Facebook: It's NOT What It Used to Be

I long for the good old days. Not back when I was a young kid. And not when I was a teenager either. I long for the good old days of just five years ago. I first joined Facebook in 2011. It's not so much that I want to return to an old job or where I used to live. I just wish Facebook is now what it was then.

I admit I was slow to join the social media party. Heck, I resisted it. But I finally gave in because management above me urged me to do so. As soon as I set up an account new friend requests came pouring in from old friends I hadn't heard from in decades. I caught up with their lives and soon started seeing photos and reading tales of many things I'd missed out on. It...was...awesome!

Fast-forward to 2016 and Facebook is larger and more used than ever. As of the late 2015, approximately 1.6 billion people were on Facebook. That's about 22 percent of everyone who lives on earth. That's crazy!

Having said that, I believe Facebook is a shell of what it once was. Let me explain by setting the table, so to speak, I have both a personal page and a professional page but the place where I spend most of my time when I'm on Facebook is doing outreach on my work page for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, because that's a component of my job. When I joined RMEF in late May 2012, we had about 25,000 "likes." Just this past week, we rolled over the 420,000 "like" mark. The growth has been tremendous and we hope to keep the ball rolling so we can reach more people to spread the word about the good conservation work RMEF is carrying out.

One thing I've noticed by being logged in to Facebook --and all of social media for that matter-- all day on a daily basis is how people's attitudes have shifted. It used to be that folks would post a photo or leave a personal comment and they were mostly positive. Today, many people use Facebook as a sounding board. And it's not just that either. They go on rants, point fingers and some are even into name-calling. There are people who hate Democrats, hate Republicans, hate government leaders and/or presidential candidates, hate cops, hate cop-haters and the list goes on and on.

We all have different opinions. I'm fine with that but nowadays there's this attitude of "I'm going to make this in-your-face post and you better go along with what I believe or I'm gonna spew hate your way" or "you better believe what I believe or you're stupid." What happened to civility? What happened to decorum? What happened to respect? We can disagree about our political or religious views but we don't have to be over-the-top, in-your-face about it if others don't like it. I've hid posts of several Facebook friends on my timeline because they just pound the same anti-this or anti-that or conspiracy-this or conspiracy-that message every day.

Can we go back to the good old days? No more hate posts. No more impersonal memes. Just friends treating each other like friends?

Wait, did I just go on a personal rant? Sigh...

Back on Track

I love to write. In fact, I guess you could say I've been a professional writer my entire professional adult life. I like to blog too. At the urging of management back in my TV days, I created my own blog site and drummed up about 40 blog posts --personal, professional and otherwise-- over a three year period.

But when I transitioned out of the broadcast news spotlight, my blog pursuits transitioned from this one, my On the Mark blog, to establishing a new blog for my new employer, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The fun thing is that Elk Tracks, as it's called, is thriving with nearly 900,000 page views after three and a half years. Oh yeah, and then there's the RMEF Youth Blog. It's also doing well.

And that brings me back to this blog. It's time to get back on track. Why? Why not? It'll be fun.

Wildfire in My Back Yard (And the Front Yard Too!)

Via the Missoulian

I reported on literally scores of wildfires over my nearly decade-long stint as a television broadcaster in Montana. Among them was the 7,000 acre Black Mountain Fire in 2003 that burned four miles from my home. I still remember standing on my front porch at night watching the glow of the flames beyond the ridge top. Several years later, fireworks sparked a small fire less than a half mile behind my house that almost forced us to evacuate. Those were nothing compared to the big burn in the summer of 2013! 

A lightning storm rolled through the Bitterroot Valley on a Sunday in mid-August. Two of the lightning strikes were in rough terrain about 10 miles up Highway 12 from Lolo–one high above the intersection of Elk Meadows Road and the highway with the other in the mountains above Woodman School and the farm house where my friends Clay and Autumn Gilleard lived on the O/Z Ranch, the ranch being a place where I worked for eight summers and remains my favorite place to fish. Little did we know that the best huckleberry picking season in years, located not far from one of the lightning strikes, would come to a very sudden screeching and scorched halt. 

Two small  smoke plumes 

The two small innocent-looking smoke columns grew to 70 acres by Monday morning but then Mother Nature’s fury took over as the fire blew up to 5,000 acres. Then on Tuesday, the fire went on another big run covering 4,000 more acres. By now, the two fires merged into one forming the Lolo Creek Fire Complex. The big blowup covered eight square miles and destroyed five homes. Flames decimated the westernmost reaches of the O/Z’s timber-covered hills. 

Via the Missoulian

With the flames pressing upon them Jim Hayden, the ranch manager, and Clay made a calculated move by herding the cattle cross the highway near the schoolhouse. With thick smoke and embers in the air, that turned out to be a good call. Flames also burned down the mountain to the green grass surrounding the Gilleard’s home and outbuildings. Firefighters evacuated them and many others. Clay and Jim remained on the ranch all week long where they used their heavy equipment to carve fire lines and put out spot fires. Firefighters started pouring into Lolo from around the country and even as far away as Canada. It was definitely “Game On!”

As the fire crept closer to Lolo, it triggered more evacuations for everyone who lived from about 15 to 20 miles up Highway 12 to just a few miles west of town. Those forced out of their homes included many friends who lived up Sleeman Gulch, Mill Creek and along Lolo Creek. Thick smoke filled the air and you could hear the thump-thump of choppers making run after run to the Bitterroot River to fill their huge buckets for water drops. Officials closed Highway 12 for both firefighting and safety reasons. Ash coated our windshields, driveways and yards. As I stood in my front yard one day I saw something boomeranging its way to the ground. I walked out in the street, looked up and caught it. It was a small pine tree branch some eight inches in length. The fire, as others do as well, created its own weather system and wind storm that carried that branch more than a couple of miles to me as it continued to feed the flames.

We had a Missoula County Sheriff's deputy knock on our door Tuesday delivering a pre-evacuation notice to us. He said the next time we heard from law enforcement, we’d have to evacuate our home. So we each packed some small bags, gathered a bunch of baby stuff for Kyler, scooped up photos, journals, Grandpa Vern’s .30-06 rifle, my .22, other supplies and had a pile ready to go by the front door.

We were told if an evacuation warning were issued, a slow-moving law enforcement vehicle would drive through the neighborhood with its siren blaring. Luckily, that never happened but it sure felt like it might. Everyone who lived north of Highway 12 and west of Highway 93, including our neighborhood up on the hill, got a similar notice. The rest of Lolo did not. 

The fire advanced to a mile or less from Sleeman Gulch. The firefighting effort entailed about 770 total personnel and included nine choppers, small planes, 120 National Guardsmen and other law enforcement from around the state. They took over the heart of Lolo where a tent city went up on the Lolo Little League baseball fields. More firefighters poured into town and the Lolo Creek Fire Complex was named the number-one firefighting effort in the nation! More personnel followed pushing the total count to about 900. Thanks to their presence, our small town’s population grew by more than fourth. When the smoke was at its thickest, it was really eerie outside. It was so thick that we could not see the Sapphire Mountains less than two miles across the valley from our back deck.

“Thank you” and “We Love You” firefighter signs popped up all over town. The fire raged on but the winds subsided. Thanks to our dedicated firefighters, Highway 12 opened up on Saturday, six days after the initial lightning strikes. A shift in the weather pattern blew the smoke another direction and we finally had clear blue skies, even as the fire continued to burn above us. 

On Sunday, we arrived at church to find a general authority (a leader from the LDS church) sitting on the stand. Elder Vern Stanfill, formerly a stake president in Kalispell, was there as was President Greg Sangster, our stake president. It was so awesome to see a general authority in our building. He said he was there to let us know that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in Salt Lake City was following the situation and had been praying for us and those fighting the fires. Turns out he and his wife then went to Hallie’s Sunday School class and then came to priest’s quorum. I asked the boys, “Okay, who’s ever attended a priest’s quorum meeting with a member of the Seventy in the same room?” Silence as I chuckled. 

Fire Camp on the baseball fields

One other thing I learned that day at church was interesting. I’d been attending the nightly public information fire meetings at Lolo School. While there, I’d jot down bullet-point facts and then email them out to our church members in Lolo and Florence so they’d be updated on evacuations, fire growth, etc.

Miller Creek Fire east of Lolo

President Sangster said he took my email, forwarded it to Elder Stanfill who then forwarded it to the presidency of the Seventy who then forwarded it to the Quorum of the Twelve. Go figure, crazy huh?

Just when everything was returning to normal, even though a number of firefighters remained in town for mop up duty, another dry lightning storm boomed over Lolo on another Sunday night about four weeks later. Hallie looked out the window and said “The mountain is on fire!” Sure enough, a lightning strike hit on the bald-faced mountain above Lolo but this time on the east side of the valley. I called 9-1-1, was told they were already dealing with it and we watched the fire quickly spread both down toward the Bitterroot River and south over the ridge top. Firefighters and choppers had it contained a few days later at about 160 acres. We can certainly live with looking at a charred hillside until the spring green-up. Anything is better than people losing their homes and possessions to a raging wildfire. 

Lolo Complex Fire as seen from Missoula (Via Chris Chapman Photography)

This whole experience only solidified my understanding of what’s really important. I remember looking at Lori and then at our furniture and saying something like “This is just stuff.” Yep, all our belongings really don’t matter. It’s all about family, relationships and the love and eternal sealing we share that endure beyond wildfires and beyond this mortal life. We won’t be able to take any of that other “stuff” with us. 

Raging flames but firefighters saved the structure
(via Rocky Momberg)

I am so grateful for the hard work and skills of so many firefighters in leaving their loved ones to knock down both fires, save our town and restore so many people to their homes. It was a Montana summer I will always remember.

Via Missoula County Sheriff's Department

Fire Progression Map

A view from Missoula (via James Rafferty)

A Montana Pioneer Trek to 'Remember'

Trekking under Montana's Big Sky

In a word, the Stevensville Montana Stake pioneer trek was AWESOME! It took place on the Hairpin Ranch in the Big Hole Valley. The theme was “Remember," as in remember the Mormon pioneers and how we relate our experiences to theirs.

Ensign Company: Holyoak, Kanenwisher & Revelli families

Here a few of the many high notes:

• Lori and I were Ma and Pa to 17 great kids from across the Bitterroot Valley
• We trekked a total of 22+ miles over 3 days 
• We pushed handcarts that weighed 300 lbs before we loaded any of our gear on it 
• Our kids never complained about anything, got to be real friends with each other, and loved gathering with their Ma & Pa at meals and other times each day 

Sky turns gray

On the second day, a gnarly looking storm was about to hit when we headed for the trees. We bundled together under some smaller willow bushes as the rain and then pea-, marble-, and eventually grape-sized hail started to pelt down as the winds whipped all around us. Our campsite was on a high mountain prairie in the Big Hole and it got plastered! The winds snapped tent poles and the hail put holes in many tents, including part of the rainfly on ours. Half to two thirds of the tents got blown over and the water poured in and soaked everything. (We later found out this storm caused something like $40 million in crop damage and caused more damage as it rolled through the town of Twin Bridges.) As the companies eventually made it back to camp they all started putting the tents back up and hung up the sleeping bags to try to get them dried.

 

Seeking shelter under the willows

We didn’t have enough daylight so the sleeping bags, including Lori’s and those belonging to 8 of our 10 boys, remained soaked with the temperatures falling. After dinner, the leaders asked everyone with a soaked sleeping bag to load it on a trailer for a run to Dillon (about 25 miles away) to dry them at two laundromats. I’m guessing 60 to 80 sleeping bags got loaded up.

Soaked!

Our seven girls were spared but they didn’t want to go to bed since our boys and I had no sleeping bag to sleep in so we stayed around the fire to wait for the trailer’s return. It was really cool to see all 19 of us jammed shoulder to shoulder around the fire, talking, telling jokes, growing closer and having a good time. Eventually, Lori and the girls went to bed but the guys and I stayed up. Then at about 1 a.m. or later, the trailer returned. We were among the first to greet it. It was so cool to be at the trailer and look back to see kids with flashlights and headlamps sprinting toward the trailer from all across the field. They looked like fireflies in the night as their lights bobbed and they screamed and yelled for joy. Twenty minutes later, everyone was back in their wiped-down tents –those that survived the storm anyway— for the night. A bunch of kids actually slept in their sleeping bags in the trailer and others slept around their fires. (Hallie’s sleeping bag also got soaked.) We trekked another 6+ miles the next day to finish things out. 

Warming our bodies & our souls around the fire

Those are just a few experiences. Again, it was a such a great time. I attended to a lot of church youth and youth-related activities over the years, from the time I was a teenager until now, and this was by far my favorite!

Four of my girls: Ceara, Olivia, Heather & Natasha

Below are the words from a talk I gave at a post-trek youth fireside:

"Everyone, circle to the left..."

Remember…

to recall to the mind by an act or effort of memory; 

to keep in mind; remain aware of, think of again.

A break along the trail

Recognize

Relive

Recollect

Reminisce

E's moose paddle

Remember our trek.

Remember the bus ride there.

Remember meeting your trek family.

Remember thinking these kids (hold up lid) –my 17 kids—are awesome!

Remember the new friendships you made and strengthened.

Remember the closeness you felt to your new brother, your new sister, your Ma, your Pa (put hat on--"Gotta represent!"), your captain and fellow company and camp members –and in the Holyoak family specifically— remember the closeness felt to our “young ‘un” Ephraim, born on the trail that first day and after just 8 hours with him it was as if he was already 8 years old.

Souvenir lid signed  by my kids

Looking back on camp

Remember the steps you took.

Remember walking side by side, helping each other, and making new friends.

Remember willingly changing places on the handcart without being asked.

Remember hauling your ailing Pa and then your sick Ma.

Remember allemande left, dosey doe and promenade home. 

Remember the hot sun.

Remember the building black clouds.

Remember running for cover.

Remember the rain pouring down.

Remember the grape-sized hail stones.

Remember the teamwork of the first trekkers who arrived to a camp in shambles--going from tent to tent, setting them back up, pulling out soaked sleeping bags and hanging them on handcarts and around fires to try to dry them.

Welcome back to camp

Ensign Company...remember returning to camp that same day to be greeted by the cheering Heritage and Legacy Companies.

Remember sitting around the campfire as the temperatures dropped wondering when, where or if we’d sleep that night.

Remember the “miracle of the dried sleeping bags.”

Remember the hoots and howls of joy while running to the trailer well past midnight.

Remember feeling thankful.

Remember the late night firesides with your families.

Pa got "sick" on the trail...pioneer children walked as they sang and sang and sang...Ma got "sick" too

One step down and thousands to go

Remember the feelings you felt as read the letters from your loved ones back home or from your trek parents. 

Remember the critter stew, barbecue chicken, dutch oven peach cobbler, the pancakes, the bacon…and those who worked so hard to prepare it all. 

Remember the planning, service and sacrifice from our stake members and leaders in making the trek possible.

Trail games:  Stick pull...

...and tug o war

Remember the blisters, chapped lips, sunburns and the aching muscles and feet.

Remember the women’s pull.

Remember the looks on their faces as they toiled up the hill without the help of any Ma’s, Pa’s, or brothers.

Remember the heartfelt thoughts and feelings that brought to mind.

Women's Pull: Men not allowed to help because many "died off" leaving mothers, daughters & sisters to do the work

Remember the true pioneer stories of unparalleled courage and sacrifice you heard along the trail.

"Remember, remember my sons and daughters..."

Remember the challenges issued to each of us by our bishops and other stake leaders:

• Young men: to live a life of virtue
• Young women: to be a modern day pioneer and serve others
• To all: to make memories, sacrifice, and to act our part whether at school, church, home or elsewhere 

Teamwork on the trail

Grabbing some shut-eye

Remember the final trek back to the buses.

Remember the feeling of accomplishment as you put down the 300 pound handcart for the last time.

Remember the thoughts and feelings as you gathered as a family for the last time already looking forward to the next time you’d see together.

Our family flag

Remember– again in the Holyoak family, a.k.a. the Hopper Chompers— watching some of my girls eat grasshoppers just as their brother James did again and again and again all trek long.

Remember the real pioneers.

Remember what they sacrificed.

Remember who you are.

Years ago, I was a young sportscaster in Topeka, Kansas. At the time, Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas, dominated high school football like no other team anywhere.

• 31 undefeated seasons…the most of any school in the entire U-S 
• since 1945, Lawrence won 26 state championships 
• entering the 1993 season, the Lions won seven 6-A state titles over the previous 9 years, including the last 4 in a row 

On November 21, 1993, I was on the campus of Wichita State University, with a TV camera on my shoulder, shooting a couple of state championships from smaller classifications.

James the "Hopper Chomper"

Over the loud speaker we heard this scoring update: “From the 6-A championship game in Manhattan, it’s halftime. Derby leads Lawrence 23-0.” Shock and surprise rippled through the crowd. True, Derby was 11-0 on the season but so were the mighty Lions who had won their previous 33 games in a row over the previous 26 months! They had only losses 8 over the previous 10 years! Play continued and just after my game finished there was another announcement: “We have a final score from the 6-A championship in Manhattan: Lawrence 27, Derby 23.” Again, shock and amazement. My question as a sportscaster was: “What did the coaching staff say at halftime to trigger such an incredible comeback?”

Here’s what happened:

Head Coach Dick Purdy allowed the frustrated players to sit in the locker room by themselves and think about what happened in the first half. He then walked in, said nothing, went to the chalk board and wrote four simple words: “Remember who you are,” and walked out. 

The team remembered who it was.
Players remembered they were 4-time defending state champions.
They remembered that they were playing for tradition.
They remembered that their brothers were also state champions.
They went out and played like champions.
They remembered who they were. 

My message to you is remember, remember who you are. 

Remember what you represent. 

Remember who you represent—your God, your Savior, His true church, your ward, your friends, your family, your parents, your brothers, your sisters, yourself! 

Love that Ma Holyoak!

Camp on the horizon

My friends… 

Yes, I am an “old guy,” but you are my friends—my new, young friends. 

On behalf of the other Ma’s and Pa’s, thank you for your example and for what you represent. 

Always, always remember who you are. I salute you and close in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Holyoak family
(top row, left to right: Ian Roberts, Caroline Maki, Ceara Chavez, Sarah Erhart, Karill Apedaile, Heather Hudson, Olivia Vai, Natasha Kitzinger, Josh Jones, Trey Anderson, Kaedin Schweitzer. Bottom row: Nicholas Fullbright, Riley Duce, Bryton Palmer, James Bess, Pa Holyoak, Ma Holyoak. Not pictured: Ethan Recht and Ephraim Apedaile.)