Revelations ~ May 2022

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for us.

Kitty Tattersall was raised as a Unitarian Universalist. It is a big part of who she is. Her first memory of UUism is when she was five years old (1961). The members were meeting in a person’s house in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Many UU Fellowships across the country meet in people’s homes. Our own congregation has roots as such a Fellowship, when UU’s in the Grand Valley first started to get together over 50 years ago. Kitty recalls playing with blocks and other toys, and having a great time. Her UU experience has been positive all the way through to the present. 

Kitty feels like she often lacks self-confidence in social situations. Yet, Kitty is able to find a sense of belonging within Unitarian Universalism. Being an introvert is not so odd for UU’s and she’s able to fit in. We UU’s covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We try to cultivate a genuine sense of compassion and kindness. So, in other words Kitty says (humorously), they “have to” like me.

Kitty’s heart is especially attached to UUCGV. She appreciates the UUCGV because we are so welcoming. The people are so supportive. On Sundays she hears affirmative words from our wonderful minister, Rev. Wendy. (Our Congregation is a big reason why she recently chose to move back to the Grand Valley when she retired.) An instance that particularly touches Kitty’s heart comes from an earlier time when Kitty attended the Grand Valley UU from 1997 to 2010 – at this time we were calling ourselves the Uncompahgre Unitarian Universalist Society. Kitty was living in Delta, and would often carpool to the Congregation with Bill Theimer, one of our many beloved members who have passed. 

Kitty teared-up a little while telling this story. In 1998 the state legislature was taking public comments on domestic partnerships, and held hearings at various locations around the state. At the time, Kitty was in a long-term relationship with Tina Naugle. Duane Carr found out that the State would be holding a hearing in Grand Junction and asked if Kitty and Tina would be willing to testify. Duane and Arleta Carr really stepped up and supported them during this process, and they also testified at the hearing. Duane and Arleta are two of our beloved members who have passed yet are with us still, living on in our being, moving with us in our present and guiding us into our future. Kitty has always felt supported by our congregation.

Kitty is 65. She was raised mostly in Eugene, Oregon. Her sister, Ann was born in March of ‘51, her brother James in October of ‘53, and Kitty in June of ‘56. When James started school he would often take Kitty downstairs to the blackboard and teach her everything that he had just learned. So, when she started first grade, she already knew everything they were teaching, therefore they moved her into second grade after the first month. Kitty found it difficult to fit in with her new classmates – she was younger and could tell that she was behind them socially. It seemed like she was socially behind them throughout her school years. Kitty’s brother James died tragically when he was 12 years old. The family was living in Venezuela where Kitty’s dad was working as a visiting professor of economics, helping the Universidad de Los Andes in Merida set up a graduate program. On their way to visit Angel Falls, James was swimming in a hotel pool when he was electrocuted due to faulty wiring in the lights. It was a devastating loss for the family. It was horrible for Kitty to lose James – her brother was sweet and outgoing and she was very close to him.

Kitty had been planning to take a year off after high school. She didn’t know what she wanted to do, what she wanted to study. But she ended up getting a scholarship to the University of Oregon and couldn’t pass it up. It was free. Because she wasn’t decided on what to study, she ended up taking a variety of different subjects, whatever appealed to her. She lived in the dorm for a year, even though the University of Oregon is in Eugene, where her family lived. And then she took a year off. She worked at the Id Bookstore, near campus. After her gap year Kitty returned to school on the opposite side of the country, to Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She took geology and political science and other various courses. She was still undecided about what she wanted to do, but she was beginning to think that it was more in science. So, after a year she headed back to the University of Oregon for another year of school. And then she started to think that maybe she should just get a job for a while. So, she focused on getting her college degree because she thought it would help her get a job. Kitty examined her transcripts, plotted a path toward graduation, and ended up with a degree in Latin American History. She was able to finish up after three years (and a gap year) because she had so many high school AP credits.

After Kitty completed her first stint at college, she joined the Hoedads. What are the Hoedads, you ask? Well... The Hoedads were an employee-owned co-op. They planted trees. Their name comes from a handy tree-planting tool called a hoedad. They arose from the counterculture movement of the early 70s. At their peak in the late 1970s, Hoedads Inc. had about 250 members and annual earnings over $6 million (adjusted) per year. They had nine different crews. Hoedad crews planted trees, dug fire lines, thinned timber stands, built bridges and fences, and cut forest trails in every state west of the Rockies. Kitty joined Hoedads in 1978 and left in 1983. She worked at various locations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and a few jobs in Colorado and California. They usually set up camp in the woods or an old gravel pit. Kitty was the treasurer for her treeplanting crew. Around 1980, her crew started doing contract timber stand exams and stocking surveys, which sample big trees and seedlings. 

If you want a great read check out this short article by one of Kitty’s favorite authors – Robert Leo Heilman (With a Human Face: When Hoedads Walked the Earth 
https://around.uoregon.edu/oq/with-a-human-face-when-hoedads-walked-the-earth)

I personally liked the article, and the idea of Hoedads, so much that I can’t help but throw in a few quotes from the article:
“the counterculture it was called, and though it presented itself in forms that were shocking to their parents and the House Un-American Activities Committee, it was, at heart, just an attempt to bring into the world a society that lived up to solidly American principles. Beneath the beards, beads, long hair, and odd forms of dress and speech, the hippies were merely young people who wanted to live according to the sorts of things they’d been brought up to cherish: freedom, equality, kindness, honesty – all the noble Sunday school and scouting values that, as children, they’d been taught to believe in, and which, they later discovered, were so very often either ignored or routinely violated in the conduct of our nation’s governance and business practices.”

“Developing ways of working together took a great deal of hard work in itself. It helped that there was money involved, since money provided a solid reason to organize. What helped the most though was compassion, the belief that everyone was truly equal and deserves to be treated as everyone else’s equal, not just in theory, but in fact. In large measure the co-op ran on respect as much, or more, than it did on manual labor and on money.”

“Both large-scale corporate capitalism and bureaucratic socialism as practiced during the 20th century lack compassion, joy, and affection – the very things that make human life worth living. It was a remarkably inhumane century filled with massive crimes against humanity committed in the names of capitalism and socialism. East or West, left or right, both undermined what people have always treasured the most, humane and loving relations with each other and with the Earth. Joy was always a big part of the Hoedad scene. Compassion does not merely lead to celebration, it demands it, and the Hoedads, if nothing else, knew how to celebrate.”

Kitty and I are heading up a movement to call all of the UUCGV volunteers, all of us, Hoedads. Join the Hoedads and work with joy, walking the world with a human face!

After Hoedads Kitty got a job as a summer seasonal employee for the Forest Service, at Brush Creek Work Center about 30 miles SE of Saratoga, Wyoming. In January 1984, she returned to school to study Forestry at the University of Montana.  During her school years Kitty continued to work at the Forest Service as a seasonal employee in Livingston and Missoula, Montana, and as an independent contractor.  Kitty completed the necessary credits to reach the level of Professional Forester in 1987.  That allowed her to apply for any jobs she wanted in the Forest Service.

In March 1988 Kitty moved to Ennis, Montana for a permanent USFS job. She wasn’t committed to a career in the Forest Service at the time, but it was a good fit and she ended up working for the agency for 34 years.  In 1992 she moved to Norwood, Colorado, and then to Delta in 1994. (Kitty likes living in small towns.) In 2010, Kitty moved to Payson, Arizona, and then in 2017 she moved to Roseburg, Oregon – and in 2020 Kitty retired from the Forest Service.

When Kitty began contemplating retirement and considering different locations to settle, Grand Junction kept pulling her strings – because of the access to so many wonderful spaces in the great outdoors, and her strong connection to the UUCGV. After looking at places throughout the Grand Valley, Kitty eventually bought a house in Fruita. Because of the circumstances, for the first few months back, her main connection to the UUCGV was through Zoom. Yet, it didn’t take her long to get involved at the church, helping out with leadership. Kitty discovered that we didn’t have a lead for the Stewardship Team this year, which was a perfect fit for her because she likes the finance side of things, working with budgets and figuring out how all the numbers fit together. She joined the finance team and volunteered to lead the Stewardship drive. She was pleasantly surprised at how easy the process was, because when Kitty had volunteered in past years at her previous stop with our congregation, we did not have an administrator. Our wonderful do-it-all administrator, Maya, was a great help, and contributed to the success of the campaign in many ways, from offering good advice to creating and printing the brochure and other materials. Kitty enjoyed collaborating with Maya and Wendy, brainstorming – bouncing ideas back-and-forth until you come up with something better than either one of you could have done on your own. It’s a beautiful process. It’s fun!

Kitty enjoys being involved in governance – the sense of accomplishment that comes with getting things done, contributing to the life of the congregation. And she gets to work with inspiring, well-meaning people. Unlike most religions, we UU’s are self-governed. We vote to approve a governing body, and vote on important issues. We hire our own staff, including our minister. Our staff are crucial in helping us establish a beloved community and achieve our goals. At UUCGV our governance consists mainly of a Board of Directors that sets bylaws and policies and deals with finances, and the TLC (Team Leadership Circle) that focuses more on the daily operation of the church. We have various Teams and committees that work to accomplish specific goals. At the UUCGV we use respectful discussion to work toward consensus. We collaborate so that no one is left on an island. We try to make work fun and enjoy one another. Laughter is encouraged. Our process brings back memories for Kitty, from the time that she worked at Hoedads.

If you’re trying to get a hold of Kitty, there’s a pretty good chance she’s out hiking. Kitty feels most herself when she’s outside walking about. She particularly enjoys geocaching, which is an outdoor adventure – to play, one uses an app or a GPS device to find hidden containers called geocaches. Geocaching has grown to include over 3 million geocaches worldwide, in both urban and rural settings. When you find a geocache you open it up and sign the logbook. You can share your experience online. There are usually small swag items inside the geocache – toys, trinkets, keychains, etc. that you can exchange. (https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2018/03/what-is-geocaching/) 

Kitty was introduced to geocaching in 2003, when she found an army-surplus ammo can hidden in some rocks near Captain Smith's Cabin in Escalante Canyon near Delta, Colorado.  The fun of the search and thrill of discovery is still there after almost 20 years and 5000 cache finds.  There are many things Kitty likes about geocaching, including connecting with other geocachers, looking at maps to plan a caching trip- and often the cache takes her to a trail, view, or historic site that she never would have been to otherwise.  
Happy trails!

Life flows on...        in endless song...