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Banquo
Trad climber
Morgan Hill, CA (Mo' Hill)
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Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 1, 2011 - 01:51am PT
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I was talking to my dad tonight. He grew up in Fernwood Idaho. During the depression he tells me his dad panned for gold at the mouth of Fernwood creek to feed the family. His dad had worked for the railroads but I guess that didn't work out during the hard times.
He was telling me about a time he took his dad to Emida because his dad wanted to play in a poker game. This must have been when my dad got back from Burma and WW2. Dad can't recall if they took the Model T pickup truck or the Buick to Emida. He thinks the Buick because a shed roof had collapsed on the T and rather than fix it, they just sawed the top off of it. Plus dad's brother had tossed a piece of firewood though the windscreen so they wouldn't have taken the Model T since it was winter. They couldn't afford antifreeze so dad had to keep the Buick warm by covering it and starting it up now and then until they got home and could drain it. They wouldn't have had to worry about that with the T because it leaked so bad they would have just let the water run out of it in Emida. While his dad played poker, my dad went skiing at the resort that was there in those days. Dad liked to ski when he was young. He said that since it was during the week, the rope tow wasn't running so he had to walk up the hill.
I once asked dad if he played football in high school. He said no because when he was a junior they offered him the job of driving the school bus to St. Maries every day and that had more prestige.
Dad in 1962 near the Merrick Mountains named for him in Antarctica:
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michaeld
Sport climber
Near Tahoe, CA
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Awesome story man
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Nate D
climber
San Francisco
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nice. Keep the stories coming, Banquo.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there, say, banquo.... thanks so very much for the wonderful story of your dad....
dad's and there past stories, really should be shared... :)
god bless...
:)
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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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sons and their fathers...
is there a deeper well on earth?
Our first mountain was Mount Conness when I was 13.
I find myself most frequently looking at HOW he lived his life. His calm, his decisions, his choices. Sounds corny but I ask... how would Pops have done this? A woodshop teacher of 32 years, he was a craftsman, in more ways than one.
He was from a different generation. Served in the Air Force reserve as a Colonel for over 30 years. Grew up in the depression. Raised 4 kids.
A different America, different world. With a family of my own he's still my compass.
Thanks for sharing.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Thanks for posting this.
I just returned from four days visiting my dad. 92 years old. Still going strong. Still my hero.
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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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pud
climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
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Really cool story Banquo. Your dad is a treasure.
My dad introduced me to Joshua Tree as a young child and taught me to play in nature.
He taught me to ride the open road.
He taught me to laugh at my own seriousness.
I miss him.
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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You know, there are certain non-climbing posts that make Supertopo a better place - just like this one.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Thanks for posting, Banquo. My dad has been in the past tense for 34 years, but I still have wonderful memories.
Thanks again.
John
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ELM !
climber
Near Boston
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Great post!!
My dad has been gone since '98. We shared alot in the mountains; he taught me stuff I do now by habit. We had harder times after I hit 15 but in the year before he passed we regained alot ground. I drove him on whirlwind tour of his favorite notches in his VW bus when he was sick....took us a good 15 hours.
I vividly remember heading up Mt. Lafayette (NH) in Febuary with him to meet his friend ,Guy Waterman, on the ridgeline. Guy was impressed I had made it up to there, I was 12 and it was super icy, he gave me a 'biner as a momento, I have it to this day. Guy and his wife lived off the land and their writing so a 'biner was an investment for him.
I still have my dads old Fabiano boots: I regularly wear the Chuck Roast gators he bought me when I turned 14 to ice climb...man.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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85 last Friday, out for a cake-shopping expedition after lunch. Although he enjoys eating it even more.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Back home now, with access to my photos...
They're not great photos. But although they may have been shot with bad light, they were definitely shot with lots of love
92 years behind, many more to go
Great grandchild #9
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Sweet stuff on here.
My dad took me camping at Tenaya Lake when I was 5. 1950, and that started everything. You drove the old Tioga Road then, pretty slow, at times one lane dodging trees, sometimes right over a granite slab. He told about going to Tuolumne in 1931, after graduating from Stanford and on his way to his first job in Langley, Virginia.
When I was a teenager and starting to hang in Camp 4, he would pick me up and we'd go do a week of the John Muir Trail. Ended up filling in most of it over several summers. I don't think he ever really got the essence of why I climbed, but he was pretty supportive. He understood completely the part about immersing yourself in the mountains, and only once made a mildly critical comment about months of "eating peanut butter in Camp 4."
When my ex- was in grad school studying psychology, she convinced me to confront my dad about his occasional mean streak that would blow out at times. Now I see that was just part of a mixed bag, a complex whole person, with a lot of care and attention and love too. And tons of enjoyment of just being together.
I realized I don't have a single photo of him scanned up.
Last summer I hiked over Mather Pass on the JMT for the first time in years and thought about my first time up there when we backpacked across it nearly 50 years before. I was wearing a funny old shirt of his with skunks on it.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Banquo, maybe I missed it but how did the mountains in Antartica get named after him? There has to be a great story about that. As for my dad no real outdoor experiences with him, but I have three brothers that climb two of them quite frequently. He will occasionally come an watch us climb one memorable time in eldo and he must have waited for 4-5 hours while we did a multipitch climb while we were still noobs. I really appreciated him coming to see what his sons were so excited about.
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Banquo
Trad climber
Morgan Hill, CA (Mo' Hill)
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 2, 2011 - 04:28pm PT
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Thanks to all for posting "dad" stories. If he is still around, ask your dad (and mom) lots of questions and probe for good stories. Dad will tell the same story over and over unless you drag new stuff out of him.
Dad studied forestry at the University of Idaho but after a stint in the USFS and then one in the Bureau of Public Roads working on the Alaska Highway, he ended up being a field topographer for the USGS. He did all the field work for the topo maps we all use. Anyway, they needed a navigator for an overland expedition in Antarctica and he went. He determined location by sun and star shots with a theodolite. No GPS in those days. After many years of hiking trails and climbing peaks for the USGS they sent him into the office to learn computers which resulted in his early retirement to Spokane. He lives in Sacramento now, alone since mom passed a few years ago. I worry about him living alone and eating his own cooking but he has always been a bit of a loner.
He has never really managed to get comfortable with computers and although he has one on which we have taught him to get stock quotes and his bank statement, he just can't get a grip on email. Drives him and me crazy.
The story in the 1st post was prompted by him telling me about an attempt to make chili. After skiing that day many years ago he went to the lodge and had the first bowl of chili he had ever had. Claims it was the best winter day food he had ever encountered even though it was a bit spicy. The canned stuff he got at the discount grocery last week apparently didn't measure up to his memory of chili so he looked in mom's old cookbook. Too much work he decided.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Mountains
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 18, 2011 - 02:28am PT
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Can't just let this thread fade away. Tonight my father and I went to the opening of an exhibit about Roald Amundsen and his explorations, at the Maritime Museum. (Same place they keep St. Roch, the second vessel to sail through the northwest passage.) December 14th, 2011 will be the 100th anniversary of Amundsen and team being the first to reach the South Pole, plus Amundsen also was first to sail through the Northwest Passage in 1903 - 06. Here's the opening exhibit/poster.
Here is a model of Gjøa, in which Amundsen sailed the Northwest Passage, leaving some Inuit-Norwegian offspring at Gjøahavn, where they wintered. Descendants still live there. The real Gjøa is now at the Fram Museum in Oslo, Fram being a rather famous boat.
And here's my father, the Norwegian ambassador to Canada, and a great grandson of one of Amundsen's cousins. Several of his relatives were there.
My father didn't much enjoy the speeches, as he's somewhat hard of hearing, but thought the food and drink very good, plus rubbing shoulders.
http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/
http://www.emb-norway.ca/News_and_events/event/Roald-Amundsen-in-Vancouver/
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Truthdweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Mar 18, 2011 - 03:43am PT
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Wow, great stories!
I would think most everybody has a memory of climbing on Dad's back while he was on his hands and knees in the living room, and Dad tickling them till they almost pee'd and often times cried, lol! The memories of my Dad are no different. He was a great swimmer, great at bowling, softball, ping pong, heck, he was good at everything...well, almost everything, Mom use to tell him he sucked at plumbing! Dad brought me a lot of places with him growing up. He did his best at raising and providing for us four kids. Dad never really shared personal things with me, although I wish he had. That side of him was always a mystery. I only saw my Dad cry once, at the funeral of my Grandfather Scotty, I wish I had seen him cry more...you know, Jesus wept.
My Dad is still alive and lives in Golden Valey, AZ. He's doing okay at 73...
Love you Dad
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Banquo
Trad climber
Morgan Hill, CA (Mo' Hill)
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 18, 2011 - 08:33am PT
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Mighty Hiker-
I recall the Gjøa rotting away in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park near the windmill by the beach. Amundsen donated it to SF after his trip. It went back to Norway in 1972.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Mar 18, 2011 - 11:37am PT
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My dad (right) and his brother at a family reunion in Yosemite in 2006.
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