PORCH PONDERINGS

Wonderland

PROMPT January 18th

If you could use a time machine, would you travel to the future or to the past? When, and where would you go?


Now, this seems similar to a prompt from several days ago, just differing in time. I would go back to working in Yellowstone. I really enjoyed that time of my life.

We worked in reservations for Xanterra. Xanterra is the company that manages all the hotels, campgrounds that take reservations, dining, and some gift shops. They also do some activities such as bus tours, horseback rides, boat rentals, covered wagon rides, and such in Yellowstone. We had to answer the phones and book people in rooms, campsites, etc. We would work four 10 hour days. Together, and then have three days off, together.

Meals and rooms were part of the deal, and deducted from our pay, as long as we stayed in a dorm in the park. But we were older adults and the dorm situation quickly became something we weren’t really fond of. So we moved down to Gardiner, a 5-mile drive, and drove to work daily.

So you are thinking, how hard can that be? Answer the phone , work on the computer, big deal. And then I would ask you, have you ever worked in a call center? With twenty other people? Not sound-proofed? In the summer? Without air-conditioning? And the sun coming in the window you sat beside to get some air. Hmm. You were timed on the calls, and expected to answer a set number of calls per day. You were allowed a certain downtime, but too much downtime, and you were written up. And then you were also to sell what they called “adventure packages” which were no more than books and tapes put together by some marketing person in retail. These, in my opinion, were a piece of crap and highly overpriced, but we were to hawk them and the best seller got all kinds of perks. Whatever. I never won.

So why, you think, would I want to go back in time to this situation? For the people I worked with. I met such a wide variety of folks. A young man from Australia. A young man from South L.A. A young woman from Wisconsin. Retired people, young people. One girl was 17. She got into trouble by sleeping in her little corner. We had to wake her up constantly. I went to the wedding of a young woman I worked with. She had the wedding at the historical army chapel at Mammoth in Yellowstone.

We made a little group that liked to hike. This group would go out on our days off and hike all over Yellowstone. We would order lunches from the EDR (employee dining room), pick them up after breakfast, arrange for rides, and then spend days off in the park. We hiked over a hundred miles one summer. Perhaps that accounts for the pains in my knees and feet now. But those aches and pains are a small price to pay for the wonderful memories I now have stored in my brain.

Once upon a time Yellowstone was called ‘Wonderland’. It truly is a wondrous place. I am so happy and blessed I got to spend so much time there.








Queen Norma Jean