Judy Monroe, 78, of Dearborn, a retired teacher, holds her two memoirs: “The Journey Home,” published in 2020, and “Ruts and Pies,” published this year, telling of her life’s journey from being a farm girl attending a one-room schoolhouse to her adventures as a National Park Service ranger’s wife.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Judy Monroe’s life has been so filled with adventure, she couldn’t fit all her stories into one memoir, so she recently published her second collection of stories, “Ruts and Pies.”
Monroe, 78, of Dearborn, a retired teacher, said “Ruts and Pies” refers to how bison leave hoof holes in the ground when they pass through an area, and pies are their massive droppings, neither of which one wants to step in.
“I and the two trail crew people were nearly killed several times in the course of 15 minutes, and when we tried to get away from this, we ran into two couples from England,” she said. “It was a terrible, horrible day of storm and wind, and we were trying to get to our cars.
“We crossed the bridge and stopped because we were stopped by an entire bison herd, and they were passing in front of us, and we could not get to our cars or the trail until they passed, and when they passed in this soggy, soggy meadow, where it had rained so hard, they left all of these ruts, which are the holes that their legs create – their feet are so incredibly heavy – they’d stomp and make holes everywhere.”
Monroe said when the bison get nervous and start to run, they leave behind their “pies” – their poop, so “ruts and pies” refers to holes and bison droppings.
“So, the English people are saying, ‘Oh, ruts and pies,’ and I was so exhausted at that minute that all that went through my head was to march out to ‘ruts and pies, ruts and pies,’” she said.
Monroe said someone recommended she take something from a story in the second memoir to use as a title.
“So, I laughed and said, ‘How about ‘ruts and pies?’” she said.
Monroe began her life as a farm girl attending a one-room schoolhouse about 30 miles north of Grand Rapids, became a teacher, and spent her summers in national parks, where her educator husband worked as a seasonal ranger.
After she published her first memoir, “The Journey Home,” in 2020, she knew she still had many stories left to tell, and said her greatest challenge was determining the order in which to place the stories.
“Some were too light next to some that were too heavy, and so, it took me longer just to put them in the correct order,” Monroe said.
She said as much as she enjoyed nine years in a one-room school house, high school was a lot of fun for her, and she learned a lot.
Monroe then attended Central Michigan University, which she said opened up a whole new world to her.
“I didn’t know there were classes that were so astounding, with so much information,” she said.
Monroe met her husband while at CMU when they were both counselors at a summer camp.
She became a teacher, and taught social studies and English at the middle school level for Farmington Public Schools.
Later, she and her husband both earned master’s degrees at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
During the summers, when her husband worked as a National Parks ranger, they were assigned to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument in Colorado, to Isle Royale National Park in Michigan’s Lake Superior, to North Cascades National Park in the state of Washington, and to Yellowstone National Park, where they spent their last 30 summers on seasonal assignment.
Monroe said her children, Matthew and Annie, grew up being each other’s best friend during their summers in the national parks.
In addition to giving bison a wide berth, she said one must be cautious around bears wherever one goes in a national park.
“In Yellowstone, anywhere you are, except if you are canoeing on the lake, look around,” Monroe said. “You don’t know where they are, and I got off the boat one time and I looked down, George was pulling away from the shore, and I said ‘George, come pick me up!’ and here is this track, and I was frightened of grizzly bears.”
She said she saw grizzlies several times in the back country, and one time she accidentally woke one up at the edge of the trail.
“He just woofed – they don’t growl,” Monroe said. “They woof at you when they are mad, and the woof comes from deep within the abdomen, and the air just blows out of them, and they woof at you, and you think, ‘Well, how many prayers do you know?’”
She said there have been other times where she felt that she was in danger during the summers, including while on Isle Royale, where Lake Superior poses its own dangers.
To hear more of Monroe’s stories, purchase her books online. “Ruts and Pies” can be ordered at amazon.com/Ruts-Pies-Judy-Monroe/dp/B0D45LKYH4, while “The Journey Home” can be ordered at amazon.com/Journey-Home-Judy-Monroe/dp/171686853X.