A MAMMOTH FOURTH

I hadn’t planned on posting today. It is the Fourth of July and even though I had to work, I knew most people would be celebrating. But today, something special happened and I wanted to share it with my readers.

Mammoth Hot Springs is really just a small village that swells during the summer months with our seasonal employees, guests and visitors. During the summer, about 500 Xanterra staff are in Mammoth alone, with another 2,500 throughout the Park. We are all away from home, family, friends and familiarity. My July Fourth plans are always to attend the Patagonia, Arizona Parade with my friend Annie. I’d been telling my coworkers about this wonderful small-town parade in Southern Arizona. Last year I thought I might like to participate this summer – anyone can. But then I took this job in Yellowstone. Well, this year I participated in the Mammoth Hot Springs Fourth of July Parade instead.

I honestly hadn’t thought to do so but at the last minute, I left my work at my desk and left to join a small band of my coworkers from the General Accounting and Computer Center Offices.  We had dressed in colorful notions left over from previous parades and each of us had a small Old Glory to wave.

A decorated Xanterra van took the lead, letting people along the route know that something special was happening.  The ‘Parade Route’ wound through the visitor cabins behind the Hotel and then on to the green lawn across from the Hotel’s imposing Portico. Anybody and everybody was welcome to join in.

I had seen the ‘drill team’ practicing behind the Hotel over the last few days. Today, red, white and blue towels attached to wooden broom handles were brandished high in the air by the Housekeeping Staff as Lee Greenwood’s lyrics “And I’ll gladly stand UP next to you and defend her to this day…”  blared from the radio of the lead car.

More Housekeeping and Guest Services Staff followed, rolling their more diminutive coworkers in decorated service trolleys along the ‘parade route’, waving flags and throwing candy to the guests. Visitors and employees streamed out of their cabins, offices and the Hotel to watch.  “Happy Fourth” rang out from the line of marchers, me included, as we wove our way through the guest cabin area and up to the great portico of Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. The Wranglers, up from the Mammoth Stables, were a big hit with the crowd as they took up the rear on their beautiful and well-behaved horses. Even many of our international employees participated to help us celebrate our freedom.

As the Parade came to the front of the hotel, we had to wait a minute until a huge tour bus vacated the Portico.  Apparently, the driver didn’t get the memo that this was the Parade Route. The guests then took their places in the shade of the Grand Portico while the marchers gathered on the lawn. The Flag Team performed rather brilliantly to Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”. One of the flag team had only a tiny US flag but nonetheless he went through the routine with all the aplomb of the flaggers who hoisted what must have been pretty heavy flags.

As Greenwood words “I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me” I thought of my nephew Mikey, permanently disabled from the Iraq war. I thought of my Dad, a WWII vet, who suffered from ‘shell shock’ his entire life. I shed a tear or two or more for them - tears of love, of gratitude and of pride.

Then, the closest thing to the Parade Marshall came forward to lead us, all of us, in patriotic songs.  Song sheets were handed out and I don’t think anybody there, including the international guests, thought it was just too plain hokey to sing about our love of country and freedom. Well done, everyone.

Mammoth is a unique place to be on July Fourth.  Yellowstone was the very first National Park in the world. That’s something to celebrate on July Fourth. We ALL own our National Parks, every single one of us. Our National Park system is perhaps our greatest achievement in my mind. We are an immigrant nation, a nation of explorers and adventurers. The Parks, whether they are the great swaths of wilderness in the West, or the historic monuments in the East, are brilliant reminders of what this Nation has gone through to get where we are today.

Our freedom, our wilderness, our history are all very worthy of protecting. We may have differences of opinion on how to go about that but every time Greenwood’s words ring out, hearts stir. OK, I think the song is a little hokey but I tear up just like the rest when I hear the words “There ain’t no doubt I love this land. God Bless the USA.”

Happy Fourth. You wouldn’t be where you are today if someone hadn’t lead the way there. Celebrate your past, our past, and as the fireworks light the sky, say a prayer for our future.