I've been on skis once in my life. Snowboarded twice. My parents, who grew up in New England, were both pretty proficient skiers, but their careers on the snow effectively ended when my Dad wrecked his knee playing (*checks notes*) ping pong in the early 70s. Arthroscopy wasn't really a thing back then, so his surgery and the subsequent recovery rendered skiing low on the list of activities his doctors recommended.
My Uncle David, on the other hand, made a life on the mountain. He struggled in school as a kid, back in the 50s and early 60s when educators had a far more limited understanding of learning disabilities than they do now. He graduated from prep school and started working construction in the summers and teaching skiing in winters in Maine. He became a park ranger at Mount Washington, NH for a couple of years, and then went West with a buddy to ski for a week.
The rest, as they say, is history.
My uncle retired last month after 20 years as the head of the Alf Engen Ski School at Alta, where he led the team that teaches people to ski on that purist's hill. As he himself was quoted recently, ""Real skiers are drawn here sometime in their skiing life, because Alta is the Center of the Powder Skiing Universe. Some skiers stay for a while, some for a lifetime. I hope that when they do go, they take a little bit of Alta with them."All told, he spent nearly 40 years working at a place he loved.
He'll leave a little bit of himself at Alta, too. This article tells the story of my uncle and his friend Piney as they both prepared to retire after decades together.
If, unlike me, you're a skier and you've spent any time at Alta, you might've met Hoopa. That's what the Alta community calls my uncle. In the article linked above and the video below, he's fairly cryptic about the moniker's origins. I assume that's the New Englander in him deflecting attention. Like my Mom and her mother and my Aunt Carole, David has one of the world's most distinctive laughs. It's a huge yawping bray. My Mom's people laugh with their full bodies. And so "Hoopa" came from people trying to put words to the sound of David's guffaws. It's a decent honorarium as these things go.
You can tell by the article about Hoopa and Piney that my uncle loved his work, his time at Alta, and his people. May we all find something in life that fulfills us in the same way. When I asked my Mom earier this week about her brother, she told me, "He was good to his people and he loved what he did".
I'll take that as my legacy someday. Happy retirement, Uncle Hoopa.
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13 comments:
This is a great post. I know the Utah mountains well, although not Alta, which doesn't allow snowboarders. FOG:TB Broka and I did a number of trips in the mid-aughts to the Rockies, in that sweet spot time when we were making some scratch and had no kids.
It is a specific lifestyle decision to live on the mountains, but one I understand (and envy). The snow in Utah is spectacular, and the Salt Lake/Park City area is great, as long as you're ok with not being able to get high alcohol beer easily. The people are amazing as well. Congrats to Hoopa.
I don't ski, but I did spend a day at Alta while the rest of my extended family skied. Our kids were young at the time, so I needed to be on hand. It was a cold, boring day. Lovely place though.
How green with envy is President Orange when he looks over at his buddy Putin and sees how he seemingly effortlessly locked up his political opposition Alexey Navalny after nearly poisoning him to death? Now THAT’S how a corrupt, murderous, terrifying dictatorship is really run. Not this penny-ante Keystone Kops storming the Capitol with furs on their heads bullshit.
Easy there, Whit. Let's make sure the orderly transition happens before impugning the corruption bona fides of those who are having a hard time accepting the results of the election.
Navalny has a tough 30 days ahead of him. I'll be shocked if he emerges alive and mentally stable.
Turns out it was the C U Next Tuesday Lauren Boebert who gave the large capital tour the day before the Capitol. Was a toss-up b/w her and that loon from Georgia.
Boebert has a lengthy criminal history. And her husband exposed himself in a bowling alley. When she was there. Colorado can do better. I know the flat part of that state is basically Nebraska, and the mountainous part is basically California, but c'mon people.
I wish my Congressional representative Mikkie Sherrill had name-checked her when she mentioned last week a rep did this. Would've been the Jersey thing to do.
On the murderous dictatorship front, over the wkd I watched The Dissident, the story of the WP journalist murdered by the Saudi govt, or more specifically, Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS. Bryan Fogel of Icarus is behind this doc as well. Like some or most, I did not know the details. Horrific and sad among other things. It ain't cheap though, b/c no one will carry it on their "originals" list for fear of alienating the Saudi's...cost is $20 on Netflix.
A scene from this morning in zhome:
zson: So I have half of your genes and half of daddy's genes?
zwoman: Yes.
zson: How did your belly know to use genes that looked like half of daddy's to make me?
zwoman: Um, well, they were in there too.
zson: How did they get in there?
zwoman: [turns to me] Can you explain that?
zman: [turns to zson] I'll explain it when you're 11.
Lauren Boebert appears to be from the mountainous part of Colorado. The really Jerzy thing to do would be to call Boebert out by name, insult her extensions, and threaten to punch her in the neck the next time you see her. At least this is my experience in Bergen County. Mikie Sherrill probably knows more advanced stuff like Ranger choke holds and Morris County is too genteel for her to make real threats of violence.
I forgot to add that Uncle Hoopa is cool as hell.
I think the really Jersey thing to do would be wait for her to get off the tilt-a-whirl at the St. Rocco’s feast and then punch in the neck after pulling her hair. While waiting Sherrill should smoke a Parliament Light.
Nice knowing you, Jared Porter. Mets gonna Mets...
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