How I Spent My Summer Vacation

"Hello, Mudder. Hello, Fadder. Here I am at Camp..." well, not Grenada, but Camp Craig, at the Boxwell Scout Reservation near Gallatin. 

One of the biggest and most enduring traditions in Scouting is Summer Camp. Every year, thousands of kids and hundreds of adults trek to a Scout camp for a week. There they are put up in platform tents, 

assigned to a meal period,

 and sent off to activities and merit badge classes. Their day starts about 6:30am (depending on when their breakfast is), and goes every day until 5. Then there are some evening activities that vary based on the day, and usually run until 8-8:30pm. Showers, free time, and lights out (in my camp) at 10pm finish the day. What do the boys get out of camp? A little freedom, a few lessons in Scouting, some self-reliance, but mainly a sense of belonging, and I think, a sense that sometimes simple is better. I don't allow any electronics in my summer camps (except I have amended that to accept eReaders). 

When we were leaving last Sunday, there was a forecast of rain for that evening and Monday, so on the spur of the moment I brought two of the troop's chessboards. That proved to be one of the best decisions I made, because those boys played chess every spare moment (except when they were at the Trading Post, more on that later.)

The Scout's day is busy and full, but not the Scouter's. Oh, it could be if I wanted! They have adult programs all over the place, but I'm on vacation. Running around all day isn't my idea of rest. I get up in the morning, have a couple of busy hours getting them to breakfast, then boom they're off to activities, and I'm free for 2-3 hours. Then an hour or so getting them to and from lunch and off to afternoon activities and boom, I'm free for 2-3 hours. See what I mean? I read over half of Ken Follet's new novel Winter of the World last week, and I didn't start it until Wednesday.

There is a Trading Post at camp, a scout store where the boys can get things they need for camp, like flashlights, scout socks, craft supplies, T-shirts and such. Also, they can get an Icee, ice cream, candy bars, soft drinks, etc. You get the idea. I don't have anything against the guys getting a treat every now and then, but often they have way to much money and the wrong priorities. I quit trying to control this years ago, but it still bugs me. Scouts going to the Trading Post at 12:30, coming back with a tub of ice cream, and we go to lunch at 1. Plus, there is a side of me that says that the Boy Scouts shouldn't offer this junk food all day in the first place. They should at least close around meal time, but that's when they're busiest, of course, while the boys have some free time. Maybe they could put the food away or something. But what are you going to do?

As I have told a few friends, Monday, first full day of camp, my life flashed before my eyes during a severe thunderstorm. It was a little after the afternoon activities had started, and my friend Jeff and I were sitting in camp, relaxing and chit-chatting. It started to rain a little, so we moved under the canopy we call a dining fly. It continued to get a little heavier over the next few minutes, and the wind was picking up, but still not a big deal. We both figured that if it was going to get bad, they would sound the emergency signal. Suddenly, and I mean all at once, the wind was whipping through camp and we were in a downpour. The wind started to pick up the dining fly, so Jeff and I held onto it to keep it down. I swear, it felt like 40-50 mph winds, and off to the side, there were tree branches bent down almost to the ground. The rain was so heavy that you couldn't see anything behind them. It was like a scene from a 3D movie. The dining hall is probably 3-4 minutes away from our camp. I yelled "Should we make a run for it?", but just then it began to hail. So Jeff and I are holding this canopy down for dear life, not so much to save it, but because it was our only shelter. Tent flaps were flying out horizontal to the ground, with sleeping bags and clothes blowing around. Now it's golf ball sized hail, and for a brief moment, I seriously thought that it was about to be a tornado. I was a little nervous. Then, suddenly, it blew itself out, and we were left standing there, shaking and out of breath. The boys of course were in activities with camp staff, so they were taken to shelters right away. Throughout camp, there were 6 big trees down, but no one hurt. We had several soaking wet sleeping bags that we had to take to town Tuesday to dry, but no real damage. Jeff and I joke that as the years go by, the story will get bigger and bigger. "Yeah, the wind was howling and we had a deer fly through camp."

I should add that the camp staff was great with this. Within no time, our site commissioner was there, and over the next few minutes, two other staffers stopped by to make sure everything was ok.

I really hope that some day the boys will appreciate these camp experiences. Maybe they will be sitting there 15 years from now maintaining the traditions, and there will be another well-rounded generation telling stories and not just locked in front of a computer.