October 24, 2017

Charles Parks passed away today. A very sad day for our syrup family. As nearly as we can recall, Chuck began to come over to the camp sometime after one of his surgeries, Bob recalls Sue brought him over. She had no idea the gravity of time that field trip would cost her in the future!  He told us making syrup was always something that he wanted to do and for many years, as we are a family with great communication skills, did not realize we were doing just that. He soon discovered that nobody was really in charge of loading firewood into the evaporator. Having a little experience with firing a boiler of a different nature,  he jumped in , and from then forward, that was HIS job. That and keeping Bob company late at night.  He did not mind the late shift. He didn't even seem to mind Bob. He would stay till the fire had safely died down before making his way to his designated parking spot, which we have recently discussed, will forever be chuck's parking spot. Given his gifts for aesthetics, he made labels, etched bottles and made a few trips north into Michigan for various syrup supplies as well.
 


The second season  (whenever that was) he began to tap Sandhill Rd trees and bring that over with him. He joked that it was such a hassle, Sandhill Rd was gonna get there own evaporator. We got spoiled when he would find a lot of sap by 2 pm, he would come over early and get a fire going knowing that it was going to be a long night. He eventually learned to run the evaporator, (this began with Bob calling him from the other side of the woods telling him he was "on his own"). He would tell Bob joking that he did not need to test for specific gravity to take syrup off  he just opened the valve when "it smelled right". Cody loaded Chuck on Wally one weekday when nobody else was around to start gathering and they took off into the woods. That was one of only a few adventures into the woods for Chuck. We think the first trip occurred in 2013 as this was the first year for our crawler tractor we call Wally. When there was a crowd present, he rarely said a thing, if there was just 2 or 3 people there, he was downright chatty.

THINGS WE LEARNED FROM CHUCK:

1. syrup season is about how it smells outside

2. don't yell at your wife too much...he really said that....explained why his wife's ring tone was a siren...

3. socks are optional, good gloves are not

4. always be the last person to eat, makes you seem busier than others

5.always look forward to syrup season

6. keep your work area tidy

7. the dog will always like you if you feed her

8. sandwiches, of any kind, always taste best at the sugarcamp

9. if they ask you to do something you don't want to do ..pretend you don't hear them or tell them you are not qualified

10. it is very fun to mimic bob yelling about too much or too little wood in the fire

He quit almost every day, ..........always was gonna be his last day over some unreasonable expectation that we had of him. First one texting the next day to see what time we plan start.


 

 These were taken on an unusually warm picnic day in 2017.

As a group we have considered it an honor to get to know Chuck and spend time with him. The true measure of your impact may be the ongoing mark you leave....we, as a group,  have laughed many times over the last month about what Chuck's reaction would be this or that as we have cluttered his work space, made ruts in his parking spot etc. Thanks for the never ending gift of laughter!