Chapter 14

This Spring I was back in "Lick Run". I shared a cabin with my brother Jay and Dave. Dave had recently moved to Wisconsin from PA but still manages to come back for camp. I had Bobby, Jay had Mike U. and Dave had Mike C.

We also had two new counselors from Germany, Cyra and Katrin. Their English was pretty good but they had trouble with some words. One time Cyra was sitting by Michael P. during worship. Cyra was talking to me.

Mike P. said "Hush".

Cyra looked at me and asked, "What is he trying to tell me."

"He is telling us to be quiet." I answered.

Cyra then looked a Mike P. and told him "Next time say something simple like Shut-up."

Another time Cyra was watching Peter be his usual energetic self. She mentioned that he had a lot of patience. She could tell from my puzzled expression that I didn't understand her use of adjectives.

"Am I using the right word?" She asked.

"What are you trying to say? " I inquired

"He has allot of energy in everything he does."

"I think you mean passion, patience means calmly waiting" I tried to explain.

Cyra and Katrin must have studied a handbook of American slang because they would both use phrases that must have come from a guide to speaking American, probably written by a German. Whenever Cyra would get confused she would say, "Beam me up Scotty".

This year the nurse brought her two daughters with her, Erin was 3 and Jessica was 7. One day we were all rolling a ball back and forth in a large circle. After we were playing for a while little Erin walked over and moved my nametag around to my back. She told me that I had to wear it on the back because nobody rolled me the ball and I was a loser. Allot of people found it quite amusing that anytime Erin saw me, with my name tag on properly, she would tell me "I told you to wear your name tag in the back because your a loser!"

Melody was with us again, and most times, we would walk to the dining hall together. She came with a magazine photograph of Richard Simmons, that she carried everywhere. He was her hero. Anytime she would make a craft or color a picture she said she was going to send it to Richard Simmons. It seemed appropriate that Melody liked Richard Simmons, they both shared a common positive approach to life. Melody was always quick to give encouragement to someone else. I never heard her be negative or down. If you look for the bad side of someone or something you were sure to find it but if you look for the good side you'll find that to. Melody always looks for the good side. We should all try to be a little more like Melody. I think Richard would be proud of the comparison.

Early in the weekend Melody picked up an orange from the dining hall. She didn't eat it, she just carried it around. We would play a game with it when we were walking to or from meals. One of us would throw it in the air and catch it as we counted backwards from 10. When we got to one we would toss it to the other person. As you can imagine there were quite a few times when the orange fell to the road and by Sunday afternoon it was quite soft and mushy. When Melody's mom arrived she told her she had a surprise for her, then she reached in her pocket and pulled out the battered orange.

Our cabin had a loft that could only be reached by sharply angled steps, almost like a ladder with slightly wider rungs. Because of the campers staying in our cabin we didn't think we would be using the loft. I should have known better then to underestimate Bobby. When he got it in his mind that he could sleep up there he went over to the ladder, and using his arms, pulled himself up rung by rung. We slept up there Saturday night. Bobby thought he was king of the world. Hollering at everyone in our cabin to make sure, for the fiftieth time, that they knew he was up there.

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