Back in the early 1970s, I remember going with my family to north-eastern California to Lassen National Park; its a place well-forested and strewn with lava rocks and boulders that were once spewed all over the landscape by long-extinct Mount Lassen volcano....

We stayed at a moderate-sized motel with a pool with a scenic view, and there was horse-riding, hiking and campfire programs...I remember a campfire program that was hosted by a park ranger who looked just like howdy-doody...he played the ukelele and led us through a bunch of campfire somgs, showed a slideshow explaining the local wildlife, etc., and the evening campfire show was punctuated by his standup comedy routine, which “Park Ranger Howdy Doody” got us all laughing and having a good time...(for those not familiar with how Howdy Doody looked on TV, here’s a picture...the park ranger was the spitting image of Howdy Doody)

During his standup comedy bit, he cut a nigger joke...I think it was something like “How do ‘Blacks’ shop for a birthday present? They steal a bike!” — We were all knee-slapping and har-har-laughing at that one, but right then I was shocked to see that among the gathered campfire show audience was a “fambly” of niggers: a buck pappy, a sow mammy, and a niglet buck about my age and a little sister sow about age 5 or 6...the sow stood up and was irate at hearing Park Ranger Howdy Doody’s nigger joke, and basically the campfire show ground to an abrupt and awkward halt as the nigger sow chimped out and angrily waved her hands and wagged her head as she ooked at the park ranger...

At this time, other human families were put off by the nigger oooking, and started filing away, and the nigger sow had now made her way up to Park Ranger Howdy Doody at the campfire ring and was wagging her finger in his face and angrily chewing him out about the joke, flanked by the angry nigger pappy and two niglets, all scowling at him....Poor park ranger Howdy Doody was all sheepishly embarrassed and was nervously apologizing to the niggers as he clutched his ukelele to his chest as he endured the full verbal wrath of the nigger sow....that was the sad scene I saw over my shoulder as our family also exited the campfire program venue...

Next morning, I was enjoying a tall stack of pancakes for breakfast at the motel restaurant and we were excitedly talking over breakfast about the tongue-lashing that Park Ranger Howdy Doody suffered by the niggers that ended the evening campfire program too early. Just as we were talking about the niggers, as if right on cue, the nigger family entered the restaurant for breakfast...The whole restaurant went silent and all eyes were fixed staring at the niggers....The sow, conscious that all the humans were staring blankly at her and her nigger family, just held her head up haughtily and sat down and ordered breakfast....we finished eating quickly and left so we wouldn’t have to be in the same building as the niggers...

We still stayed at the motel for another two days there, and we didn’t the niggers at all since that breakfast encounter the morning after the campfire program, maybe the niggers moved on or cut their “vacation” short.....damn niggers really spoiled the fun for me, though...