Hair & Lesbians

I really need to figure out a way that I can photograph some of these visitors... if only you could see some of the sights that walk into the park.  Yesterday, this 50 year-old woman walked into the information center with this up-do that was somewhere in between a beehive hairdo and a bird's nest hairdo... another man had a toupee that was actually attached to his hat... the best site of the day (besides Mt. Rushmore, of course...) was this group of lesbians in their 60s that walked in wearing shirts saying "Girls Gone Wild Film Crew"....

I also gave the worst ranger walk that I've ever given since I've been at Mt. Rushmore the other day; halfway through the walk, it started to pour, and then it began to hail the size of golf balls... the hail was hitting people in the face and was so loud that I couldn't concentrate; at one point, I don't think I was even talking about Mt. Rushmore.  I also caught myself saying "And now I want to draw your attention to..." about 8 times in 3 minutes.

On the end of another ranger walk the other day, I commented on this boy's sweet-looking Jewish yarmulke, and when his family realized that I was a fellow Jew, they insisted that I wear Tefillin--right there in the middle of the trail.  (The wearing of Tefillin is this Jewish custom where the wrap these leather straps around your entire arm and head, and it is supposed to "purify" you and promote spiritual development...)  If only I had a picture of this; there I am, standing in front of Mt. Rushmore, with three thousand visitors walking by, reciting a Hebrew prayer, in my park ranger uniform.

Last anecdote of the day--during my ranger walk, when I discuss Thomas Jefferson, I say (verbatim): "Jefferson spoke 26 languages! And yes, while I know that I am biased as a German major, I think the ability to speak other languages--not necessarily 26--but the ability to speak another language is an incredibly invaluable asset for anyone to have, especially for a politician, and even more so for a president, when dealing with foreign negotiations and trades."  People seem to enjoy this factoid about Thomas Jefferson and most people usually nod when I stress the importance of knowing another language.  Today, as I was walking to the next stop on the trail after I spoke about Jefferson, a visitor said to me, "I agree with you about how it is important for a president to be able to speak other languages."  (Then he snickered and continued) "How many languages does Obama speak?" to which I said, "I believe Obama just speaks English..." Then the visitor laughed and said, "That figures," to which I said, "well, Bush could barely even speak one language!"  ...I've never seen so many evil glares in my life.  Totally worth it though.