Interviewer
Beth Hodder
Files
Description
Suzy Ronfeldt recalls stories her parents, Betty Jennings Muldown and Lloyd “Mully” Muldown, related about when they were lookouts on Whitefish Mountain Lookout near Whitefish, Montana in 1942, with Suzy, a three-month old baby. Suzy discusses her mother being born in Whitefish, and meeting her father, who was from Minnesota, when he moved to Whitefish to teach chemistry and physics at Whitefish High School. Suzy remembers them talking of their early life at Big Mountain (ski resort), where they got engaged and married in 1940. She said her father needed to supplement his teaching salary and began working as a lookout. She said an advantage to Whitefish Lookout was being able to drive a short distance. They had lots of visitors, including her mother’s parents, who brought laundry and groceries. Her mother mentioned how hard it was to have a baby in cloth diapers and nothing to clean diapers with. Suzy recalls that the lookout was a tower with many steps, and her mother said she hauled things up and down those steps, including Suzy. Two dogs, one a great dane and the other a cocker spaniel, also shared the lookout with them. Her parents discussed spectacular lightning storms. Suzy said Mully served in World War II afterwards in the Phillippines and Japan, including going to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was also one of the founders of the Big Mountain Ski Resort in Whitefish, going to the 1936 “Hitler” Olympics, where he learned to make ski bindings. Suzy said her mother deserves much credit for sharing duties on Whitefish Lookout and being part of the early ski crowd. Suzy thinks it was a romantic time for her parents on the lookout.
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Document Type
Oral History
Subjects
Suzy Muldown Ronfeldt; Whitefish Lookout; Betty Jennings Muldown; Lloyd “Mully” Muldown; Lloyd Muldown; Hellroaring Ski Club; Big Mountain Ski Resort; Scotty Beaton; Numa Ridge; Shared duties; Children
Original Date
8-21-2021
Time Period
Twentieth century
Geographic Coverage
Montana
Language
eng
Original Collection
Northwest Montana Lookout Association Oral History Project, OH 453, Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula
Digital Publisher
University of Montana--Missoula. Mansfield Library
Rights
Copyright to this collection is held by the interview participants and by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula. Permission may be required for use. For further information please contact Archives and Special Collections: (406) 243-2053 / library.archives@umontana.edu
Oral History Number
OH 453-016
Media Type
Moving Image; Sound; Text
Digital Format
video/mp4; application/pdf; text/plain
Run Time
00:26:26 minutes
Local Filename
OH_453_016.mp3; OH_453_016.pdf; OH_453_016.srt
Citation
Ronfeldt, Mary Suzanne, "Suzy Rondfeldt Interview, August 21, 2021" (2021). Northwest Montana Lookout Association Oral History Project. 16.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/nwmt-ffla/16