Burping Big Bertha and Jet Plunger Back Splash

[Tom Fischer]

I loved the maintenance department and some dirty jobs were just part of the experience.

One of the two dirtiest jobs that I remember doing was taking Big Bertha (the large white garbage truck that was parked at the kitchen side dock) to the landfill in Estes (across the road from the Kentucky Fried Chicken). Just the drive was an experience. The steering was so loose that to maintain a somewhat straight line while driving one had to move the steering wheel about 45 degrees from side to side every few seconds. Once at the landfill you would get out of the truck and operate the hyraulic ram to push about a weeks worth of unbagged and mostly liquid kitchen refuse down into the landfill pit or at least as close to the pit as you were comfortable backing up to. The smell was usually overwhelming and when the big gush of material exited the back of the truck you had to make sure you were standing clear of the splatter. Sometimes the remaining liquid in the back would spill while climbing the hill back onto the YMCA grounds and then we would take the garbage truck to the kitchen and get the firetruck and go back to the hill and hose down the affected area.

The second dirty job was unplugging toilets using a "Jet Plunger" which used a can of compressed air to provide the thrust to dislodge the blockage. There was always the risk that if the plunger was not seated properly in the bowl that a backsplash could occur. The jet plunger came with a protective plastic bag that could be worn but I don't ever remember anyone taking the time to put it on.

The maintenance department was fantastic. We had great bosses and a lot of fun. Plus we had two days off a week and that meant we got to do a lot more hiking. What a great experience. I hope my children will get to work at the Y in a few years.

[Jack Melton]

Tom,

I remember the odor of Bertha well. She would get very ripe in the July sun beside the Pondo. I also remember the stains on the pavement the leaking liquid would leave. I once made the mistake of stepping in her juice. Thought I would never get the smell off my shoes. Here she is disguised as "Dumbo" in the 1988 July 4th parade.

Never had the pleasure of using one of the Jet Plungers. But I do remember hearing stories of splash back if it wasn't seated properly.

[Brad]

I too had an expereince with the jet plunger. By the time I arrived at the cabin, the toilet had been used several times. Thankfully, it was all urine and toilet paper and no feces, because I did not get a good seal with the plunger, and I took the brunt of the backlash. The guys back at maintenance got a big chuckle out of it. The cabin was occupied by girls attending some conference, and I thought I would impress them with my handy-man skills. I definitely made an impression.

As for Big Bertha, I never had the pleasure. The trucks in 1976 were more primitive than Bertha.

[thedude]

Tom,
What's up? Big Bertha juice was toxic.

I remember getting in trouble driving the garbage truck because Dale said we brought more stuff back from the dump then we took down.
One day we picked up some elk legs (the baker had butchered it) and we drove around all day waving at the kids with our elk arms and driving using the two hooves.

Also the jet plunger, even if you seated it correctly, sometimes "stuff" would fly out of the sink and bathtub drains.

Good times!

[Tom Fischer]

Bubba!
Great to see your post! How have you been? I hadn't heard the elk leg story before...that must have been in '84. I wouldn't have forgotten that. I'll email you and you can tell me what you have been up to.

[Joe (Wally) Kryshak]

Greetings--

This is my first post after stumbling on this website. I worked maintenance the summer of '82. Tom Fischer may not remember me, but he showed me around on the first day. Shortly thereafter, I had the pleasure of riding shotgun in Big Bertha with Big Al Gruse down to the dump. Thought I was a goner.

The power plungers were a trip, no doubt. I was never a fan of the evening on-call to light the propanes on the hot water heaters in the various cabins. Had to pretend I knew what I was doing without blowing up the guests and their belongings.

I otherwise spent the summer on the Long House scraping, painting, and working on my sunburn. Oh yeah, and assembling and disassembling bunk beds in the lodges. Great memories. Thanks.

Joe (Wally) Kryshak

[Tom Fischer]

Hi Joe,
Good to see your post. Do you remember that some groups of cabins (Dorsey Circle ?) shared large LP tanks and it was a big deal if the tank wasn't refilled before it was completely gone. If it did empty we had to relight all the water heater and furnace pilots for all the cabins.....it seemed like a few thermocouples would also be bad and it would take hours to get everything lit again. That happened a few times. Good training though.......it has come in very handy. I just changed out a toilet wax ring seal, flapper, and tank to bowl sealing washers two weekends ago and didn't even think about calling a plumber.

I also remember scraping on the 3 H's (Hallet, Howard, and Hague), but just for a few days (I lucked out and got out of prolonged scraping duty somehow). I know some were stuck working on that for a couple of weeks.

I definitely got in on my share of bunking/de-bunking for conferences. That was hard work wasn't it? All those unused mattresses were wedged into tiny storage rooms and we had to carry them upstairs......they were all twin sized and I remember carrying them over our heads because it was awkward for two people to carry them around stairwell corners.....plus we would finish a lot more quickly. Some of the mattesses were stored under the Hyde Chapel and we would take "Herman" and some of the other vehicles and load them up with a bunch of mattresses and then have a couple of people ride in the back of the trucks to keep them from flying off. I think we all became experts at riding on the sides of pick-up trucks (if I saw my son do that now I would be really nervous.

Carrying mattresses and heaving 30 lb garbage bags into the back of the trucks was pretty good exercise. I also remember that a lot of the bedframes (which we had to assemble) had stripped threads and we would jam wooden match sticks into the hole to make them usable.

Good times!

[Joe (Wally) Kryshak]

Hi Tom--

Your post of March 6th triggered a few more maintenance stories in my mind. Garbage duty with the dark red truck was a hoot. At the dump, the two swinging back doors had to be secured or they'd drag on the ground when the hydraulic engaged and you had to drive forward to get the trash moving. Forgot to do this once and the doors snapped off. Got an earful from Dale about that one.

I, like perhaps many others, learned to drive with manual transmission that summer. Learning to do so in those old green pick-up and utility trucks made me feel like Steve McQueen in the old car-chase movies.

I believe it was July of '82 when the Lawn Lake dam failed, sending water through Estes. A bunch of us were bussed down to help dig out. I ended up in a hardware store shovelling a couple feet of mud with some Mennonites who were bussed in as well.

Lastly, I, like you, have been fairly proficient in repairing toilets since that time.

Thanks.

Joe (Wally) Kryshak

[thedude]

Tom, did you get my email?
If not, contact me harrischandler@hotmail.com not "hot male".com
Harris

[randyeck]

Hey guys,

You brought back alot of memories. Are you going to the reunion?

Randy Eck