Yesterday I wrote about the worst summer job experience I had. I tend to be a pretty upbeat person, though, and I’d hate to end the weekend on a negative note. I figure it’s only fair to give equal time to the summer job that left me with the best memories. During the spring of my sophomore year at college, the company which had contracts with the Park Service to operate and staff the lodge, cabins, gift shops, tours and restaurants at Crater Lake National Park arrived at my campus (and others) to interview and recruit employees for the upcoming season. It sounded like a great way to spend the summer. Most of us were from the Northwest, but there was a smattering of kids from across the U.S. That was the first aspect that made this a great job. Nearly everyone was of a similar age, and because of our rather remote location (70 miles from the nearest town) and cozy living quarters (most of us slept in the men’s or women’s sleeping porch with about 75 others), we got to know each other well. Our employers did what they could to provide some social opportunities (dances, movie nights and the like), but there were those who couldn’t hack the isolation and the 12-hours-a-day, six-day work weeks and left soon after they got there. Those who remained forged a bond based on our shared experiences and love/hate relationship with the tourists (“touri”)–our bread and butter. The setting was another reason why I loved this job. I thought that by the end of the summer the overwhelming effect that stunning bowl of unimaginable deep blue ringed by volcanic cliffs had on me at first sight would wear off, but it never did. My shift and those of my coworkers at the lounge where we worked didn’t generally start ’til mid-afternoon, so the early part of the day was free for hiking and sunbathing. The variety of terrain and geological formations within and around the park provided amazing sights and challenging jaunts whose images are still fresh in my mind some 30 years later. My recent move has brought me back to within a 90-minute drive of Crater Lake, and I’m looking forward to revisiting the scene of that delightful summer and drinking in the views of the lake again.  Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader