I heard a story about that in Lassen where Lou Hallock threw out six referrals who were not doing the job (3). He wasn’t afraid to take the heat.
Oh, wow. That would take a lot of gumption to do something like that. I remember, in the sixties, they always kept usually one position open somewhere in the park for a referral. The last one, I think, was Chuck Lamb. Everybody just kink of bowed to him because he was a referral. But he was great. And he came back in his own right for years after that.
Even to this day, when I walk up and see that lake for the first time after a period of absence from it, those feelings just come flooding back to me of all the years I’ve seen it. Then I start thinking about what people say. “You mean this is all there is to it? You mean I paid a dollar to see this?” You want to shove them over the edge. It always had a real special feeling because of being associated from when you’re a young child. It’s kind of like a song. The reason you like the song is because you get flooded with memories. A smell; it brings back something out of your childhood. Having been associated with Crater Lake since I was seven, it’s home. I’m approaching Steel’s 49 years of involvement with Crater Lake. But I think that’s why the thing is so special to my brother’s and my heart because it’s going home every time you go up there. With the changes that have occurred over the years, I think that the people that are living there do not have the appreciation. It’s a job jump. They’ll do a decent job. They’ll work at it but they’re basically bureaucrats. They’re trained that way. You notice how man city folk are coming in? My last year was ’85 and it just seemed like there was this prevalent feeling of “What’s there to do? We got to get something to do.” Then the big screen television is bought, the cable system was put in. I think, what a contrast, those people should have lived there in the ‘forties and ‘fifties. Employees were living in those three-room un-insulate buildings. And they were there all winter. And they were happy. Those people enjoyed that. But you see these people stayed ten, fifteen years. It wasn’t something you could say I’m going to move the first chance I get. I’ll work toward retirement.
