Summer of 1993 - The Cast of Characters

 I did find a good picture that shows the space where we worked. Along the entrance drive were three trailers. The one with a pink arrow was the office. The one with the yellow arrow is where I lived. They actually were very glad to have me stay on site. There wasn't any particular security problem, but they were happy someone was there in case something came up. The blue arrow points to the laboratory trailer. An awful lot happened in there.

The green arrow points to some test plots. And you can see a couple of the ponds nicely in this shot.

There were a few people who were there every day. This couple... I think her name was Cathy, but I don't remember his, were doing research as to how well wetland plants grew under various conditions. I really don't know a lot about their research, or I don't remember. I do remember they owned a cat named Typha. If you get it, you get it.

They always had various plants growing in tubs with tags all over them, and they were constantly monitoring those test plots with the green arrow above.

The other person who was there almost every day was a man named Ike. I think he might have come from Iran, but I don't remember for sure any more. Anyway, he had been an engineer in his home country, but was having trouble passing the exams in the U.S., so he took any jobs he could get that were in his field. He was my best friend of the summer.

Basically, if something had electrical components, it was Ike's job to maintain them, take various reading, etc. Here, he's downloading measurements from our weather station that was at the top of the tower.

There was an archeaologist there part of the time. The site where the ponds had been built had all been checked before that was constructed, but there were other properties where he was looking for native artifacts. I don't remember his name, either.

I got to go with him a couple of days. If I recall correctly, I didn't find any actual arrowheads, but I did find a few pieces of worked chert. He would collect all day, then come back and catalog all the findings.

And then, there was me. Remember, I was a research assistant. I had a long list of duties to perform, and I really enjoyed every minute of what I did there, although a lot of it was quite simple. More on that another day (or two).

And puppy Chips. Don't forget Chips!

In other news: I finished scanning all the slides from Wetlands Research, Inc., I edited, I wrote, I did some housework.

See The Playing Field