these are just my recollections not necessarily in any chronological order
so one winter Pat Stuart was walking across Camp 4 in the early morning after a snow fall. He saw what appeared to be boots sticking out from under clear plastic on one end and rather unruly hair on the other end. This was of course Floyd and since Patrick loved to collect interesting stories he invited Floyed to Degnan's for a cup of coffee.
Floyd used to wear a miner's helmet at night and carry his ice axe and declared he was going to protect Mary Lou Stuart from bears. Of course Floyd was deathly afraid of bears; but his biggest hero (besides Warren Harding) was Pat Stuart and so he fell in love with Pat's sister. He would buy her vitamins because he thought she was too thin; he would follow her around whenever he could. She of course wanted no part of him.
Randy and I were hitching outside of Mount Rainer once--course it was illegal to hitch-hike in the state of Washington; so what we did was walk on the side of the road. When we heard a car coming, we would turn around and look at it. This was a very effective way to get rides in those days because 1. people picked up hitch hikers back then 2. everyone new it was illegal...
Anyway, a Mount Rainer ranger picked us up (he was on his day off) and offered to take us to where we were camping inside the park. As we got to talking we mentioned that the only person we knew from the area was Floyd Turner. The ranger nearly drove off the rode. Randy had already climbed the regular route on Ranier and thus knew the terrain.
The Ranger said; "Floyd really really wanted to be a backcountry ranger but of course he had had no training and was pretty loony. In his mind in order to prove to the rangers that he was qualified, he would start out at the base of Ranier with a heavy rucksack full of rocks. As he got higher and higher on the route and more and more tired he would take a rock out of his pack and throw it down. Usually he would arrive at Muir hut with an empty pack and a crazed look in his eye. One night after everyone had gone to bed getting ready for the very early morning push to the summit from Muir hut, the door swung open and there was Floyd standing stark naked except for his boots and empty backpack. Our ranger and a few others got up immediately and literally chased him down the mountain and drove him out of the park telling him to never never come back.
So he showed up in Yosemite sometime after Harding had done the Dawn Wall, Floyd was insistent that not only had he climbed the wall with Harding but that he had led him up the route. uh huh...
One thing he did know was about hopping freights and he could describe his experiences fairly accurately.
No one really knew how old he was--he had that timeless face of someone who had slipped over the edge a long long time before
A few years later when Mollie Felso (one of the Degnan's women) ran into him in Sproul Plaza in Berkeley. Even though she hadn't really liked Floyd all that much (who did?) she was so delighted to see someone from Yosemite. She chatted with him for a while and he remembered everyone and all their names, etc.
Grandad Larson and Bermingham brats at San Luis Dam, 1964.
This was what he called the "Blob," a sheep's feet compactor--eight hours a night he drove it back and forth over the dam. We drove out to see him off to work that afternoon.
Straight (sheesh) up Gilman from Fifth, jog on Hopkins and follow it up to the Circle and BINGO, Injuns. In Northside Berkeley, no less. Some big game.
That looked like arson in them thar hills but it warn't nothin' but fog.
They were on my radio show several times in Santa Cruz playing live and doing an interview. They are really really funny and that is an accomplishment to be funny in a language that is not your first.
The first time they came to this country they played on my show and then they gave a very intimate concert at a little hall After the concert we pushed the chairs away and they played polskas so we could dance.
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