Well the 9th Annual was another good one for the books with the early crowd showing up Thursday afternoon (Pete and I) although the earliest arrival was Professor Don Bertolette who drove in from Flagstaff, made an early visit to Robbs and still managed to get his camp setup on the Flats and was waiting to greet Pete and I as we drove in. Once we got the utilities on at the cabin, Don, Pete and I started heading for Robbs and ran smack into the Bunny Hutch in the form a this huge motor home with Rich Hapser and Sam Brewer in the Airport Flats. So after a quick detour back up the hill to the cabin to get the monster parked, all of us headed back down to Robbs where we enjoyed a couple early rounds of Robb's Hospitality, as well as a dinner snack.
Friday morning we quickly discovered that a couple of Raccoons (could have been old IKs) had deftly broken into the Bunny Hutch's huge collection of Saturday night food dispersed around the outside of the motor home. After a post theft inspection, the inventory showed they had made off with all the fixins for Sam's Friday night Chili, which necessitated a quick trip to Pollack Pines to restore the vitals and return. Sam and Pete worked on their chili while people began straggling in Friday afternoon. By Robbs time, the cabin was alive with the smell of the competing chilli concoctions, as well as a sizeable crowd, loud talk and adult beverages. So we loaded everyone in my truck and about the time we were leaving, Quiggle and Iskra showed up in the new 'Vette(2000) and for some reason Steve let the chili cook, Peter drive it to Robbs. They left all of us in a shower of pee gravel and dirt. Unfortunately, Hasper went in to the "Hutch" to get his jacket for the trip in the pickup and we managed to leave him unintentionally in the rush to get to the bar, so he was stuck at Gerle Creek monitoring Sam's cooking, rather than working on a couple of long necks with all of us at Robbs. During the trip, Pete managed to scare Quiggle, engaging a bit of buck brush while taking out one of our local friendly squirrels who happened to place himself in Pete's roadway. Surprisingly, we all arrived safe and sound, hanging out at Robbs for at least three more rounds before returning to Gerle Creek, all very merry. What a crowd...Boring George, Cowper, Iskra , Dibber, Bertolette, Ickis, the Tiny Turd, Richie Howe, Richter,Watt and myself.Of course, all through this event I tried to take some pictures to document things in between rounds.
Saturday morning this crowd was up pretty early, except for Quiggle who managed to sleep through all the farting, loud stories and BS and snored so loud that he disturbed the upstairs crowd to boot. This year we decided to take the fishin crowd down to the lake and attack the creek for Trout where it enters Gerle Lake with no luck but a lot of fun. Boring George ditched all of us again, managing to fish his way half round the lake while most of us ended up putting our poles down and just catching up on things. Weather was just great, warm, clear sunny.
By late afternoon our crowd of 16 I think were all onboard and so enjoyed another huge spread of food put on by the renowned Bunny Hutch Crew of Sam Brewer and Rich Hasper. The Tri-Tips were wonderful and everyone came away stuffed and ready for our usual Saturday evening get together. As for the Saturday night Party, well have a look a some of the shots which catch most everyone who made the treke to Gerle Creek. Party 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Gary Ness made it up in the afternoon, as did Tom Groarke who both joined this unruly crowd for the Saturday Night party and managed to survive the night sacked out in his sleeping bag in the no man's land between the upstairs sleeping haunt with all the drunks and the downstairs head. Memories of '97, stumbling drunks and a full cabin. Good job Gary....Of course thanks to Larry Henderson for all his work to shuffle the scrapbooks down to Rich Hasper, on arrival the scrapbooks were available throughout for review by all. This helped with all the old cobwebs which had occurred and certainly set the record straight on a number of issues. Pete has them safely in Visalia and is going to work them over a bit during the year with the intention to bring them back up next year for those who couldn't make it this year. We figure the chapter will get along without them for a while and besides they do need a little work and who better to do it than an old Art Major, chapter Histor, turned lawyer. The final event of the evening was a surprise presentation to me. Unbelievable, but after nearly thirty years, the old Health and Happiness (H&H) Teke Nu chapter Brass Bell showed up after going missing in '71 from the house. One of our illustrious members not present has managed to look after this famous piece of Old Theta Epsilon initiation history all these years and decided to send it along in his place with one of the other attendees. I have it and will here after ensure it makes the trip each year. As for who had it all these years, I guess I will leave it restricted for now and let the list ponder it and see if it can figure it out. Next year, we will again work hard on this particular member to make the cut for the reunion. This member would be a reader of our e-mail list(only hint).With the return of Bill Dibb, he and Milt Iskra put on a grand evening of entertainment with Milt on the piano and Bill playing his guitar. For a while Milt wondered off into a musical kingdom all his own and proceeded to play a steady stream of mild jazz which lasted over an hour. Very enjoyable. Milt and Bill were in their usual rare musical form.How about a little Saturday night music... Early in the morning Sunday when people weren't thinkin clearly, here is a shot of Quiggle's facial response to Steve Richter telling Steve he was on for a 0612 tee time on Sunday!
Sunday, brought the Third Annual Gerle Creek Open and I have to say that Richie Howe and Steve Richter(with some help from Milton Iskra) really outdid themselves. Steve took it on himself as our resident printing mogul to prepare a pretty significant poster commemorating our event which most of you have seen already. We used it for a backdrop group photo Saturday night around the downstairs piano. Check it out. Steve then went on to print up special pin flags for the tournament as well as making tee off markers for all 9 holes. Richie changed the rules and added a new special golf ball which made the tournament all the more fun...so much so that after playing 9 holes everyone decided they needed another 9 holes to make it just right. Again, many thanks to Richie Howe and Steve Richter. Here are several groups shots of the entire golfing crowd before and after the tournament. What a happy crowd. Here I am trying to tell Milt not to hit the little ball towards the wrong hole...What technique Milton...If you aren't in the picture, guess you missed out on a bitchin time. Can you believe, we had a legitimate hole in one from one of the resident pros, Milton Iskra. What a cheeky grin...Do you think he was proud..? Of course for a little look at how nice Richie got the greens for this years match, have a look at Milt and Steve enjoying this great course. What pros they are.. Of course, occasionally the whole tournament thing got a little tiring as you can see from this shot...And then when someone is shooting, everyone's attention is on the shot...Here is Richter getting frustrated with his partner, the lawyer rancher, asking, "Where did you hit that ball Dave?" As for the winners, can you believe that the Tiny Turd and his team won again for the second year in a row. Here you have TJ, Richter and Ickis, the winning team. Considering they had the Handicap Chairman and Co-Course designer on the team, is it any wonder who won. Of course, they had Bob Ickis who was a sand bagger from some hick spot called Douglas City where his reputation is well known on the golf course. We were all intimidated with Bob...How about a couple more shots from the tournament.
Once everyone left Monday it left just Professor (Don Bertolette), Pete and I to enjoy the follow on bad weather which descended on us in the form of rain and then snow. We became a wet and white world pretty quickly.So although I was supposed to be deer hunting, the Professor guided Pet and I around the forest looking out for the really big old giants among the cedar and pines, having Pete and occasionally I stand spread eagle in front of these crusty old brutes while he, the Professor, took photos for his upcoming new book on Old Growth Trees. Of course, it is a real joy riding around with our resident Professor of Trees providing many opportunities for our edification on the hows and whys of Old Growth, in between jabs about my Bush bumper sticker. So there you have it, another get together in the bag. Click on the links for a sampling of smiling and contented faces during this 9th annual. Enjoy.....
Cheers. yitb mgb(Mike Brattland)
08/06/04
