My last year of camp in Spokane was a bittersweet one. I knew eventually that I would get older and then only be allowed back as a leader, so I wanted to go out with a bang. My 1st year as a YCL (with the 3rd year campers) was the most fun I could have imagined having at camp - being with Bridgette, the girls we had, the beads we made, the people we met - everything was just about perfect. Everyone else agreed, and we were determined for the next year to be just as good, when our campers would be 4th years and we could all go on the canoe trip together.
Except Bridgette couldn't go. She had to work (new job at Sear's). And Tina couldn't go (volunteering at MDA camp). And this was The Summer of My Depression (could be a movie title). Amanda and I decided to be partners (she was one of the YCL's in my group the year before, as well as being in seminary together (also remember she was the other girl in the canoe with Bridgette in our 4th year)). Amanda and I had been friends for a long time and she was very...good. She was the only Mormon girl in our grade that wore a modest short-sleeved prom dress. I liked Amanda - she had a wicked sense of humor and loved mooning people as much as the next person. We got started planning camp early again, but sleepovers on her trampoline just weren't the same. Although we did sneak out (according to trampoline sleepover rule #1), but it was at the break of dawn, so there was little chance of getting in trouble. We went swimming in Newman Lake.
The thing was, we were trying to recreate the magic of the year before. It was like that all week. Of course we had fun. I needed it to get my mind off of my ex-boyfriend and our disasterous break-up that ripped my heart out only a couple of weeks before. (My heart wasn't officially stomped and spit on until after camp, thank goodness!) It just seemed like, in the year that had passed, we had all grown up a little too much. Before, it was all mayhem and merry-making; now, everyone had so much more to worry about. We were so focused on reliving the memories that new ones were a little hard to come by.
So, just some random memories, since I don't really have a coherent "this happened, then this, then this" string of events that I can relate.
Me and some of my girls out in the canoe. I'm on the left. Check out the smiley face in the hills behind us. A Camp Nay-Bor-Lee symbol.
I am a weird person. That's obvious. So it should come as no surprise that I strapped my life jacket on like a diaper to go swimming (I'm 2nd from the left on the dock). It made you flip around all funny when you jumped in. Others followed suit. Those feet that you see belong to someone experiencing the joy.
"Aah, Big Booty. Big Booty, Big Booty, Big Booty. Big Booty #1, #1 Big Booty. Big Booty #6, #6 #3. #3, #4. #4, Big Booty!"
1 comments:
That stupid song was sang for years after that, but it was always funny (even if you weren't apart of the first rendition).
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