
Gail’s High School in Yarinacocha, courtesy of Kathy Courtright
[Gail]: So, I’m the third child [of Lee] and I think my mom had a miscarriage between Eric and I.
[Eric]: That’s right.
[Gail]: Didn’t Mom? Do you know how far along Mom was when she had that miscarriage?
[Kathy]: She was out in the tribe. I don’t think she knew very well.
[Gail]: OK. I was born in 1958. . . .
[Mary Lynn]: What’s the best thing about growing up at Yarinacocha?
[Gail]: I enjoyed the freedom of being out on motorcycles. I mean, I was one of the ones that just enjoyed being out, you know, being out on the motorcycles.
[Kathy]: Oh, yeah, going out on motorcycles and then going to the teachers’ houses and raiding their underwear and short-sheeting their beds.
[Gail]: I was this prankster, that’s for sure.
[Kathy]: She got sprint training by—we’d go out in a group to throw mangos on the roofs, the tin roofs and then we’d all go running, so Gail got her sprint training trying to keep up with people.
[Gail]: Yeah. I was a prankster and I was known for it, too. Yeah.
[Mary Lynn]: I didn’t know that about you.
[Gail]: Oh yeah, I was really bad.
[Steve]: We thought you were perfect.
[Gail]: Pardon?
[Steve]: We thought you were perfect.
[Gail]: Oh, gosh.
[Dawn]: She’s telling you she was.
[Gail]: I was.
[Steve]: Oh.
[Mary Lynn]: How about the social part of Yarinacocha?
[Gail]: The social part? I was a social person.
[Eric]: Gail was known as a very social person. All the guys liked Gail. They would hang around her because she was a good friend to them.
[Mary Lynn]: Would you ever like to go back to live?
[Gail]: Um. I would like to go back and visit, but I don’t think, don’t know if I’d want to go back and live there. I think things have changed too much.
story told by Gail (Lee’s daughter) with interjections by Kathy and Eric (Lee’s kids), Mary Lynn (Eric’s wife), Steve and Dawn (Steve’s daughters) to the family reunion gathering on January 11, 2014; transcribed by Dawn Duncan Harrell (Steve’s daughter)
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- Please! We need to hear more prank stories.
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