How Punka Met Jasper

Sherman Andrew Beck was 6 years old and lived on a big farm in central Utah in a neighborhood called Crowleyville.  Crowleyville was about 7 miles south of a small town called Centerfield and was the location of the Gunnison Valley U&I Sugar Factory.   Centerfield was in the middle of Gunnison Valley which was a small valley with mountains all around it and with highway #89 going thru the valley on a north/south route.  North of Centerfield was a bigger town where the high school and the hospital were located called Gunnison.¹  In about late July of 1944 when Sherman (Punkaman) was just six years old his family decided to go up twelve mile canyon for a picnic.   Above Gunnison Valley, up the mountain from the small town of Mayfield, was a little campground. We took an old 1938 Plymouth car which my parents owned. My brother Paul, age 12 and my sister, Beverly, age 14 along with my mother, Elvona Marie Sorensen Beck who was 36 years old and my father, Avery T. Beck, who was also 36 years old put food and blankets in the trunk of the car and left our farm about noon and arrived at the twelve mile campground at the base of Mountain Baldy at about 2:00 PM.
        Mom was expecting a baby in November (Aunt Judy) and so dad fixed a place for her to sit and gave her a blanket to put around her and then he told us Beverly and I that we go could play.  He said that he and Paul would go find some wood so we could fix a fire in the fire pit.  The campground had a wood fence around it and a cattle guard² on the road which was a gravel road; it had just a few wooden tables and picnic sites.  It had a one water tap and a couple of outside toilets with wooden seats and pits.
      On one side of the campground was a stand of Quaking Aspen³ and the fence thru the Aspen was strings of barb-wire.  Most of the wire was nailed right on a tree trunk and was designed to keep cattle out, but not much of anything else in or out.
      I hurried over to the Quaking Aspen grove and before long had gotten down on my knees and crawled thru and under the barb-wire fence.  What an adventure!  I thought I would go find some wood and help Paul and Dad with the fire. So off I went down a little trail as happy as a squirrel.  It wasn’t long until I was out of sight of the campground and when I noticed I was somewhat dismayed; however, I thought I can just follow the path back and so that is what I tried to do.  But there were too many trails in the Quaking Aspen and I soon was mixed-up and didn’t know where to go.
      OH DEAR………….WHAT SHOULD I DO? I started to run and then down I fell right on my face, my lips and nose into the rough dirt of the trail.  I got up and was about to cry.    I took both my hands and used my fingers to brush away the dirt from my lips and blew my mouth and tongue between my fingers trying to get the dirt out of my mouth and off my tongue. 
      I didn’t know which way to go.  I wanted my Mom or my sister Beverly, but I did not know which way to go to find them.   Should I go up the trail or down the trail?  I was about ready to cry out when I heard an unexpected voice.  It was a big voice, but not aloud voice. It was a deep voice, but not a scary voice.  “Sherman, did you call me?” was what the voice said.  I couldn’t tell who said it and the voice said again:  “Sherman, did you call me?”
      Then I noticed standing partly hidden by three Quaking Aspen growing close together actually from the same clump of dirt.   There was a humongous big cat; a humongous tiger is exactly what I was looking at. A Saber-tooth Tiger⁴
      I don’t know why I wasn’t scared out of my wits.  Perhaps it was because this tiger was talking to me.  I know that sounds crazy, but at the time it seemed kind of natural and normal.  I was a lost child; this animal was speaking to me in a sweet smoothing voice.  The voice was deep like my father’s voice, but sweet like my mother’s voice.  I knew I was in trouble and while the Tiger didn’t say he could or would help me, somehow I knew that is exactly what he intended upon doing.  I was so happy for some help that I didn’t consider how strange it was that this huge beast was talking to me.  Without fear, I moved toward him, and as I came around the clump of dirt holding the base of the three Quaking Aspen, I was startled to see what a big animal he was.  I mean, he was as big as a small bull, bigger than any of my dad's cows. Most all of my father’s cattle would weigh about 200 to 300 lbs.   Once in a while a bull would weigh 800 to 1,000, lbs. and I think that is how much Jasper would weigh.
        He was almost as tall as a small horse, but had much smaller legs than a horse.  And those teeth…..  I MEAN:  OH MY GOODNESS SAKES ALIVE, HE HAD THE BIGGEST TEETH I HAVE EVER, EVER, EVER SEEN.⁵
      He said he was “JASPER, THE FRIENDLY TALKING SABER-TOOTH TIGER.”  And he went on to tell me that he was naturally friendly because of his family⁶, and that he had received a gift from a famous King named Rahjah so that he could speak to people and all animals and be their friend.   He also said that he was sent by Rahjah to help all children under the age of twelve.
      “WOW!” I said when Jasper told me this news.  “But how did you know I had troubles?” I asked Jasper.  “You called me” he said.  “When you put your fingers to your lips and blew your tongue through them, which is the secret call for me to appear!” said Jasper.   I didn’t tell him I was just cleaning dirt off my lips and tongue.  I did not want him to think that I didn’t need him, because, I did need him.  I was kind of lost. No, no, I was really lost; I had no idea which direction the campground was.  Thank goodness Jasper had come and he could now tell how to get back to my family.   I was so pleased and happy to have Jasper as a friend and I was especially glad when he took me to the barb-wire fence and I could see and hear my family in the campground.  Then I heard Beverly yelling my name.  “Sherman”, “Sherman Andrew” she said.  “Here I am” I yelled back and I then turned to speak to Jasper, but Jasper wasn’t there.   I don’t know where he went so fast, I had wanted my sister, Beverly, to meet him.
      After we had stew and some of my mom’s home-made bread plus some cup cakes that Beverly had made my dad told us a story about my Grandpa Alexander Beck when he was a cowboy up in these very same mountains.   We sang some favorite songs and Dad had Paul say a prayer, and we gathered up our stuff and put it in the car.  Then Dad and Paul put out the fire, and we got in the car and started back to the valley and to our home in Crowleyville.  
      I fell asleep before we got home; however, before I went to sleep, I tried to figure out if I had really spoken to a Saber-tooth Tiger named Jasper of if it was just my imagination.    What do you think?
      The next story will be the about my second visit with Jasper and this time I called him on purpose rather than accidently as I did on our first meeting.   The story after the next one will be when Merilee first met Jasper.