Forest Service Stories: My Stanley by Alan McGuire-Dale

 

From: Alan McGuire Dale:R6/PNW
Date: ## 02/28/97 10:31 ##

During the first day on the job during the summer of 1974, I encountered one of the most enduring icons of a field forester’s standard equipment, the Stanley Thermos.  Everyone had one.
Evidently some for many years.

Although the thermos was basically unchanged even to this day, a cultured eye could tell the relative age by the subtle changes in the design of the spout, those that still used corks, and of course, the accumulated battle damage.  I have seen serviceable thermos that have fallen off the trucks at highway speeds, those that have been run over by bulldozers, and some that survived intense forest fires.  To this day, I still have my original thermos.

Although the desk has caught up with me, the various dents and other assorted damage that bathe my Stanley, carry me back to those events that range from mundane to terrifying.  All of which is necessary to put the intense issues and controversies which surround daily, into a very healthy perspective!

 

 

2 thoughts on “Forest Service Stories: My Stanley by Alan McGuire-Dale”

  1. Good remembrance to share! Thanks
    I’m not a coffee person but I recall lots of FS coworkers who faithfully carried their Stanley full of java out to our pickup truck, to ID team meetings or whatever.
    Has anyone tried to estimate how many Stanleys there are like that in the FS or how much coffee has been consumed by FS staff?
    Would be some fun number crunching

    Reply
  2. My first Stanley thermos was stolen from my truck back in the 1980s…. I had stopped for a beer on the way home from marking timber, and left my windows down. The thief didn’t take anything but the Stanley. I soon got another: My grandfather, a carpenter, retired and gave me his. I still have that old, beat-up thermos….

    Reply

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