NOW I KNOW.......

So my letter from the United States Department of the Interior simply said, “We could not get your reservation request to work using any of the alternate start dates and/or alternate camps”. It was signed by “Dan” of the National Park Service, Mount Rainier National Park, Tahoma Woods, Star Route, Ashford, Washington 98304.

This is my second year in a row to try for group camping rights on a particular section of the Wonderland Trail. The first time I ever tried to do this, we were approved! It was a Slam-Dunk! Two failures kind of put the “summertime overcrowding” into perspective.

Fortunately my uncanny organizational skills have already created two contingency plans to take the teens backpacking. Plan “B” is to do a stretch of trail from White Pass Washington, Southbound along the PCT and jumping off to take Lily Basin Trail to the end. Plan “C” is to do a stretch of the Timberline Trail, about half way around Mt Hood, Oregon.

The hard part will be getting in shape!! Wait! Isn’t “ROUND” a shape??

MULBERRY, ARKANSAS

As a kid growing up in the 1950’s, Arkansas had a lot to offer. The drive from our country farm to the “big city” was about 25 miles down a dirt road and a narrow bridge across the Mulberry River. The hot summer months dried everything; thick dust fogged the road as cars passed by. Roadside bushes and trees would sit covered in fine Arkansas powder until the next hard rain fell.

Dad drove an old pickup with a cattle rack on the back. He would let us kids ride in the back when we went into town. I doubt Mom liked it much but we loved it! We often stepped up on the first rail; hanging on tightly to the top rail, chest and head above the cab of the truck, wind in our faces; hanging on for dear life! Mom didn’t like it when we hit the blacktop highway, where Dad could get up more speed. We didn’t stay up there long at those speeds, either. We couldn’t get our breath! Not only that, but to get hit in the face by a June Bug or a Bee at those speeds wasn’t much fun!

Can you imagine that kind of event happening TODAY?? WOW! Cell phones would be dialing 9-1-1 and reporting irresponsible parents to the Cops in a heartbeat!! CSD would show up and haul off the kids; parents would be cited and put on probation and all kinds of newspapers would write about it!

Sometimes Dad would stop by the old Millsap place on the highway and buy us a Watermelon to take home. We enjoyed stopping there and exploring around while the grownups talked. Mrs. Millsap was a First Grade Teacher at Pleasant View School where we attended. She was very nice. I will never forget her. She was a short, round lady with yellow hair, and most always had a smile on her face. Her and Mrs. Addy were my favorite teachers growing up. Mrs. Addy taught second grade.

I wish I had a picture of 1950’s Mulberry to show you, but I only have one taken in the 1940's, although the only thing that changed were the CARS. The whole town wasn’t 2 blocks long. Towards the end of town there was something in the middle of the street….. I can’t remember exactly what it was. Perhaps a large marker, or a statue…. Whatever it was, it was a natural place to make a U-TURN and head back the other direction to park on the other side of the street. The old stores looked like something out of Western days; General Stores, where you could find most anything you need…..nothing like today, of course! There was a Dime Store that sold stuff for as little as a Penny. Us kids were dirt poor and seldom HAD a Penny! But we liked going in there and looking at stuff. Mom once said that she didn’t mind taking us 4 boys into stores with her because we wouldn’t touch anything…..we just looked. (Have you seen kids in stores doing THAT today??)

Mulberry is where Dad would take us sometimes to get our hair cut by a real barber! We grew up with Burr haircuts so it wasn’t hard for him to give them to us at home. But once in a while he took us into “Gene and Shorty’s Barber Shop” to get us trimmed up proper, I suppose. One day he had Gene and Shorty give us Mohawks! Mom wasn’t too impressed but we kept them all summer long. It made it harder for us boys to play “Cowboys and Indians” because Cowboys don’t HAVE Mohawks! I don’t recall, but I suppose we just played “Indians” that summer!

But one of the coolest things to see in Mulberry…..and we usually ALWAYS saw him ….was the Cowboy! I wish I could recall his name, but I can’t. He was a grown man but with a mind of a 9-year old kid, so they say. He was all dressed up in a cowboy outfit; jeans, shirt, boots, hat and scarf. He looked a lot like the old cowboy pictures of Roy Rogers! Maybe that’s who he was trying to look like! He also wore two big guns in a holster on his hips. The holster was all blinged up with sequins, leather strings and baubles that shined in the sunlight! It was quite impressive to us cowboy-type boys! The two big shiny guns were only Cap Guns, but they looked very cool to us! Jimmie (I’ll call him Jimmie because I don’t remember his real name, and besides, this is my story), would always go around town, in and out of each business to say hello to everybody. Everyone knew him by name and greeted him when he entered and said goodbye when he left. He was like an icon, a fixture in a little one horse town with nothing else going on. Every day, so they say, he would make his rounds, greeting people.

I recall one day that stands out in my mind more so than others. Dad had some banking business to do so we were standing in the Bank when “Jimmie” came through the door; sunlight shining through the big glass door behind him in. He walked in like he owned the place, waving and smiling and greeting everybody he knew; bowlegged and cowboy suit and all. His Spurs jingled as he walked and his cowboy hat was tipped back on his head in a relaxed sort of way. He made his rounds and then headed out the door.

Can you imagine that kind of event happening TODAY?? WOW! Cell phones would be dialing 9-1-1, Swat Cops would be screaming up with guns drawn….and bank employees would be face on the floor praying to live through it all!

Well…..those days could only happen in THOSE days.