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JUST ASK
Dale Parrot
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I was introduced to caving by Lyle Conrad. He introduced and influenced quite a few of today's cavers, including Jim Dawson, Jette Feduska, Dee Snell Culpepper, Bob Vocke and myself. Most of us attended the same high school where Conrad was a biology teacher and still is today, I think. I met Henry Douglas, then chairman of the D.C. Grotto, Lew Bicking, who gave a talk on prusiking that evening (I wasn't to learn what was entailed first hand until almost two years later), and finally Don Cournoyer, who was to visit my home to participate in slide shows in the following years.
I didn't actually go caving until April 1965. The cave was Breathing; I can remember vividly my feelings. There were seven or eight of us on the trip, all students of Conrad. He mentioned caves and caving not infrequently in the classroom, and when he asked if anyone wanted to go on a field trip. I lept at the chance. At the first little climb--down, I was spread--eagled on the wall, and while looking down for a foot hold, I burned my hand and fell about six feet. Not physically hurt but nonetheless shaken bit, I continued on. I remember the simplest passages of today then harbored "bottomless" pits and demons around every corner.
By the time the weekend was over, I was totally exhausted and distinctly vowed never to enter a cave again. I didn't go for one and half years. Then in 1966,I hooked up with Bob Vocke and Dave Millsaps and we wreaked terror upon every cave owner in the Valley of Virginia.
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Dale Parrott, New River Cave, VA, 1966. Photographer unknown |
Capt. John Walker, 1966. Photo by D. C. Parrott. |
More about Lyle Conrad: he was a very, very patient man, seemingly always there to nurse you along. And believe me, I needed it! I definitely believed in the five arms and fanny-friction method. I freely admit that I was a bit spastic in my early adventures. I was not a "natural" caver; I really had to work at it. Being a biology teacher, Lyle was keenly interested in cave life. He has given a number of slide talks at grotto meetings and likes to explain about cave life while in the field. He was very active in batbanding. I remember an instance in Jones Quarry Cave, WV. while on a banding trip, Lyle was banding a bat and mentioned that it was a male. Jette Feduska asked "Gee, how can you tell?" Lyle replied. "Because it has a penis!" Such was life with Mr. Conrad, as we all called him, He was definitely not hesitant about explaining about the birds and bees, especially to Jette and Dee.
Another interesting episode occurred on a weekend trip to the Cave Hollow-Arbogast System in WV, Lyle was demonstrating how to pop jelly beans high into the air and catch them in his mouth. Well, he was a bit off target with one, and chipped a tooth.
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Lyle was not the party type. He would occasionally put in an appearance at a D.C. Grotto party. I did attend a VAR meeting in Luray with him, but he preferred smaller get togethers at his home or at others. While a student at Cornell University he would hitch--hike to caves in West Virginia. He was a prime explorer of McClung's Cave, along with Roger Stafford and Walter Lipton.
As you probably remember, I used to hold an annual slide show at my house around Christmas time. This started in 1966 and the last show was in 1970, I think. The first time Don Cournoyer was featured and I basically invited D.C. Grotto and high school friends. It was such a hit that it was continued in succeeding years. After starting as a student at VPI in 1967. My circle of caving friends grew, and so did the attendance at the slide shows. Finally it became almost unmanageable in the last two years for my house and mother (who did most of the preparations). We had up to 60 to 70 people.
Don Cournoyer -- there's really not a whole lot I can tell you that I'm sure you don't already know. I've never been caving with him, but became a good friend of his early, especially with slide shows, parties and after Grotto meeting beer parties. I've always held the highest regard for Don, especially with regard to his sound judgement in grotto affairs (not to mention his many years of service with the Society).
I would like to talk about John Walker. He was a Marine captain, and became D.C. Grotto chairman in 1967--1968. He led many trips into the Valley of Virginia. A typical caving trip with John would be to arise very early on Saturday morning, buzz out to cave country, armed with a copy of Douglas, and explore and photograph as many caves in a single day as we could. We would sometimes visit as many as six to ten caves in a day, all short, and no more than an hour in each. An overnight or weekend trip was an infrequent treat. I usually didn't get any sleep the night before; the excitement was overwhelming. But we would cram three or four of us into his tiny VW bug and away we would go. John was perhaps the most exciting D.C. chairman I knew; his Marine charge would always stir people up. He was most active in setting up trips, especially for beginners. He was a close friend of Lyle's, and I was included on quite a few of their trips.
continued
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