Wednesday 24 July 2024

Back to School

 


In 1947, two friends climbed to the summit of the Mount Hood and camped there overnight. George Padon, a WWII veteran, and Gary Snyder, a high school student who’d go on to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, felt like the only men on the highest mountain in Oregon. But when they emerged from their tent next morning, they found a newspaper and a quart of milk waiting. If you’re under thirty, you probably don’t remember: milkmen and paperboys used to deliver to your door in the wee hours of the morning. One just wouldn’t expect this sort of service at the tops of mountains. It takes an experienced climber around seven hours to scale this peak, and they were completely alone. More than 50 years later, Gary’s friend Ross Petrie finally fessed up. Ross, and avid hiker, knew where they’d be that night, and thought milk and a paper would be the perfect prank.

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