(A Final) Off the Slopes: A Real Love

On the first Friday of last August, amid the whispering pines and amongst the beer-lovers of the Golden State, fate was nice enough to drag me out of my sudsy stupor.

It was the opening night of the 15th annual Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza, widely considered one of the best beerfests in the country. Contemporary blues artist Ruthie Foster, whom I’d never even heard of before, was rocking the stage at the legendary High Sierra music venue known as Sam’s Wood Site—may Sam never sell it!

As has been the case for seven of the past eight years, I was working my moonlighting gig at the fest, selling beer for Mammoth Brewing Company. Something pretty easy to do when people like Jason Senior and Dustin Stewart are brewing it.

As Ruthie’s set rocked on there was something about the power of her voice that reached out to me. The rhythm and bass were enthralling and pulled me in. It doesn’t take long to understand why Ruthie has been favorably compared to both Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin (with maybe a little Peter Tosh tossed in). Passing off my pouring duties, I drifted into the swaying crowd, working my way into the middle of the sea of revelers just as they began to sing along to Ruthie’s reggae-inspired classic, Real Love: “I’ve got a real love. Do ya know it’s true?  Do you think you got a real love now, tell the truth? All I wanna know, all I wanna know, all I really want to know is: do you got a real, a real, a real love?!”

Do you got a real love was the question Ruthie asked in a voice as deep and soulful as a preacher, and a congregation of blues and beers lovers, mostly Mammothites of one form or another, declared it did.

Despite being one of the biggest ski resorts in the country (in ski-able acreage, snowfall and skier days), Mammoth isn’t the easiest place to live. Tougher than most, particularly for those of us who don’t like to shovel snow in June or like to get routinely sodomized by the lone supermarket in town. But like everything that requires extra effort, Mammoth can be a very rewarding place to live. As Ruthie belted out:

“Don’t fight the feeling. You never know about just how too much of a good thing is better than to be without. All I wanna know, all I wanna know, all I really wanna know is do you got a real, a real, a real love?!”

There are plenty of good things in Mammoth: world-class skiing, and snowboarding on Dave McCoy’s mountain; cheap season passes for what’s usually the longest ski season in the lower 48; easy access to some of the best trout fishing on the globe, Double Nut Brown Ale; Hot Creek; the Clocktower Cellar; Angel’s Beer Club; the Rick’s Sports/Mammoth Liquor corner; and plenty of other great places to eat, drink and be merry. But like every place else on earth, it ain’t perfect: Mammoth has an exceptionally high cost of living, even by gaudy ski town standards; it really is far away from everywhere; and most towns think it’s actually a good (and safe) idea to have sidewalks on Main Street—even unheated ones!

But after hanging my hat some 8,000 feet high in the Sierra for the better part of a decade, I know this much about Mammoth: the town only has one requirement to really be a true local—you’ve got to have a big heart.

Sure, that may have something to do with Mammoth’s elevation, its heavy population of mountain sports lovers and its above average percentage of alcohol worshippers (at one point, Mammoth was said to lead the nation in per capita PBR sales!). Plus, they do call Jagermeister “Vitamin J” in most Mammoth watering holes. But I was always impressed with how the community would rise up whenever anyone was in need—regardless of what the economy was doing. Just about any kind of fundraiser was well supported, from lavish Dave McCoy Education Foundation dinners to rousing impromptu locals reunions to help out Cliff and Kristen after their place burnt down, or rallying around the medical miracles known as Richie Moomaw and Chris Hernandez. Ruthie sang on:

“You’ve got to know it’s true love without hesitation. Treat your love, treat your lover like a celebration. Know your love with a dedication. All I wanna know, all I wanna know, all I really wanna know is do you got a real, a real, a real love?!”

As I grooved along with Ruthie, her band, and about 3,000 delightfully tipsy folks, life seemed to stop for a second. The moment seized me like a heart attack. I had just accepted an opportunity to move my growing family to one of my other favorite places in the world, Hailey, Idaho, and take a job with the prestigious Sun Valley Magazine.  It was an opportunity too good to turn down, and not just because it included a ski pass at the oldest ski resort in the country.

But it meant that in less than a month we’d be leaving the Eastside. Which meant no more skiing on the Fourth of July or rippin’ lips with “Fish Bait,” no more football road trips with Greesh or starting my day off with Bob Todd on the radio, no more dinners at Uncle Spike’s or tying one on with Teddy Ballgame while our wives cursed the godforsaken people who make Wild Turkey.

Quite frankly, I was bummed. And I’d be lying if I told you a few tears didn’t fall. But it’s okay, except for the mass of happily dancing people around me, I was pretty much alone, so I don’t think anybody noticed. I am a man after all, and we’re only allowed to cry about stuff like baseball games or when solid objects like car doors get accidentally slam into our family jewels.

Just like Ruthie Foster’s band, I’d never even heard of Mammoth before getting a chance to experience it first (shovel-holding) hand. Having now moved onto the next chapter of a very blessed life, I realize that for better or worse, Mammoth played a big part in carving me into the person I am. Ultimately, the place played a challenging but positive role in my life, and for that I will always be thankful.

Under a High Sierra sky full of stars so close you’d swear you could reach up and touch them, the chorus of the crowd called me back one last time that night, answering Ruthie’s call:

“All I really want to know, all I really want to know is do you got a real, a real, a real love?”