vomit. He very quietly and surreptiously leaned over and tossed his oatmeal behind the rock we were sitting on. The other hikers had no ideal that he was depositing his oatmeal and raisins behind us. I did not even know it. As they hiked away he told me and we laughed.



The Ferris wheel at the Bishop Fair

During the summers when I worked at Tuolumne Meadows Lodge several of us would always go to the Tricounty fair in Bishop. It was one of those small fairs that had everything. Farm animals, photography, home baked goods and a midway with rides. We loved to ride the Ferris Wheel. Anne and I and someone else whom I cannot remember were on the ride. All of a sudden it came to a halt and we were at the very top of the arc. We sat there and saw the operator head off somewhere. We of course had no idea what was wrong or where the guy went. We had bought a loaf of Sheepherders bread at Schat’s Bakery. We were pulling off pieces and eating it. We began to pull off pieces and toss them at the people below us saying, “Let them eat bread, let them eat bread.” In the meantime the ride operator came back uncoiling a coat hanger and proceeded to “fix” the problem with the ferris wheel and start it up again and finally we got off.



Herb Caen and his Snotty Daughters

During one of the summers I worked at Tuolumne Meadows Lodge Herb Caen and two of his teenage daughters came into the lodge for lunch. He was a very respected writer for the SF Chronicle but in my opinion he was a complete jerk filled with himself. I was working on the desk that lunch time. He said to me he wanted lunch and that I was to complement him and his daughters their lunch. I asked him if he had a comp ticket or anything official form the company office authorizing him to get free lunches. He said. “no” and I told him I did not have the authority to give him and his daughters a free lunch. I said he would have to pay and if he saw the right person in the general office possibly he could get his money back. He was not at all happy with my answer. One of his daughters looked me and turned her head sideways and sorted a “humph” through her nose to express her scorn and blew snot all over her shoulder! What a B___!



Laura Kennedy and the A1 Sauce

The Kennedy family was a great favorite of the employees of Tuolumne. They came up each summer and stayed for several days. They had three children just slightly younger than we were. Colin, James and Laura. Laura was a cute innocent little girl. One night at dinner in the dining room I was eating with them. All of a sudden someone from the next table starting yelling that something was landing on him. We realized that Laura had a bottle of A1 steak sauce and she was shaking the bottle but the lid was off and the sauce was flying all over the place and globs of it were landing on this man’s head and shirt!



Salad Making at TML

Each summer at Tuolumne the employees would begin to leave to go back to college right after Labor Day. Fresno State College happened to start 2-3 weeks later than many of the other schools so I got to stay and work longer than most kids. When that happened everyone had to do every job. I was normally a room clerk but at this point as well as being a desky I was also the pantry man and a waiter. I was totally inexperienced at each of those jobs. I would make salads and dish up desserts between waiting on tables. I threw stuff together to make the salads not caring much what I put in them. I served one of my tables the Eugene Field salad. One man looked at his salad a bit bewildered. He asked me what kind of salad this was and what was in it. I looked at him innocently and said I had no idea but I would ask the pantry man. I have no idea what I told him after “asking the pantryman.” But he ate it anyway.



The Waitress that Dropped Three Breakfasts

Breakfasts at Tuolumne were hectic to say the least. There were 16 tables and 8 at a table. It was always cold and everyone wanted food now! There was an order in which the tables got served. The table as the far end by the windows got served first usually. I don’t remember who the poor waitress was that morning but it was certainly not her morning. She put in her order. You would have to have known the chef to really appreciate the whole situation. He was Bob Rowehder. An old red haired heavy drinking and smoking old man. He was very difficult to get along with (unless you were Carol Reudy of course). The unfortunate waitress gave him her order. The usual breakfast took two plates, one with the eggs and one with the hot cakes. There could also be bowls of oat meal or other cereal. So the trays were heavy and the waitresses carried them on their shoulders. The order was finished. There was very little room to load a tray in the kitchen. There were 8 waitresses juggling for spots to load their trays and get out the swinging doors. As this waitress went though the swinging door the door swung back somehow and hit the back of her tray and eight breakfasts went flying and landed with a horrible smashing noise on the floor. The people at the table were aghast to see their breakfast a pile of eggs, pancakes and broken pottery in a pile at the other end of the dining room. So the waitress went back and faced Bob and reordered. The bus boy cleaned up the mess. Again she get her 16 plates and headed for the now totally starving people. She made it through the door and as she was turning to head down the middle of dining room to the customers she slipped in something slippery left over from the first 16 floored breakfasts plates and down she went with 16 more! The people at her tables just moaned. In tears she went back to face Bob a third time and reorder her reorder. The meals got made (and all this extra cooking in between all the other girls' orders of course) Time went by and... a huge loud crash emanated from the kitchen. Dead silence in the dining room...until the frustrated people at the far end again just knew it was their breakfasts. The amazingly unlucky waitress had loaded her tray on the small stand holding the coffee urns and it was unbalanced and as she was putting on the last plates it tipped over and again 16 plates of breakfast went on the floor of the kitchen in the worst possible place it could have crashed. I honestly do not remember what happened after that but I am sure that poor waitress had wished she had never gotten out of bed that morning.