YOUNG ADULT?

YOSEMITE

Out of high school and off to college. Well not exactly off, ended up going to Sacramento City College and going for a business administration major. I also was working part time for Sears at Florin Mall in recieving. Just like high school, did not take my schooling as seriously as my social life and had the grades to prove it. By the summer after my first year, I ended up working full time at Sears making pretty good money so figured I would take a little time off school before going back. In fact I took the entire next year off and when the summer of 1977 came around so did Mark Sanders who told me of his brother Scott working in Yosemite National Park. I had been there as a kid and loved it so did not take much for me to put my notice in and pack up for Yosemite Valley. Danny Thomas was not employed at the time so it seemed like a good idea to him too. We loaded my wanna be GTO and off we went. As soon as we arrived, Scott showed us around and we were partying that night in the employee area. I remember Tent 10 had a refridgerator straight out of the 1950's full of Budweiser with probably 20 extra cases stacked next to it. They were selling them for a dollar a can and making a killing. I and many others were not quite 21 and were great customers. My first job was a dishwasher at Yosemite Lodge and it sucked from the get go. Danny's was worst as he had night clean up there. I got wind of a floor porter job that was weekends only and jumped at that. Cleaning up behind the bars, washing potatoes, mopping, etc., all a piece of cake. I had 5 days off and only worked 2, living in the dorms and eating cafeteria meals. The problem was you had to work full time to live in the dorms and eat cafeteria meals! So had to look for a new job. I became a maid. Now wait a minute, there were more guys than girls doing this and I am sure they called it something else but I was cleaning the hotel rooms like any other maid you see in the casinos! About the time I got this job, Russell, Charles and Bob came up here for a little vacation. Bob and Charles decided to get jobs and experience Yosemite. Problem with Bob is he had a job in Sacramento and he kind of forgot to tell them he was quitting, nor did he tell his parents what he was doing. They had the entire state of California looking for him before he figured out he should call and let them know what was going on. He still has the same thought process! Anyway, living in Yosemite was a great part of my life. I ended up getting another job which was basically taking care of the grounds around the lodge. We hiked on our days off, partied most nights, broke all the rules, transformed our sterile dorms into cool bachelor pads and I started to think I was living in Shangri La. In the winter things slow down and even though my job was secure, I got wind of Kevin Keegan and his girlfriend heading up to Canada and they asked me if I wanted to go. Why not!

Mike on Half Dome

WASHINGTON AND ALASKA

I soon modifyed my plans a little and decided I would have them drop me off in Yakima where alot of my family lived. Not sure why but Kevin decided he wanted to stay to and his girl took off with out us. To this day I don't know what kind of balls I had basically inviting myself and Kevin to stay with my favorite cousin Julie and her family, nor do I understand why they let us, but we did. About the second day Kevin decided to leave and hitch hike up to where his girl was and I got a job building truck campers at Western RV. I built the frame of the camper back. This involved putting precut 2 x 2 wood of various lengths into a "jig" then stapling it together, standing it up and stapling the other side and putting the finished product into a rack for pick up. Julie's mom Mary Lou became my "Yakima Mom" and would drive me to work with a balogna sandwich everyday. I soon bought a Ford Mavarick off of Julie's boyfriend and got my own bachelor pad. After about 3 months I got the same itch as my Grandfather always had and decided Alaska is where I needed to be!

Problem was it was February and I had a Ford Maverick with regular tires and no chains. This was 1978 and the AlCan highway was still only 50% paved. I went off the road so many times you would think I was driving drunk. Two of these times required my being towed out and they happened 20 miles apart. After the first tow, I had given up most of my cash so I had to give my brand new radio to the second driver for payment. When I arrived in Alaska I found a boarding house and settled in before getting in touch with our cousins, the Rappes. Craig chewed me out immediately and had me come stay with him and his wife. I got a job quickly washing cars for Avis and quit after the first week. Washing cars by hand outside in the Winter just wasn't a great career choice. Had trouble finding the second job and while walking downtown one day was hooked by a Marine recuiter. Man was he convincing! I took the written test and scheduled the physical because I was going to be a Marine! The day before the physical I walked in the old Conrights building where my Dad worked and it was now a McMann's Furniture store. I told the manager my history there and he asked if I wanted a job. Good bye Marines I am delivering furniture now! I moved out to Eagle River, sold my Maverick to a coworker and bought a Ford van. Life was good, but I was going to be 21 that June of 1978 and I was getting home sick.

BACK TO CALIFORNIA

It was back to California and I wanted to get there before my 21st birthday. I loaded up my van with all my worldly goods and headed down the AlCan highway again. I wasn't exactly a druggy, but I did have a little pot with me and as I got close to the Canadian border I thought the wise thing to do was hide it. I looked around the cram packed back of the van and chose a sack of groceries and hid it in a box of Vanilla wafers. As I arrived at the border, I noticed one of my fellow travelers vehicle sitting there (At that time there were so few people on the highway you got to know the other vehicles.) I walked inside and a border guard was questioning them about a perscription they had. He took one look at me and quickly told them they could go! Of course he gave me his full attention. Out to the van we went and making small talk he opened up the drivers door and looking around he noticed one marijuana seed on the floor. He was excited now and said he needed to search the rest of the van. Opening up the side doors he looked around that jam packed van and I swear he went right to that grocery bag and into that Vanilla Wafers box and found my stash. OHWHEEE he was on to something now. He told me he was going to take everything out of the van and do a thorough search to find the rest of my contraband. I told him that was all I had and after he looked at my crammed full van that he would have to unload, decided to scare me a little about bringing drugs into a foreign country and how I could be in a lot of trouble. Plus a couple of long hairs pulled up so he let me go with a warning to drive straight through Canada without deviating from the highway. I did as told until I got to White Horse and then decided I would take the ferry through the inside passage instead of driving through the rest of the Yukon. I had 100 miles to drive to Haines Alaska to catch the ferry and in that time I got 3 flat tires with only 2 spares. I started driving on the rim with 20 miles to go (remember these are gravel roads) and only one vehicle came up on me during that time. It happened to be a great couple who had a Ford pickup with an extra spare. He jacked my van up with an amazing jack that lifted the whole front end with one crank, changed my flat and I followed them into town. They bought me dinner and the next morning I bought a new tire and gave their spare back. Very nice people.

I arrived back in Sacramento in time to celebrate my 21st birthday with all the old gang. The only one left in Yosemite was Scott and he is still there to this day. That summer was spent mostly at Paradise beach where Bob and I were regulars. I got a job for a couple of weeks at the Land Park Shell station for beer money, but mostly we were just bums. Then my Uncle Don got me a 30 day hire for Pacific Bell as a lineman where he was a Supervisor. Problem was it was for 30 days only and you had to reapply to get another 30 day hitch. They wanted women and minorities before they wanted this white boy. By the end of summer I thought I had better get a job to last through the winter, but I wasn't done seeing the world yet. Got wind of them hiring for Mount Denali back in Alaska and actually got the job, but at the same time interviewed for a job at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe and got that job too! I took the Tahoe gig and in retrospect sure glad I did. I took a crummy janitor job and hated it from the get go. I was always caught up with what they wanted done but they wanted me to look busy all the time. Well after Yosemite, I knew how to work fast and good so when I had everything caught up I would hide and read a book. My boss busted me and since I had only been there a month, I was FIRED! Went accross the street to Harvey's and quickly got a job as a change person. On the graveyard shift. Don't know if you have ever worked 12 midnight to eight in the morning, but the clock can go REAL SLOW! After a month I was able to switch to day shift, 8:00 to 4:00 and get the body clock somewhat back to normal. Tips were great, social life was great and soon I was made a slot supervisor which wasn't much but I wore a suit and tie. Again like in Yosemite, I believe I was a great worker, but I broke some rules to get the job done and keep the customers happy. One particular manager did not like that or me so I transfered to swing shift to get away from him. This worked out great as ski season was in high gear and with a half day ticket I could get a few runs in at Heavenly before my shift. I enjoyed my hours and things were on a roll. My roommates and I were even planning to find something on the Keyes to rent. Then that same supervisor that didn't like me, transferred to swing shift. Part of my job as a slot supervisor was when a jackpot was 1200.00 and over I had to call the shift Manager before the payout was given to the winner. On one of these occasions after a customer won 1200.00 I called the Manager and went to the booth to get the money which was counted in front of me and then was handed to the slot person and counted again to make sure it was right. After we agreed the amount was right, we take the cash to the winner where the Shift Manager had shown up. As the slot person counted it out to the winner we got to 1100.00, 1200.00 then 1300.00, oops! The Shift Manager stopped us. Trouble was the jackpot was 1200.00 and the booth had given us 1500.00 which we thought was correct. Since I had already been written up by this guy a couple of times, with the look he gave me I knew the gig was up. Fired and it was in November of 1978 and Winter was here.

Mike quenching his thirst.

ARIZONA

Luckily Bob Gavia was living in Phoenix, AZ where it was 80 degrees and said I should come down there as he had a house and he could get me a job. I convinced Mussett to come too and Bob's Dad gave me a van to drive down there. Not long into the trip, Mussett started having second thoughts. He was in love and knew he wasn't doing the right thing. I left him in Tahoe with some friends and by god if he didn't marry Susan and still is. When I got to Bishop I slept in the van that had no drivers side window and at 6000 feet in December it was cold! The next day though I was in AZ and the temperature was all that Bob claimed it to be. But that is the only thing he claimed that turned out right. He gave up the house and was living with some friends temporarily so with little money between us, we got a studio apartment. Also the place he worked at Walsh Brothers, wasn't hiring. So it was back to walking the street and getting hooked again by a Marine recruiter. We were so poor that all we had left was a couple of potatoes and some jelly. Wouldn't eat that combo today, but it tasted pretty good then. Damn if I didn't get lucky just before my physical as Walsh Brothers interviewed me and I got hired. Little did I know that this was my future line of work. They were a Steelcase furniture dealer and installed something called cubicles. Bob worked in the warehouse side of the operation and I ended up in the furniture installation side as an installer at first and then as a service rep. Money started flowing in and we soon were able to afford a 2 bedroom aprartment right by the pool. We picked up a pool table as part of our front room furniture and had it fixed up like our Yosemite Dorm rooms. We always had the front door open and music going but we were still surprised when two girls walked in and started playing pool while we were sitting there. After a couple of shots, they looked around a little closer at the apartment and asked sheepishly, "This is the Reacreation Room isn't it?". They were embarrassed and quickly departed.