Simple America

Gong back to Camp Strake always causes a lot of reminiscing. I spent a week there for three summer camps and probably 4 or 5 weekends of camping on those grounds. I recall looking for alligators swimming in the lake. Shooting arrows and .22 rifles. First time I had a rifle pointed at my head. Still cannot believe they let that kid get up there without a safety briefing.

I remember riding in rowboats and canoes on the lake. My first year at camp I could not swim. So I could not canoe unless a counselor went out in the canoe with me. The counselor took me out early in the week. Then I hounded the guy to take me out again. I was persistent and irritating, of that I have no doubt. I was eager to do anything to get a canoe ride and one afternoon the counselor sent me to get a tool that he needed. He required a “left-handed monkey wrench”. Who better than I to fetch it for him? So I ran all the way to the camp headquarters, eager to complete my quest and go canoeing.

When I arrived at HQ the head of Camp Strake was there. We called this fellow Smokey the Bear, as he wore a campaign hat and he was as big as a bear too. He asked me what I wanted and I told him. Smokey looked a little pissed, but he was quick with his response. He got a piece of cardboard, a string and a crayon. He drew a picture of monkey wrench and even adorned it with a left hand. Then he tied the string on and told me to give it to the counselor and that he was to wear it until supper was over that evening.

So I walked back to the canoes. Really perturbed that there was no “left-handed monkey wrench” and trying to figure out why he would trick me in this manner. I gave him the drawing and left. Don’t think he would have given me a ride after that embarrassment and did not want to have him throw me overboard. Probably feed me to the alligators too. I do remember seeing him at supper that evening. He wore the picture though it was flipped backwards. At least until Smokey walked by and righted it.

Couple of years later we were there for a weekend canoeing outing. I could swim now and we were looking forward to earning our canoeing merit badge. It was a fun camp out. Me and this other boy wanted to mess with this one kid and flip over our canoe. Kid was a tattle tale and we were fed up with him. So we got in our canoe and we were paddling from one end of the lake to the other, a journey of a two miles maybe. We saw the canoe landing and my friend and I decided it was now or never.

We flipped the canoe over and splash, we’re in the lake. Here’s a couple of notes for future boys that might consider being this stupid. First off if you wear glasses, and I did, secure them. My glasses are still in the bottom of the lake, unless an alligator ate them. Second don’t wear hiking boots as they weigh a ton when wet. I was going down for the third time when my scoutmaster finally pulled me up onto the side of his canoe. He rowed me in to the landing and he gave me a well deserved kick in the ass. I assure you it was not the first nor was I the last. He would have got kicked out today. But I think those kicks made me a better man, cause I always deserved them.

These memories were fresh in my mind at wood badge. Especially since the campfire and Sunday service took place at the site we camped upon for the canoeing weekend. We also went there for fishing campouts. Those were always memorable. We were much too loud to ever catch a fish. Half the time we hooked ourselves our another boy. I remember that pain. I remember this stupid kid picking up a fish head, while the dads were cleaning the fish. The guts were hanging down and there were bulges in the intestines. He was like what this? So he pushed down on them all the way until they ended and out game the fish poop. All over his feet and socks. Glad he was not in my tent.

The campfire at wood badge was really beautiful. Not as big as when I was a boy, but we had a lot more people at those campfires. I looked up at the stars and thought about mistipurple and caracole. Those two are always looking at the stars so they can connect to each other. So Friday when the campfire burned I looked up into the heavens and sent my thoughts to the stars. I sought out friends in Kansas and in the north (Etchen which state do you reside, Ohio, Michigan or none of those mentioned, haha), and Philly. I looked for reflections to my buds in Belgium, England, and Spain. Definitely had to send a lot of light to Singapore and Malaysia and I must never forget Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. So if you felt something Friday, your ears burning, a blinding star, whatever it was just me thinking of you while I listened to the music of the wind blowing through the Texas Pine Trees.