USASJ Story Project- Dec 7 PALMER

Wes Palmer at home (literally and figuratively) on the range.

STORY No. 46
WES PALMER

Age 55

Kremmling Colorado

Winter Park Ski Club & Steamboat Winter Sports Club

The year was 1988, the US National Championships, Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  The weather, the hills and the event were all perfect.  The US Jumping Team was in the process of selecting the Olympic Team for Calgary.  I believe some were already on the team.  What a great bunch of skiers and coaches-the team seemed to be on the right track, headed up by Greg Windsperger, better known as Winnie.

Back then the competition was held on the 70 and 90 meter hills.  The masters jumped on the 50, 70 and 90 meter hills.  The masters seemed to have a large field of jumpers, most of whom combined the meet with a vacation-powder skiing, western atmosphere, great town and great competition.  Many brought their wives and families.  It was a great time for everybody to get together.  With this many jumpers and fans and families, Kris Severson’s dad came up with the great idea to have a masters Calcutta auction prior to the jumping.   Mr. Severson, John Fetcher, Marv Crawford and many jumping families pulled together and put on a nice event.  After a day of training, the Calcutta was held in a ballroom out at the mountain, Mt. Werner.  Happy hour was 5-6, auction at 6.  Everyone seemed to be very thirsty that evening, we do live in a dry climate, you know.  I’m guessing that there were 200 plus who showed up at the event with a lot of enthusiasm.  It was announced about 5:30 that all of the proceeds made after the payout would go to the US Ski Jumping Team.  I looked over at Winnie and you could see the dollar signs in his eyes.  He really lit up.  Lit up and fired up left the scene.  What’s up with that, I thought.

Enter the auctioneer, Cookie Lockhart, “Cookie”, a local icon, dressed in her full western outfit- a big 10-gallon white Stetson cowboy hat, followed by a colorful western polyester suit, cowboy boots and adorned by a huge turquoise squash blossom necklace.  Cookie was a stout woman, Steamboat tough, used to ride broncs in the rodeo against the men.  No ski jumper born east of Winter Park had ever seen a woman quite like Cookie.  Cookie gets up on the stage and welcomes everyone to Steamboat and announces that the Calcutta “will get rollin’ soon”.    After a few more adult beverages, it starts.

Where in the hell is Winnie?  Wait, holy ****, there he is, walking into the room like John Wayne, dressed in his jumping suit, helmet, goggles and ready to wow the crowd the “Winnie Way”.  Winnie made a big mistake that night when he jumped up on Cookie’s stage.  He showed his inrun position, his airflight and his landing, flexing all the while, making a real show.  You must remember those suits back then weren’t red or pink, they were both, sexy even?  Winnie stole the show which didn’t set well with Cookie.  Who is this guy on Cookie’s stage?  Winnie, explaining to the partially shocked crowd why they should spend a lot of money on him, was pointing out that he was the buy of the night.

Cookie at that point had had enough of the Winnie show and grabbed the mike away and started asking questions-age, height, status, etc.  I thought this was going well for Winnie as she was being easy on him.  I was mistaken-about that time Cookie reaches over and grabs Winnie’s crotch.  “Wow”, Cookie cries out, “I’m going to start the bidding on you, buy you and take you home.”  Winnie’s face turned the same color as his suit.  Not another word came out of Winnie’s mouth all night.  Half the crowd was in shock and the other half was laughing so hard they couldn’t stop.  I happened to be one of the latter…

Steamboat Cowgirl- 1, Head Ski Jumping  Coach-0

Hope no one feels thrown under the bus….. Happy Trails!