Hello Wednesday! Wow, this week is just flying by, and man am I glad to see you! It feels so good to be back here on Hump Day after putting up with those first two crappy days of th- huh? What's that? Oh, not Wednesday. Riiiight. Sorry, Tuesday. I, uh, I really didn't mean that stuff. It was the booze talking, yeah, that's it. You know, the beer I had on Saturday is just catching up to me now and it makes me say some crazy shit. Sorry 'bout that. Let's try this again.
Happy Tuesday everyone! It seems like only yesterday that I was writing you about certain parts of my sleep-away camp experiences. Damn, that was yesterday. What's wrong with me? Well, I've got some more camp stuff to talk about, so I hope you're willing to read more on that topic.
After attending the camp for three or four weeks per summer over the course of a few years, my core group of friends and I really felt like we owned the place. I was always there with Jason N., Drew, and Adam, but we also had our friends Silver, BJ, Sammy, and others join us every once in a while. That's a pretty sizeable group, and since we were among the oldest campers and all of the counselors liked us, we probably got away with more than others would have.
Our last summer there was an eventful one. None of us knew it was our last one at the time, because we all expected to come back as Counselors in Training at some point, but that never happened. The first major event was that we found what we'd come to know as "The Rope Trail." It was during some free time on the first day of a session, and we went exploring on a different side of the camp than we had before. We started behind the spooky Cabin 13 and climbed a hill that seemingly had nothing interesting atop it.
(Here's a quick side story that I feel like interjecting - sorry about the herky-jerky nature of this post. Another week, we stayed in Cabin 13. It was usually left vacant, which led to its scary reputation, but it was a full camp that week and they stuck the older kids there. One night, a few people from our cabin were coming back later than I did, and they heard a noise in the bushes. They looked, and according to them, saw what looked like a glowing mask and heard a sound that they described as "ching ching." I initially thought this was funny, but they were really spooked by it and didn't appreciate our laughter. Another cabin mate suggested that it was nothing more than two animals doing the nasty while wearing a suit of armor and a metal condom. They didn't find that funny either, but the rest of us sure did. It at least explained the "ching ching" more than the glowing mask did. We never found out what it was, but I always assumed that it was just something like a raccoon hitting a sprinkler...repeatedly...with a metal condom.)
Happy Tuesday everyone! It seems like only yesterday that I was writing you about certain parts of my sleep-away camp experiences. Damn, that was yesterday. What's wrong with me? Well, I've got some more camp stuff to talk about, so I hope you're willing to read more on that topic.
After attending the camp for three or four weeks per summer over the course of a few years, my core group of friends and I really felt like we owned the place. I was always there with Jason N., Drew, and Adam, but we also had our friends Silver, BJ, Sammy, and others join us every once in a while. That's a pretty sizeable group, and since we were among the oldest campers and all of the counselors liked us, we probably got away with more than others would have.
Our last summer there was an eventful one. None of us knew it was our last one at the time, because we all expected to come back as Counselors in Training at some point, but that never happened. The first major event was that we found what we'd come to know as "The Rope Trail." It was during some free time on the first day of a session, and we went exploring on a different side of the camp than we had before. We started behind the spooky Cabin 13 and climbed a hill that seemingly had nothing interesting atop it.
(Here's a quick side story that I feel like interjecting - sorry about the herky-jerky nature of this post. Another week, we stayed in Cabin 13. It was usually left vacant, which led to its scary reputation, but it was a full camp that week and they stuck the older kids there. One night, a few people from our cabin were coming back later than I did, and they heard a noise in the bushes. They looked, and according to them, saw what looked like a glowing mask and heard a sound that they described as "ching ching." I initially thought this was funny, but they were really spooked by it and didn't appreciate our laughter. Another cabin mate suggested that it was nothing more than two animals doing the nasty while wearing a suit of armor and a metal condom. They didn't find that funny either, but the rest of us sure did. It at least explained the "ching ching" more than the glowing mask did. We never found out what it was, but I always assumed that it was just something like a raccoon hitting a sprinkler...repeatedly...with a metal condom.)
So we were on that unknown hill behind the creepy Cabin 13. It was a little more treacherous than the other hikes we'd been on, and there was no sign that anyone else had been there for quite a while. No well-worn paths, no man-made steps; just nature in every direction. When we got to the top, we quickly surmised that it wasn't actually the top but rather just a stopping point. We followed a little path off to the right, and then we saw it: in front of us was another sizeable hill, but this one had ropes hanging down from the top. It looked really cool, and we knew we had to climb it. After giving a couple of tugs on the ropes to make sure they could support our weight, we scaled the mini cliff one by one. Now I'm not the biggest "adventure sport" guy, but it felt really impressive to emulate Batman climbing up a skyscraper. ('Skyscraper' is a fantastic word, isn't it? Kudos to whoever first put that together.)
Once all of us were up there, we took a look around. I think it was Drew who called us over from out of view. We had to jump over a few places where a walkway was missing, and you'd better believe I felt like Indiana Jones. There, off to the left, was a gorgeous, lush valley that was completely incongruous with the rest of the scenery. We felt like we'd stumbled upon the Garden of Eden for it looked so untouched by man. We knew that someone had put the ropes up, so we clearly weren't discovering anything, but maybe they'd been sitting there unused for years. We made an executive decision right then and there: this was our spot and our Rope Trail. We weren't going to tell anyone else about it and would only go there for special occasions when no one else was watching. No telling the counselors and no telling our fellow campers; just our special place.
Once all of us were up there, we took a look around. I think it was Drew who called us over from out of view. We had to jump over a few places where a walkway was missing, and you'd better believe I felt like Indiana Jones. There, off to the left, was a gorgeous, lush valley that was completely incongruous with the rest of the scenery. We felt like we'd stumbled upon the Garden of Eden for it looked so untouched by man. We knew that someone had put the ropes up, so we clearly weren't discovering anything, but maybe they'd been sitting there unused for years. We made an executive decision right then and there: this was our spot and our Rope Trail. We weren't going to tell anyone else about it and would only go there for special occasions when no one else was watching. No telling the counselors and no telling our fellow campers; just our special place.
As you can probably guess, things didn't end quite like that. I'll be back tomorrow to finish this bad boy up. There's too much to squeeze into today, so I hope you're alright with that. Got anything you want to share? ptklein@gmail.com is the way to do it. See you tomorrow, friends.
1 comment:
Damn you Klein and your cliff-hanger posts. Who do you think you are, Dan Brown?
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