I walked into his classroom and saw two things that were kind of odd. One was a silhouette of a man with bullet holes all over him. The other one was a picture of him with his NPS patrol car. The lights were on and he standing next to it with his hat cocked, on the rim of Crater Lake. I had a clue that he was doing something that I really wanted to do. This was early in the year because class started in September. I’m sure this happened in September or October, 1977.
I asked him about working for the National Park Service and he said, “Why don’t you apply and just see what happens?” It’s definitely because of him that I got the application and filled it out (correctly) the first time. A lot of people take a couple of rounds to get it, but I actually got it right the first time. It was January, or maybe February, that Dan Sholly called me. He said, “We have your application and would you like to work for the National Park Service?” I was really happy about this. Since it meant moving to Crater Lake for the summer. Where as working at the state park—which would be Valley of the Rogue State Park—we could just live at hom.
Was Marilyn equally excited?
I think she was, yes. There were three reasons that I was hired. One was that Dan Sholly called Lloyd, and asked three questions: the first, was I fat? Lloyd made sure that he knew that I wasn’t fat. (This had something to do with looking good in uniform). The second was that my in-laws (who lived in Grants Pass) had just finished building a house. While they were building their house they had a camp trailer to live in. I think Dan asked me, “Do you have a trailer?” I said yes. Housing was tight when Sleepy Hollow had only cabins. We had a son who was only a couple months old with us that first summer, and we were a family in a trailer. The third one was something Lloyd won’t let me forget- my name being Salinas. Those are the three reasons why I think I was hired. It doesn’t bother me, either way, because it was certainly wonderful to be up there.
