Bio: Friend of Frank and Inge Galey, mid 1950’s. Descriptor: An unsuccessful attempt to be the White Grass cook and Frank using elk meat to entice his Labrador, ‘Dudi’ to pull electric wire in the crawl space under the Main Cabin floor.
John’s Story: It must have been in the mid ’50s after Jackson Lake Lodge, where I had been working for the summer, had closed and the Galeys were closing up White Grass for the season but a couple of guests were still staying there enjoying those fantastic fall days. The Galeys had asked a couple of us bachelors over for a Saturday evening of poker and ‘refreshments’! I can’t say I recall too much but I do remember being wakened the next morning in one of the cabins and told that I had better get down to the Main Cabin as the cook has quit and left and The Galeys were convinced that I could take over the kitchen! My culinary experience was NOT! But with an ‘all hands to the pumps attitude’ I agreed to produce Sunday lunch – found the chicken, chopped it up, threw it in a pot with onions & some rather old carrots – it all looked ok but a bit dull. Then Inge told me that there were some frozen peas in the ice house. They seemed a bit soft but added some color to the plate. Plates came back from the Dining room empty so I was pretty pleased with myself until I heard a couple of hours later that Inge’s parents, Mr.& Mrs. Freitag, were having a really bad time keeping their Sunday dinner where it was supposed to stay. Apparently, the ice house high temperature had been around 75 degrees for a couple of days and the frozen peas had develped a nasty character. I turned in my toque and cleaver and headed for Northwestern adventures – Jackson Hole had a reputation of unusual characters and I didn’t want to be know as ‘Love the Poisoner.’! White Grass Ranch shortly after became proud owners of their first freezer! Frank Galey had to be one of the most innovative men Jackson Hole encountered. One afternoon in the ’50s I came across him looking down a hole in the floor of the Dining Room. He was wanting to rewire that section of the main cabin but the crawl space was not deep enough so he took his Labrador ‘Dudie’ to an area under the steps of the cabin and pushed her towards the crawl space, returned to the Dining room hole and enticed Dudie to crawl toward him calling her name and waving pieces of elk in her direction. She achieved his goal, got the meat and Frank pulled in the wiring which he had attached with string to Dudie’s collar. Mission accomplished!