Larry Smith

The superintendent’s monthly reports must have been a good source.

My brother was keeping a file on the most asked questions at Crater Lake. He worked entrance station out north one year and I worked it south. People’d say “You know, rangers all look alike?” We had a lot of fun with things like that. I remember one day Lloyd and I were both standing on the rim, I was interpretation then and Lloyd was a patrol ranger. He got out of the patrol car and came over. We always tried to find each other and share a few tidbits. When I got off duty, I’d keep track of where he was in the park and I’d usually find myself there. I’d fill out the rest the afternoon and evening riding around with him. We spent a lot of time together. We’d have patrol schedules set up. I’d say, “Lloyd, I get off boats at so-and-so.” He’d say, “I’ll be going around the rim at that time.” So he’d pick me up and away we’d go. I’d be off duty, but it was great. I was on patrol for three years, off and on. It was a nice experience. But I remember this lady came up and she asked me a question and Lloyd answered. She did this little thing and she said “Did anybody tell you guys that you guys look alike?” And I said, “Ma’am, it’s the hat. If I put this hat on you, you’d look like us.” She never noticed our nametags. She just wandered off.

I was talking about going back, ,it’s going back to your childhood. It’s basically that Lloyd, my twin brother, and I were almost inseparable. I think our wives sometimes get a little jealous at our relationship because Helen comes from a large family and Linda has three brothers and they don’t have anywhere near the relationships with their family because one lives in Texas and one lives in Anchorage, Alaska. Another one lives in the Philippines and that type of thing. My brother and I have to talk to each other a couple of times a week. Even at our age we still write letters and notes back and forth to each other constantly. We have courier service between the schools and the counties. With one day service, if we need to send anything over we can just drop it in interoffice mail and it gets over there. So we’re always sending things back and forth.