Academy Story

In line up one morning, as an academy instructor (Keller) was inspecting me, he mentioned that everyone else in my department came in clean shaven and it was pretty ballsy of me to be there with a mustache. After a long pause, he added, “I like that in an officer.”  

Same one on my final day inspection, leaned in on me and scratched the upper part of my shirt saying that it looked like I had a fleck of toothpaste on my uniform shirt, but that was fine because after all these weeks he realized many others never brushed their teeth at all in the morning.   

😂

Mother’s Day 2024

Happy Mother’s Day to the first mothers I knew. My mom (was she singing?), Dorothy Jean Rogers and my paternal grandmother on the left, Elizabeth (“Bessy”) and my maternal grandmother, Violet.  (In front of Violet and Hiram’s home, 1254 Hill, Pasadena, CA before a future owner remodeled the front and ruined the character of the house.)

Yosemite Hospitality | Aramark Failures

When you (Aramark) eliminates an 80+ year old department as part of your “fixing” things in the park, what goes around comes around.   

Profit over safety was never our mantra.  

What was our mantra?

Safety, Security, Service.  In that order—for a reason.  

Our  Mission Statement was, 

We, as members of the Security and Fire Department of Delaware North Companies at Yosemite, are committed to providing a safe environment for the diverse Yosemite community and park visitors. 

Specifically, our duty is to provide an organized force of trained personnel to protect the community from unlawful acts, fire, and unsafe conditions. Without bias, we shall respond to acts and incidents, which disturb the peace, or place in jeopardy individuals, the environment, or property. 

We are committed to a community safety philosophy that is dependent upon partnerships with park visitors, residents, government agencies, employees, and park 

partners. We nurture public trust by holding ourselves to the highest standards of performance and ethics. This shall be accomplished, in the highest professional manner, by providing educational input to employees and visitors, impartially enforcing both the law and Company regulations, respecting the rights of individuals and the environment, while embracing superior customer service as our cornerstone.

You saved a million dollars a year eliminating us.  Maybe you still think it was worth it.

https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/article/yosemite-contractor-aramark-endangered-visitors-19449430.php

  

https://www.sfgate.com/yosemite/

1973 Volkswagen Sports Bug Flashback

These are not photos of my former Sports Bug, but do look almost exactly like it.  

In 1973, after owning a white 1966 Bug as my first car, followed by driving a couple trucks from my dad’s cable TV construction company (Western Cable Services) and a handed down 1954 tan Cadillac, I was then the happy owner of a tricked out former Southern California Edison GMC van and a 1957 Bug that I foolishly turned into a Baja Bug and painted black/brown/amber camouflage (it actually looked pretty cool).  

One day I stopped by Masterson Motors in Ventura, Calif. to pick up a couple things for the Baja Bug.  There on the showroom floor was a beautiful Sports Bug.  The look of it, the metallic blue color with the black and red stripe, the tricked out steering wheel, different exhaust pipes, the Recaro seats, the Hurst shifter—I was friken hooked.  With the down payment I could make, it was a $44.35 monthly payment.  An easy swing for me even back then.  

I think I’ve got photos of it I can eventually post.  Until then, these are substituting in. 

I was dating a young lady (Karen Grahek) when I bought my new Sports Bug to replace my converted surfer van (I think her father was very pleased I sold the van 😉 ).  Shortly afterwards she started hand embroidery as a hobby.  She embroidered this on the back of one of my shirts.  She wasn’t finished with it when we stopped seeing each other, yet she still finished it for me.  We eventually went our different ways in life, I sold the VW later, but I always held onto the shirt.  About 25 years ago, I cut the shirt up and my wife framed this for me.   I still have it.  

The antenna on the roof was for a CB radio.  They were the thing to have.  Even without running my 300 watt linear, back then you could easily talk with someone 30 miles away.  Too much modern radio interference screwed that up.

I loved that car, and stupidly sold it three years later for a new yellow 1976 Chevrolet LUV pickup truck I really didn’t need.