Hes faced black leopards in Liberia, sang at Carnival in Brazil, searched for uranium in Cataract Canyon in Utah, and played piano in a bordello in New Orleans. The most shocking adventure in Black George Simmons life, however, probably would be the time he performed a striptease for the Golden Age Womens Club in Houston at the age of 64.
Oh, you dont want to put things like that in there. You would shock your readership, Simmons said with a sparkle in his eyes.
Simmons, a resident at Vista Mesa Assisted Living Residence in Cortez, has told his life stories a number of times in interviews. He was featured on Alex Chadwicks show on National Public Radio, in High Country News and the Huffington Post, not to mention several newspaper articles in Wyoming and Montana.
Most of his travels to far away places were with the U.S. Geological Survey, working at times on projects such as identifying rocks and minerals that might be of value in Liberia with the United Nations.
Along the way, Simmons, who said he speaks two different languages but knows expressions in 17 languages, picked up his most notable trait as the man who greets everyone with raised arms and a hearty yee-haw!
I picked that up in West Texas when I first started volunteering for the (National Parks Service), Simmons said.
After retiring from the USGS, he started working as a park service volunteer. In 1999, he received the Honorary Park Ranger award, the highest honor given to citizens for supporting the park service mission, according to information from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The end of his 25 years as a National Park Service volunteer came in February.
From West Texas to the Himalayas, Simmons yee-haw! greeting has served him well. Once he went on a hiking expedition in the Himalayas, and whenever someone greeted him with the native Namaste, Simmons would reply with yee-haw! much to the delight of the locals.
When he arrived back in the States, he received a surprising letter from the man who led the trip.
He said they made one more trip after I left and as the group was hiking on a high mountain pass, they saw some shepherds moving their goats to another pasture. The group was getting ready to say Namaste, and the shepherds walked up to them and raised their arms and said yee-haw!, Simmons said, obviously delighted while retelling the story.
Simmons adventures came to an end this year when he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis a narrowing of spaces in the spine that results in pressure on the spinal cord and/or nerve roots. The condition most often results from a gradual, degenerative aging process, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases.
Simmons yee-haw greeting is weaker and quieter now as he acknowledges other residents at Vista Mesa. He is unable to care for himself without assistance, and while his eyes light up when recalling his past, they have tears in them when he thinks about his current situation.
Simmons will soon move back to Texas to be closer to his son.
Id like to stay around here, but I do have trouble with the cold now, he said.
After a life outdoors, the rest of your life (having to be) inside doesnt seem like too much, Simmons said, choking up with tears in his eyes.
Simmons disappointment comes with accepting he will never travel again. He explains in detail how he planned to travel to Norway and see the type of people who fought off the Germans in World War II as well as what was left of the reindeer culture. He planned to continue on to Finland and then catch a plane to Italy, where hes always wanted to visit because he gets a big kick out of the Italian language because they talk so much with their hands.
There might be things that youd do differently, but Ive been lucky, Simmons said of his past. Ive had a full life.
He then shakes off the sadness and regret and goes on enthusiastically to tell another story from his past.
Reach Paula Bostrom at paulab@cortezjournal.com.
