Little Boy Lost (6)

 

Little Boy Lost (6)

     Last week I thought I had finished the story about my week lost in the Sierra Nevada, back in 1952. My mother had kept a box of newspaper clippings and photos of my emergence from the wilderness and even the remnants of my completely worn out shoes which had managed to stay on my feet until I returned to civilization. Of course I had known of this box, but I had not given it any thought until about 20 years ago when it came time for us to keep or dispose of my parents’ “stuff” after they had passed away. I saw that in the box were my old shoes and quite a few old newspapers, apparently all local (L.A. Times, L.A. Examiner, L. A. Mirror, Lynwood Press, San Francisco Chronicle) and I just glanced at them. Donna rearranged things so that the contents took up much less space and then they were put away for another 20 years. 

   A few weeks ago I decided to write about my lost week, and I thought that all I needed to do was that I had to refresh my memory, and then just think like my 12 year old self. I did refresh my memory somewhat, and I read a few of the newspaper clippings. I recall that I had been interviewed by the sheriff, and later at least one more reporter, and the results were reasonably good but there were errors both by me and by the newspapers. I had said that I had heard wolves, but certainly they were coyotes; I had said that I had been swept over a 20 foot cascade but later when I had looked closely at a topo map it must have been a drop of 8 to 10 feet at most. On the part of the newspapers many headlines said “...lost in the woods…” when I was usually above timberline with very few trees, and also many papers were reporting that I had lost hardly any weight. My weight on a pretty accurate scale my first day back in civilization was 163 pounds, but we may never know my weight the week before. For some reason which I have never known, many people thought I weighed 163 pounds when I became lost. A few weeks later at home I had been eating well and weighed 175 pounds and I think that is probably my weight when I started my trek. So losing about 2 pounds per day in tough conditions and fasting sounds about right. In any case the local doctor who examined me in Sonora on 17 August said I was in excellent shape. 

   So I had finished what I meant to write, and I was gathering up the newspaper clippings and preparing to put everything back in the box for the next 20 years. Then I noticed an envelope crammed with 39 more newspaper clippings from 39 more papers all dated on my 13th birthday August 18, 1952. They were all similar since they were based on the two interviews, but various papers emphasized various things - age, size, weather, terrain, physical condition. The papers were from various cities: Chattanooga, Des Moines, Tulsa, Newark, Houston, Mobile, Little Rock, Salt Lake, New Haven, Baton Rouge, Columbus,.......and of course New York (New York Times). Several of the articles were a little suspicious of several details: not many 12 year olds were 5’ 10” and about the heft of an adult, who had been fasting for a week and may not have lost weight and who was in excellent physical condition. I suppose that some of the reporters were wondering if the whole thing was a promotion of something to make money. Imagine: “Come take our High Sierra water diet for only $20 a day and after a week you’ll be better than ever!” I didn’t know at the time but my parents were aware of some suspicious reporters, even as strange as it might have been. So after about a week at home, as I was now 13 and ready to start high school, there were no more interviews and certainly there was no money involved. Within a very short time we didn’t worry about my adventure and I was entirely engaged in high school. It’s now been 73 years and I think it can now go to bed.