[Dade]

Biography

Born and raised in Silver Lake, Minnesota, Gary Stritesky attended Silver Lake High School where he participated in football, basketball, track and baseball. He then attended St. Cloud State University and also trained at Brooks Barber School which ignited a 14-year career as a barber. He also participated in a real estate program at Anoka-Ramsey Community College.

Stritesky currently works as a school bus driver and carpenter. He recently built a six-unit townhome complex for senior citizens in Silver Lake, Minnesota. He was previously in the military, stationed in Vietnam for eight months in 1971. He has also worked as a taxi cab driver and landscaper. In 1990, Stritesky spent a year living in Melbourne, Australia, with his family during his wife's teacher exchange program. In 2002, they returned to Perth, Australia, for another year as a result of his wife's second teacher exchange program.

Stritesky has competed in multiple inline skate marathons. He also enjoys biking, canoeing and coaching. He spent many years coaching his children's soccer, baseball, basketball and football teams. At least once a year, Stritesky travels to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, taking part in portaging, canoeing, fishing and enjoying the solitude of the northern Minnesota lakes. He has biked in many areas of Minnesota, including leading a scout group to camp and family trips. He also participated in a cross-country biking adventure while in Australia.

Stritesky currently resides in Ramsey, Minnesota with his wife of 34 years, Diane. They have four children, Aaron, Alison, Leah and Kara and two grandchildren. His pet bulldog, Dobber, recently passed away. They have since adopted Harley and Blaze, two miniature dachshunds, and just returned their pet snapping turtle, Snappy, to the wilderness. Stritesky's birth date is September 16, 1951.

Favorites

Colors
Green, black

Scents
Cooking steaks

Flowers
Rose, sunflower

Board Games
Monopoly, Checkers

Video Games
X-Box

Sports to Play
Football, baseball

Sports Teams
Minnesota Twins

Outdoor Activities
Biking, rollerblading, walking

TV Shows
SURVIVOR, AMAZING RACE

Movies
Cool Hand Luke, Clint Eastwood

Music
Country Western

Magazines
Sports Illustrated, Dog World

Books/Authors
Charmed Eagle

Cereals
Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Fruits
Strawberries, banana

Snack Foods
Cool Ranch Doritos

Cookies
Peanut butter and sugar cookies

Candy Bars
Snickers, Almond M&M's

Alcoholic Drinks
Beer, Bloody Mary

Non-alcoholic
Root beer, tomato juice

[sunny]

I like this guy! He reminds me a bit of a mix of Rudy and Big Tom. Besides that, he's a Snickers man!! Just not sure about his ability to keep up with the youngsters.

[Realityfan]

sounded like anxiety to me. all he really had time to do was sit around and think about how sick he felt. poor guy. i liked him a lot.

[KingOfRealityTV]

QUITTERS NEVER WIN...

[Marty]

yep.... PANIC ATTACKS.

[Cajunboiler]

He said it was allergic reaction to the surroundings that were causing all those bumps and the head spinnings. He didn't have a panic attack nor did he want to quit. He says his allergic reaction to the bugs caused him dizziness and shortness of breath.

[Dade]

Courtesy of:

'Papa Smurf' in good shape after leaving 'Survivor'
BY ROSS RAIHALA
Pioneer Press

Fans of "Survivor: Fiji" spent the last two weeks watching local contestant Gary Stritesky in very obvious pain. He took a nasty tumble during a challenge and spent most of his subsequent screentime holding his head in his hands and mumbling incoherently.

But during a phone interview Friday morning from New York, it was clear that the 55-year-old bus driver from Ramsey is not the suffering type, even if he did exit the show on a stretcher. His booming voice and amiable, energetic personality suggested that his teammates affectionately dubbed him "Papa Smurf" for reasons beyond his white beard and blue shirt.

Here's what he had to say about his time as a Survivor:

So Gary, the big question — what happened? Did the medics figure out what was wrong with you?

At first they thought it was a heat rash, but I knew it wasn't. You noticed all the bug bites I had? It was an allergic reaction to the bites. That's why I had the loss of breath and the nausea. Oh, man, I'd never had anything like that happen to me. I couldn't focus. I couldn't stand up straight. But once they got the anti-toxins in me, I was in pretty good shape.

Your tribe was the first on "Survivor" to live in relative luxury, with an elaborate shelter, a kitchen, a bathroom and plenty of food.

We were definitely the "haves." I couldn't complain at all. I anticipated it was going to be a lot tougher out there. It was still hot, and you don't always know what's going on. And it's not like you're eating at Perkins everyday. But you were eating with silverware, and I didn't expect that on "Survivor."

It seemed like you got along well with your tribemates.

I met some good people. Most of them were my kids' age, so it was a lot like being at home with my own kids. There's a lot ways you can upset people. You don't want to be the bossy old buzzard. That's not going to get you anywhere but sent home.

During one challenge, you had to eat pig snouts. How'd they taste?

We had them when we were kids. You'd take the head and tail and ears, chop it all up, put it in a gel, chill it and put vinegar on it. So that was a cakewalk for me.

Why do you think the show's producers chose you?

I think it's the wide diversity of things I've done and my ability to get along with people. I've always dealt with people. (On the show) your inhibitions disappear after two, three days and you start talking about a lot of things. My communication skills helped, along with the ability to sell ice cubes to Eskimos.

Was it a good experience, even though you were forced to leave the show?

Yup, it was. The people at CBS were fantastic. Everyone along the way was really good. It's a page in my life that will never be forgotten, no matter what. It was an absolute thrill.

Putting aside any insider knowledge you might have, do you have any personal favorites to win the $1 million?

You know, I got along with a lot of them really well. There's only a couple I might not have beers with now. It would be a toss-up, to be honest. There's about a dozen or so I could see winning.

You're in New York today, doing press and living it up. Is it back to reality next week?

Oh yeah. I'll be back on the bus Monday, picking up the kids. But maybe this summer, I'll get out that Harley.

[Dade]

Courtesy of: TV GUIDE, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES

Is "Papa Smurf" Feeling Blue About His Survivor Exit?
by Angel Cohn


Gary Stritesky, Survivor: Fiji

Getting your torch snuffed on CBS' Survivor: Fiji (Thursdays at 9 pm/ET) is always tough to take, but having to leave the island because of a medical emergency is truly the worst way to go home, as Gary Stritesky learned last week. Dubbed "Papa Smurf" by the Moto crew, the lovable 55-year-old was plagued with dizziness and shortness of breath for days before he finally gave into the advice of the medical team and said goodbye to the beach and hello to the hospital. TVGuide.com caught up with the bus driver/carpenter to find out what exactly the problem was.

TVGuide.com: How are you feeling?
Gary Stritesky: Good. We've gotten back in the groove here, everything's going good.

TVGuide.com: They patched you all up?
Gary: Yeah, it was more that I had them bug-bite deals....

TVGuide.com: What were those bugs?
Gary: Looking back at it, I think we had a problem with ants on the deck where we were sleeping, and they might have been fire ants. The wife looked it up on the Internet, and I totally had classic symptoms of fire-ant bites. They can cause a shortness of breath and all the symptoms I had. If you don't treat it, sometimes you can have an allergic reaction, and you end up dying, so it was good that we got it taken care of.

TVGuide.com: How come you had thousands of bites, and it didn't look like anybody else had so many?
Gary: I think the reason is probably that I was sleeping on the outside, because I've got a bit of a snoring problem, and I didn't want to be rumbling the whole place. [Laughs] So, I kind of tried to stay to the outside, and [the ants] just attacked me. They had a heyday.

TVGuide.com: Did your fall on the slip-and-slide challenge contribute to your physical woes?
Gary: No. I think it rattled my cage a little bit, but I'm kind of a tough old bohunk, and I probably rattled the ground when I hit my head on it. [Laughs] I can take a pretty good bounce.

TVGuide.com: Any regrets about leaving?
Gary: Ohhh, it was the hardest thing I had to do, but I just could absolutely not function. From the time when the medics first came out, when I fell on the slip-and-slide, there was about a three- to four-day difference in there, but the cutting and editing [made it] seem like it was almost instantaneous. I knew something was going on because I had the bites starting on my ankles and then in about two days, they went all the way up to my hips. I looked like a goalie in a dart game who didn't wear padding. When it got to the arms, the dizziness got so bad.

TVGuide.com: Right, and it's not like you're eating and drinking.
Gary: Right, yeah. They drew blood and I wasn't dehydrated — everything was cool there, and the heart was good and the blood pressure was good. It was just an allergic reaction to them stinking bites.

TVGuide.com: Wow. That's something you simply can't prepare for.
Gary: No, I've never had issues with that. I've never been allergic to any kind of medicine, so you don't think about that. I know some people, they run around with that little....

TVGuide.com: EpiPen?
Gary: Yeah, because they're afraid of being [exposed to an allergen], and I always thought, "Oh, what a hassle that would be." But I guess once you go through that shock, you think, "Wow, I'd run around with one, too!"

TVGuide.com: Well, I think it's better that you took the safer route and left when you did.
Gary: Yeah, it got taken care of, but once you go off the island, you're done. And that's only fair, because otherwise people would be going off just for nothing. I lugged it for about three and a half days, and by the fourth day, it was to the point where I couldn't function. I couldn't even sit up.

TVGuide.com: Did you heal pretty quickly after you left the island?
Gary: I was in the hospital for about two days, where I got about four or five IVs, and then when I finally got the antitoxin stuff, it took a while. It was about a week before my head actually quit spinning.

TVGuide.com: So if you had stayed, you really wouldn't have been good at the game.
Gary: I would have been gone, because I couldn't help nobody on the challenge.

TVGuide.com: I still think it was a bit harsh seeing Lisi say she had to, like, "babysit" you.
Gary: Yeah, if there is karma out there... I'm a firm believer that life is just a big, round table and you put food on it. If you put crap on it, you better be ready to eat it, because it's going to come back. It's just a matter of time. You know, we weren't on the beach maybe a few hours when she comes running up, "Papa Smurf, we have to form an alliance." I said, "We don't even have teams, how can we do that?" She was sucking up to everybody right from the get-go, so those five, they're not going to be real strong for real long. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: What did you think when you saw Moto's decision to stay in the cushy place and give up immunity?
Gary: Not a good move. I mean, you've got the advantage from the get-go, you've won just about every challenge, so go to a beach where you don't have quite the luxuries. You're going to keep winning if you're still strong and together. But now you've lost two and you've voted out one of your stronger ones, Liliana, which was another really dumb move — two dumb moves in one motion — so what are you going to do now? Do you want someone like Lisi, who doesn't contribute that much physically and, if you notice, put her hand up real quick to get out of the challenges, or do you want someone like Liliana, who will go out there and break her back for you?

TVGuide.com: Why did you want to go on the show? Were you a fan?
Gary: I have watched it since day one, [the season with] Richard Hatch. I have a daughter who applied twice, and she made it out to California here for the semifinals. She was No. 13 when they picked eight out of 13 for Africa, so she almost went there and she kind of got into it, and I thought, "Well, we've got to represent the old buggers here." I can still physically go with most of them.

TVGuide.com: Exactly. How did you prepare for the game?
Gary: My daughter has a good friend who's a trainer, and I went with him a couple of times a week before I went on there, because at that time of the year, we're not out building, so you get a little lazy, you pack on a few pounds.

TVGuide.com: Where did the "Papa Smurf" nickname come from? Is that something you came in with?
Gary: No, when they dropped all 19 of us off, we were standing there probably five minutes when Boo comes up to me and says, "I'm going to call you Papa Smurf." [Laughs] I said, "All right, I can live with that." I've been called a lot worse. [Laughs] Most of those people can associate with Papa Smurf, because that was the "in" toy in the '80s. I've got four kids, and we had Smurfs around our place, Smurfettes, Smurf cups... everything.

TVGuide.com: What's next for you? What's on your agenda?
Gary: I'm going back to driving the bus, and I'm going to be looking at the possibility of getting a Harley this spring.... The wife and I are going to go out traveling and spend some time with my grandkids.