“Day is done, gone the sun”
My mother would call today sticky. It’s humid again, but at least there’s a breeze. I can hear the leaves rustling, whispering to one another. The breeze is from the north, a strange direction for this time of year. My neighbors across the street have their windows open and their blinds raised, also strange. I can’t help but picture my neighbor as a Granny Clampett lookalike sitting in a rocking chair by the open window with a shotgun in her hands in case of varmints. I’m staying clear.
It hasn’t rained in forever. All the fields are brown. They crunch when you walk on them. The weatherman says maybe thunderstorms this weekend. I’m hoping he’s right.
One summer I went to girl scout day camp, Camp Aleska in the woods across from the zoo. The camp had a lodge with one giant room lined in benches which opened for storage, a huge fireplace, a counselor’s room, the kitchen and a bathroom. On the grounds were several picnic tables, each in a small glade and each for one unit of scouts. Behind the lodge, all through the woods, were wide trails covered in pine needles. Every morning we formed a circle around the pole, held hands and sang during the raising of the flag, and every afternoon we formed another circle and sang Taps when it came down. We, the oldest scouts, had the honor of raising the flag and taking it down at the end of the day. We weren’t very good at it. We couldn’t stop laughing. Our shoulders would shake when we tried not to laugh out loud. I think we were called a disgrace a couple of times, but it didn’t matter. We just couldn’t stop ourselves. One would start and the rest of us would follow. They finally took the honor away. Even then, during the afternoon circle, we couldn’t look at each other without laughing. We were at the wrong age to appreciate ceremony.
I became a counselor at the camp. They must have forgiven my youthful indiscretions.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: girl scouts, summer camp
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 8, 2010 at 12:25 pm
my grandmother did sit on her porch with a rifle on her lap..ok. air gun. she live across the street from
the county fair grounds and protected her garden furiously. i have unfortunately inherited that gene.
luckily someone else got the air gun.
July 8, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Greg,
I’m trying to imagine your grandmother sitting there protecting your garden. I still keep coming up with Granny Clampett.
July 8, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Cool and windy here today. Kind of nice actually.
I can´t remember us having a flag when I was a scout. I think we must have had one when we were out camping for a week, but I just can´t remember it. If we had, no child would be allowed to raise it though, they knew us to well 🙂 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
July 8, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Christer,
Our day ended up being nice too, a good breeze all day. The night is cooler than it has been but still warm.
July 8, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Kat,
As the oldest scouts we had to light candles for a bridging ceremony or something similar. Being the innocents we were, we could not get the match to light. After numerous tries, we started to giggle and shake uncontrollably. Finally the leader came over and in a very annoyed fashion lit the match for me and gave it to me. I was holding in my laugh and finally couldn’t hold it anymore when she put the match in my hand. I let out a loud giggle and out went the match. That was it. The entire troop was in hysterics, and then the parents and finally the leader. Something about sixth graders trying to be solemn just doesn’t work. My friend recently sent me the newspaper clipping from that day. We looked very serious in the photo. It must have been posed after the fact.
Erin
July 8, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Erin,
Group laughter is just too much. There is no way to stop it from spreading. I remember it also happened when I was in high school as part of the drill team. Even the flags were shaking.
July 8, 2010 at 6:49 pm
I enjoyed camping and loved learning how to cook hamburgers in tin foil. They were wonderful. I don’t even remember if we had a flag at camp, if so, it wasn’t the boys who ran it up the flag pole or took it down. Maybe they figured those girls up in MASS ruined it for all of us growing forward. Maybe. But I do recall raiding the Girls Scout Camp on the other side of the lake in a night crusade. That I’ll never forget and the girls screamed till we all came back deaf. I remember the female camp counselor kicking our Scout Leaders butt the next morning. That’s when we laughed. He was such a geek. You know, the kind with 25 colored pens in his shirt pocket. What a hoot.
July 8, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Z&Me,
We made dinner in foil and hobo stew was huge at camp. It was just about anything we threw in the pot. I swear, though, it was always delicious.
Ours was a day camp so no night raids. Alas!!!