One of the things I used to enjoy a lot was going to work with Dad. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service. When we were little, and if Dad was doing something alone, he would sometimes let us go along to watch or “help”. I was always proud of my Dad. He wore a type of uniform and he even wore a badge part of the time. He had an official green pickup or sometimes he took us in the jeep or even in the Power Wagon if we were lucky.
Dad did a lot of different jobs for the Forest Service. Sometimes he would fill in for someone on Gentry Lookout Tower or he would be the lookout on the weekend when no one was there. He sometimes let one of us boys go with him. Another thing Dad did was to re-seed the logging roads after the loggers were finished using them. The logging roads were usually just roads that were cut through the forest by a bulldozer. They were usually only wide enough to accommodate a logging truck. When all the timber had been cut out of an area and the loggers moved to another area to log, Dad had the job of re-seeding the road with wild grass to prevent erosion and for grass for the animals. Usually he took the jeep when he did that and we could go along. Sometimes we used a seeder that mounted on the back of the jeep and sometimes we used a hand seeder. The hand seeder had a place to put the seed and then as you walked, you turned a crank that spun a broadcaster and the seed would fly out onto the ground. We walked many a mile re-seeding the roads.
During the Christmas season, Dad often had the Christmas Tree Patrol and we could ride along. We would drive around on the forest roads and check to see that people cutting Christmas Trees had the proper permits. If they did not, Dad usually had permits and they could buy them from him. I think a Christmas tree permit cost something like five dollars or less at that time. Especially on weekends, lots of people from the valley would come up to cut themselves a tree. Quite a few never went to the trouble of buying a permit. We were the guys that caught them. Sometimes Dad would just park at the top of the rim by the Woods Canyon Lake turn off and just stop every car that came by that had a Christmas Tree. I guess he made a lot of money for the Government that would have been missed if people were left to themselves. Usually the people were very willing to pay for their trees.
During fire season Dad sometimes had the job of trying to get people to be more careful. I can remember several times when he would put up a roadblock at the top of the rim. He would stop all traffic coming up the rim and ask them to please use their ash trays if they smoked or to not build any fires because the fire danger was extreme. I had the job of handing out Smokey Bear comic books and copies of the Smokey Bear song to the children in the cars. It was all an effort to prevent forest fires. I guess it worked to some extent. I got pretty good at the Smokey Bear song. Dad had other brochures that we passed out too. It was fun to be of some help.
Later Dad was responsible for some of the camp grounds. He would gather the trash or check to see if campers has the proper permits. Dad loved that job because he had lots of people to visit with. He was a good PR person for the U.S. Forest Service. People liked him and he liked people. It was a good fit.
Dad also did a lot of things at the Ranger Station on Saturdays and we go to help. He repaired things, washed his truck, put new handles in axes and hoes and did lots of other jobs. Working with Dad was lots of fun and he seemed to enjoy having us along.