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I have told this story before but since the subject is "not loose at all"
perhaps it bears retelling again.
My very first wild cave was in 1963 or so when my buddy Dave the Nuisance and I
explored John Brown's cave near Harper's ferry WV, a place that John Brown knew
nothing about. Our sources of light were flaming faggots. We returned many
times thereafter armed with flashlight and carbide lamps but eventually I moved
to Florida and on to bigger and better things. (Disclaimer: Bigger and better
does not refer to Florida caves.)
The cave entrance was exposed by a railroad cut through the magnificent gorge
of the Potomac river, a steep, dangerous, and unstable place to put a railroad.
It was a major party spot where we and others used to play 'chicken' with the
trains, try to derail them, and especially to put on scandalous theatrical acts
for the Amtrak passengers; so, eventually the railroad company made a useless
effort to gate the cave by placing a big steel plate in front of the entrance
but it was easy to squeeze past.
About 25 years and many hundreds of caves later Dave and I returned for a
nostalgia trip.
While we were inside a large group of local yokels arrived with a few
flashlights, a case of beer, and lots of drugs. They were busy smashing the
bottles and whooping and hollering when I crawled up to sternly lecture them
about the dangers of not sharing their drugs and alcohol. Meanwhile, Dave edged
toward the entrance while yelling, "I'm going to barricade the entrance and
keep you all for slaves!" Needless to say no one paid him any attention.
When I go to the entrance I discovered that Dave had piled lots of discarded
railroad ties against the steel plate but it was easy to push them aside. I was
appalled because Dave was supposedly a construction man who should have known
how to do a better job. So I tore down the slipshod work and reassembled the
barricade so as to be impregnable.
About that time the lead drunken idiot arrived to discover that the entrance
had been barricaded. He began screaming violent epithets and demanding to be
let out. I calmly explained that even though they had generously shared their
drugs and alcohol it was still a bad thing to break beer bottles inside of
caves; furthermore, Dave had already explained that they were to be kept as
slaves.
Several of the drunken idiots were attractive young women (attractive because
they were young), so we generously offered to let the women out one at a time
to be reviewed for their suitability as slaves. Those who were toothless and
tongueless were to be preferred.
The lead drunken idiot objected as did many of the others who were now
assembled behind the steel gate. He threatened to kill us once he got out, as
did several of the others. This clearly demonstrated that they had "attitudes",
and as such were unsuitable for service as slaves.
I regretfully explained that they were behaving very badly so we had no choice
but to leave them in the cave lest they mount an insurrection. I reminded them
of the sad fate of John Brown and suggested that a lengthy cooling off period
might ,"help them to see the light".
So it was that they screamed and pounded on the metal plate as we walked away,
and I'm sorry to say that I haven't been back to John Brown's since.
Counting would have made no difference, but I think there were about a dozen of
them, give or take a few. I doubt that they were sorely missed by any other
than their Mamas.
Sleazeweazel
In a message dated 9/22/2017 11:30:03 PM Eastern Standard Time,
texascavers@texascavers.com writes:
Ah yes!. Rich was NOT loose!
DirtDoc
From: "Linda Starr" <lstarr...@gmail.com>
To: "Logan McNatt" <lmcn...@austin.rr.com>
Cc: "Lee H. Skinner" <skin...@thuntek.net>, "New Mexico Cavers"
<swrcav...@googlegroups.com>, "Texas Cavers" <Texascavers@texascavers.com>
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2017 2:20:51 PM
Subject: Re: [SWR CAVERS] Indiana University freshman found after surviving
three days in a cave
I remember an incident many years ago in the '70s, my first trip to Fort
Stanton Cave, maybe, where we locked one of our cavers in the cave. We didn't
go anywhere and were all camped at the cave when we noticed Rich Loose was not
with us. We hollered for him with no answer and went to the cave and there he
was at the gate, slightly disgruntled. This was a different situation with a
supervised youth group. It sounds like a major screw-up in the leadership.
Linda Starr
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