Gary Glidden became my mentor when he came back to work for my uncle a few weeks before the 1969 summer bear season opened. He was the finest kind of all around woodsman.
Outdoorsman like him don’t get lost in the woods, and they’re never at a loss for telling a good story
Gary and I spent many hours driving around together putting the bear bait out in the woods, showing the hunters where to sit and watch their bait, coaching them on how to hunt for bear, and making sure that the hunters were safely out of the woods each night after legal hunting hours were over. We were always admiring the scenery, talkin’ about everything and everybody, and stopping now and then to enjoy doing business with the local merchants. Gary introduced me to some of Patten’s most interesting and unique local characters; he taught me a lot about how to live a good life up in Maine.
His wife, Cathy, worked in the lodge for Marty, and Cathy became a treasured friend of mine too. In the small town, close knit community that I was living in up there, one word from Gary or Cathy that I was any kind of a risk factor to the local folk’s safety or well being and Fin would have had to send me away from there.
During the summer of 1968, when I was visiting the Lodge while on vacation, Gary had given me my very first introduction into the social life of typical Patten teenagers when he had two of his sisters have one of their boyfriends drive them up to the Lodge to take me out for an evening on the town. The full story of that very memorable summer evening of my life is written out in full in my short story named The Day I Fell I Love With Patten Maine.
Photography by David Robert Crews
Gary and Cathy Glidden, and I do believe she's a goosin' him!
Photography by David Robert Crews
Katahdin Lodge and Camps on a Sunday afternoon in 1969, as seen from Bobby Smallwood’s plane. Old photo from my first 35MM camera. It was inexpensive, but I like some of these shots that I got with it.
I was with Bobby Smallwood’s daughter Barbara, my steady girlfriend, one Saturday evening, parkin’ out in back of a potato field when Bobby and Gary flew over us at treetop level; they were out lookin’ to see wildlife comin’ out to eat at dusk time, which Bobby often did in that two seater plane with Gary, or Mrs. Smallwood, or my Uncle Finley, or other folks. Holy o' jeezus that were some scary night when I took her home after our date (15 minutes early instead of 20-30 minutes late that time), but Bobby never said nuthin’ to me about it till I went down there the next afternoon to see Barbara on our regular Sunday date. I walked into their house through the kitchen door and her mother said a normal pleasant hello to me as she continued preparing their usual big Sunday supper, then bravely, but a might bit meekishly, I eased on in towards their living room where Bobby was sitting and reading the Sunday paper. Ole' Bobby dropped his paper down a few inches, looked up at me with a big wide smile on his face and said, "Well hellooo theah Dave, ya been in any potato fields lately ?" And that were all!
I had already seen Gary at the Lodge that morning, and he hadn't spoken to me he simply had grinned at me, real big and broad, that was very unnerving. All that morning, I had no idea who was in the back seat of Bobby's plane till Gary grinned at me like that, but I knew that it wasn't my uncle in the plane, because he hated to see me date Barbara and would have somehow made my morning quite miserable if he had even known about it at the time. Fin hated to see me with Barbara because Bobby was his best friend and Fin thought that I might get her pregnant and that Bobby would hold Fin responsible and then their friendship would end. Gary was all too aware of that brutally ignorant Finley factor, so he never ever said a word about it to my uncle, my aunt, or anyone else at the Lodge.
I never heard a word about it from Barbara's mother, but miracle of miracles in the normally faster than a radio signal small town gossip circuit it took two weeks before Finley heard about it. That was because Gary, Bobby, and Mrs. Smallwood were protecting me from Finley, but they each had to eventually tell someone the story, because it was just too hilarious for them to keep to themselves--can't blame 'um for that. When Fin found out, he really rubbed it into me, and for a couple weeks every new group of bear hunters heard about it during the week. I could easily detect that there was a barely perceptible weird, evil tinge to his voice and mannerisms when he was doing the rubbing in on me, because Fin seriously, viciously, hated it that I was dating Barbara.
Copyright 2006 David Robert Crews
ursusdave
Patten Maine
Katahdin Lodge
David Robert Crews
I was with Bobby Smallwood’s daughter Barbara, my steady girlfriend, one Saturday evening, parkin’ out in back of a potato field when Bobby and Gary flew over us at treetop level; they were out lookin’ to see wildlife comin’ out to eat at dusk time, which Bobby often did in that two seater plane with Gary, or Mrs. Smallwood, or my Uncle Finley, or other folks. Holy o' jeezus that were some scary night when I took her home after our date (15 minutes early instead of 20-30 minutes late that time), but Bobby never said nuthin’ to me about it till I went down there the next afternoon to see Barbara on our regular Sunday date. I walked into their house through the kitchen door and her mother said a normal pleasant hello to me as she continued preparing their usual big Sunday supper, then bravely, but a might bit meekishly, I eased on in towards their living room where Bobby was sitting and reading the Sunday paper. Ole' Bobby dropped his paper down a few inches, looked up at me with a big wide smile on his face and said, "Well hellooo theah Dave, ya been in any potato fields lately ?" And that were all!
I had already seen Gary at the Lodge that morning, and he hadn't spoken to me he simply had grinned at me, real big and broad, that was very unnerving. All that morning, I had no idea who was in the back seat of Bobby's plane till Gary grinned at me like that, but I knew that it wasn't my uncle in the plane, because he hated to see me date Barbara and would have somehow made my morning quite miserable if he had even known about it at the time. Fin hated to see me with Barbara because Bobby was his best friend and Fin thought that I might get her pregnant and that Bobby would hold Fin responsible and then their friendship would end. Gary was all too aware of that brutally ignorant Finley factor, so he never ever said a word about it to my uncle, my aunt, or anyone else at the Lodge.
I never heard a word about it from Barbara's mother, but miracle of miracles in the normally faster than a radio signal small town gossip circuit it took two weeks before Finley heard about it. That was because Gary, Bobby, and Mrs. Smallwood were protecting me from Finley, but they each had to eventually tell someone the story, because it was just too hilarious for them to keep to themselves--can't blame 'um for that. When Fin found out, he really rubbed it into me, and for a couple weeks every new group of bear hunters heard about it during the week. I could easily detect that there was a barely perceptible weird, evil tinge to his voice and mannerisms when he was doing the rubbing in on me, because Fin seriously, viciously, hated it that I was dating Barbara.
Copyright 2006 David Robert Crews
ursusdave
Patten Maine
Katahdin Lodge
David Robert Crews
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