Over time, my fellow archaeologists and I grew fond of, and adept at running the Tiger. Fond of? Because Fort de Chartres is a state park, we had an ongoing audience, and we competed with one another for who could operate it best and smoothest. Adept at? Heck, we thought we were so talented we called ourselves the "Pros from Dover." Man, we were cool. We could peel off a layer of soil two centimeters at a time, we were so cool. My pit partner, Dave, was a tall galoot of a fellow, gangly even, 23 years old with a wit so dry it crackled. Had a brand new MA in his back pocket from Illinois State University, which at the time was the center of the universe for historic archaeology in the Midwest (sorry Michigan State). Dave and I took turns, one running the Tiger, one watching from the sidelines. Quite often the "sidelines" were on the other side of the WPA wall, within the Fort proper, and quite often tourists would wander by, take a few moments to chat with the archaeologists, and then go on into the museum at the site.
Visiting Dignitaries
One afternoon, I was on the Tiger, Dave was standing on the inside of the wall, when a middle-aged woman and her 15 year old or so son came by. An audience, ah hah! I would show them, thought I to myself, that a woman can run heavy equipment as well as a man, and excavate as delicately as if I were using a dental pick. I carefully ran the scoop of the shovel along the edge of the trench, using the palm of one hand to ease the stick controlling the scoop forward, tilt in, and scrape backwards in one smooth movement, taking care not to spill any dirt or scrape up against the 1930s wall. I turned the machine with a smooth rhythm, and emptied my bucket on the spoil pile at the back, and then turned back to the trench. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the woman and boy walk away, and Dave double over, trying to smother his laughter.
What? I signaled. This was pretty rare to see Dave laugh like this. We were all far too cool to laugh, under normal circumstances.
He flapped his hand at me helplessly, laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. I stopped the machine, and climbed down off the Tiger, and when finally Dave could speak a word, he told me what the woman had said to her son.
"You see that? You could end up like that if you don't finish high school!"
