calherewecome

During the past few weeks, Paula has been cleaning out her Mom’s bedroom of the many things that have been saved for many years. One of the more interesting artifacts was an article clipped out of a magazine about a pine marten named Henry Jones.

So when Paula was a young girl, her father would work as a park ranger up in Lassen National Park for each summer. During the rest of the year, Harold would work as a science teacher at a high school in Long Beach. On the day after school closed in June, her family would pack up and head north to Lassen.

So every year they would stay in a log cabin in the park. When Paula was about 8, they befriended a pine marten that her Dad named Henry Jones. Henry Jones would come back every summer for several years.

So there was a tree stump outside their kitchen window of the cabin at Summit Lake where the Stanley family would sit at their kitchen table and watch Henry eat the food that they had left. They also left some watermelon rinds that were popular with the deer in the area.

Why Henry Jones, you might ask? Well, the name Henry Jones came from a popular song from the 1940’s titled “Feed the Bones to Henry Jones, because Henry don’t eat no meat”. Here are the lyrics:

Tonight I’ll serve a supper, 
We’ll eat some food that’s rare. 
And at the head of the table, 
I’ll place brother Henry’s chair-
Invite all the local big dogs,
We’ll laugh and talk and eat, 
But we’ll’ save the bones for Henry Jones, 
‘cause he don’t eat no meat-