Did people who had a lot of these skills enjoy going over to places outside of the park and doing some climbing?
I’m sure that some of the guys that were more into that type of thing would go out. In fact, interestingly enough, one of my sons really took to climbing on the basis of the limited experience I had. I taught him repelling and this sort of thing. After I left the parks, I would at a boy’s ranch in Morgan Hill, which is a place for kids that are delinquent and this sort of thing. During my time there I would take them to one of the park areas on Skyline Drive where they had rocks and I would have them do free climbing and repelling and this sort of thing. So I think a lot of us took that experience out to other areas and other entities. I think the rock climbing gives you a certain degree of confidence within yourself, and once again faith in your fellow man because it’s really something you gotta take seriously. You can’t play around with it. I recall vividly when those fellows came out for the climbing school and our last session at the community building. They showed a film, “The Mountains Don’t Care.” That was some years ago and I tell you, that message stays with me even to this day, that the mountains don’t care. The crux of the film is you gotta be prepared, that you can’t take the wilderness lightly. So it was a good object lesson.
Do you know approximately what year the climbing school was held?
The years that it was really active I think were the years that Slim Mayberry was there. He was a very interesting fellow. During World War II, he was a mountaineer and ski instructor for the army. He was extremely knowledgeable. He was, as I recall, from Kentucky. He had a very southern drawl and his favorite expression was the dad gum thing.” He’d say “The dad gum thing this, the dad gum thing that.” He was just really a remarkable person. It was under his impetus and leadership that we had that rescue activity at the park. I don’t even know if it’s still in place now or not.
