law enforcement – Sage Telling Your Story

Using “literary” in its broadest meaning I have had several favorites. They always seem to be the Wonder woman types. Women who can solve problems single-handedly, certainly take care of themselves, handle themselves heroically in crisis situations, and always come out on top. Yet they have human frailties as well–just so we know they are not actually other-worldly. In my youth Nancy Drew was one. Today my hero of choice is Anna Pigeon, Park Ranger. Anna has all the traits I admire: she is a nature lover, a steward of the natural environment, strong, independent, smart, able to figure things out, courageous, but always struggling with her human vulnerabilities.

Nevada Barr, Anna’s creator, is a very successful writer. She has won many awards for her books of the last three decades. She became interested in the environment and started working summers for the National Park Service as a Park Ranger. And so is her character Anna Pigeon a National Park Service ranger, working in law enforcement. The Anna pigeon series of 18 books begins in Guadalupe National Park and takes the reader into as many national parks from desert to the Great Lakes.

Anna’s exploits are always based on some environmental issue. Her stories often have an unexpected twist, but Anna always gets the bad guy, often showing up the local law enforcement officials a la Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote. Ms. Barr aways offers lots of suspense and excitement and a good look at the parks in which her stories take place.

Nevada Barr’s first novel published in 1984 was interestingly about two lesbians. It appears Ms. Barr is not a lesbian and probably learned early on that marketing to a lesbian readership would be severely limiting. But curious that she started out in this vein. I recently borrowed the book, Bittersweet, from the library as I have not ever read it.

Anna pigeon was created in 1993 in Track of the Cat which takes place in Guadalupe National Park. In the ensuing years her adventures take us to such exotic places as Yosemite, Rocky Mountain Park, The Natchez Trace, The Carlsbad Caverns of NM, The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monument, Isle Royal in Lake Superior NP, Glacier NP to name a few of her favorite places. Her favorite places and mine. Perhaps that has something to do with my enjoyment of the books.

But it’s not just the settings of the stories. One gets to know and love certain people in Anna’s life quite well after reading just a few of these books. Anna’s dead actor husband who was killed in an accident crops up in Anna’s thoughts rather regularly. She struggles with the grief of losing him for many years and finds herself struggling with the temptation to drink too much alcohol for the rest of her life. Her sister Molly, a New York psychiatrist is a constant mentor and colorful personality as are the many associates in the park service with whom she works.

Gill and I were particularly thrilled when we saw in Hard Truth which takes place in RMNP that Barr had chosen for her main character a friend of ours, Toby, who is sadly no longer living. When Nevada Barr was in Estes Park researching her next book she met Toby, a woman severely disabled by rheumatoid arthritis and wheel-chair bound. The author was so impressed with our dynamic friend she based the main character of her new book on this woman.

Ms. Barr, who herself worked for the park service before she started writing books, paints for the reader a picture of the politics, the heroes and the villains, the secrets and favors, the drudgery and the incredible stress that goes on from day to day in a job in that agency of the government.

In the following two decades Anna serves in about 16 other National Parks. By 2009 Anna, now married but still a Park Ranger, is aging along with her new husband. In Barr’s 15th book our heroine is on leave and the couple is in Big Bend National Park. Although she is older Anna still has the qualities I admired in her in the beginning. I’m glad that she too is aging, along with me. There is something unreal about a character who does not age with time. Such a character is private investigator Kinsey Milhone, the creation of Sue Grafton in the alphabet mysteries starting with A is for Alibi, etc. I believe Grafton is now up to V or so. A very ambitious pursuit –a mystery novel for every letter of the alphabet. I enjoy those books very much too. But Nevada Barr’s Ranger Pigeon is my favorite.

Gill and I have visited most of the Parks in which Anna Pigeon appears. Many times in anticipation of a visit we borrow the audiobook from the library and start out on the road listening to the book which features the park we are about to visit. Perhaps this is one reason I enjoy these books so much. We can get a preview of the park while being entertained with a great story. Then while enjoying the park we can let our imaginations soar because we now know all that goes on behind the scenes underneath the natural beauty of the park features, now we know the sometimes ugly reality of the lives led by the park employees and visitors.

I am not a qualified judge, but I do not consider Nevada Barr’s books to be of superior or lasting artistic merit. If I were a student of literature, I am quite sure I would pick for my favorite a more classic, universal character, but I presently am not a student of literature. There are many more books out there that I have not read than books I have read, so who knows how many other characters might exist whom I have never met. I like to read books that are relaxing to read and fun to read. Books that feature characters whom I admire. Among those whom I have met Anna Pigeon is that character.

About the Author

Betsy has been active in the GLBT community including PFLAG, the Denver Women’s Chorus, OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change), and the GLBT Community Center. She has been retired from the human services field for 20 years. Since her retirement, her major activities have included tennis, camping, traveling, teaching skiing as a volunteer instructor with the National Sports Center for the Disabled, reading, writing, and learning. Betsy came out as a lesbian after 25 years of marriage. She has a close relationship with her three children and four grandchildren. Betsy says her greatest and most meaningful enjoyment comes from sharing her life with her partner of 30 years, Gillian Edwards.

In November 2011, in response to the
topic “music,” I wrote an account of my acquisition of various tastes in music
from youth to adulthood. My tastes are not
limited to just one or two types of music and one sentence therein deals with,
not only listening to my favorite march, but also conducting it whenever I hear
the song played. One aspect of music as
it relates to me I did not write about – singing.

From Kindergarten through 6th
grade, first at the Hawthorne Christian School then the Cambridge Elementary
School and finally at South Tahoe Elementary School, music is included as part
of the required curriculum. As a result,
I learned to sing religious children’s songs and fun or near nonsense
songs. Among the former I recall Onward
Christian Soldiers and Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. In the latter category, I remember, “Skip to
My Lou”, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and “Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the
Wall.”

Sixth grade was the final time I sang in
a school Christmas program. It was not
because I did not want to sing but because the 7th grade and higher
did not participate. Therefore, as I
aged into the teen years, the only singing I did was either in the shower
(figuratively speaking) or around the campfire on scout campouts.

As I attained the age of majority at 21,
I sang in the choir of my church; not regularly but often enough. My voice was stuck somewhere between bass and
tenor like halfway in between, neither one nor the other dominating.

While stationed in Florida as part of
the Air Force, I fell in love for the first time; or perhaps had my first major
crush on a girl my age would be more accurate. (I’m not counting the pubescent crush on my 5th
grade teacher). As a result, I became
acquainted with her family for several years.
After I married Deborah who was the best friend of my crush, Charla, we
ended up at Brigham Young University where I was a student of law enforcement.

One day, Deborah told me that Charla’s brother
(Vern) was also attending the school and that he is a member of a 50’s band. She also said the band was playing that night
at the student union building and we should go, which is her way of saying,
“We’re going!” We ended up attending the
event with another couple from our student-housing complex and shared a table
at the side of the room. There were
about 200 students present.

Before the show began, Deborah found
Vern and he joined us at our table for a few minutes. The musical performance was excellent. The band played all sorts of 50’s rock music
but seemed to feature music by the Beach Boys, which I happen to like. The band needed to play one more song before
intermission. However, as part of their
performance, this song was not to be sung by the band alone. All four members of the band rushed out into
the audience and literally grabbed a person and pulled him to the stage to sing
with the band. Vern came out and grabbed
me.

Of course, I protested just like the
other victims were doing but in the end “Deborah made me do it,” (at least
that’s my excuse). At that time in my
life, I was introverted, shy, and always maintained a “low profile” so I was
very anxious about what was about to happen.
I did not expect a good result from singing an unfamiliar song with no
advance rehearsal. I became even more
worried when it was clear that the four victims (all males) will be singing
four-part harmony without the band members.
The worst part was having the band members sing their parts, one at a
time and each victim had to sing it back.
The others did fairly well as I recall but my anxiety increased when it
became clear that my part was last; too much time to think about it. Then panic set in when Vern sang his
part. It was in the falsetto range and I
never sang anything that high since before puberty attacked me.

As I wrote above, Vern sang his part and
I sang it back. The band selects victims
to sing with as a regular part of their performance to be a bit of comic relief
I suspect, especially the falsetto part.
When I finished singing the phrases back at Vern, he just stood there
with his mouth stuck open for a full second.
By the next second, he and the audience were applauding. Apparently, I sang the part back
perfectly. The only other time I sang
solo and received applause occurred in a weekly scout meeting when I taught the
troop the summer camp’s song by singing it to them. Both back then and on this night my face
flushed.

The four of us victims went on to sing
the first verse acapella and band members joined in for the rest; more applause
when we were done. I was relieved it was
over. In spite of a few extra hugs and
kisses from Deborah, I cannot remember anytime that I have sung solo to any
audience after that night.

The name of the song? Barbara Ann
by the Beach Boys.

About the Author

I was born in June of 1948 in Los Angeles, living first in Lawndale
and then in Redondo Beach. Just prior to
turning 8 years old in 1956, I was sent to live with my grandparents on their
farm in Isanti County, Minnesota for two years during which time my parents
divorced.

When united with my mother and stepfather two years later
in 1958, I lived first at Emerald Bay and then at South Lake Tahoe, California,
graduating from South Tahoe High School in 1966. After three tours of duty with the Air Force,
I moved to Denver, Colorado where I lived with my wife and four children until
her passing away from complications of breast cancer four days after the 9-11-2001
terrorist attack.

I came out as a gay man in the summer of 2010. I find writing these memories to be
therapeutic.

My story blog is, TheTahoeBoy.Blogspot.com.

Tag: law enforcement

My Favorite Literary Character, by Betsy

About the Author