Pete decided he wanted to supplement the week of camp with an early spring weekend retreat. Because he is not an outdoors type he chose the local Sheraton Inn. We stayed in the motel rooms and used their pool and a large general-purpose room. The retreat started Friday night and ended Sunday afternoon.

I had Matt S. again. My 15-year-old brother, Jay, came along. Because Jay was in my room and I enjoyed Bobby so much, I arranged for Jay to be assigned Bobby. Jay was shy around the other counselors and spent most of the time interacting with Bobby. Sunday afternoon I asked Jay a simple question and he spoke back. One of the other counselors looked at us with wide eyes. When I asked what the surprise was, she told me that she had thought Jay was deaf. She had only seen Jay talking to Bobby in pseudo-sign language. She had not heard him speak all weekend.

On Saturday when we were at the pool, my eyes were opened to what these kids, and their parents, must be faced with everyday. We would use the hotel's public pool. There were some other children in the pool, splashing and playing around. We entered limps, wheel chairs, and all. The Mother of the children stood up and hovered over the edge of the pool. She loudly complained about every move our kids made. I wouldn't have been bothered by her concern if our campers were bothering her children or if they were extremely rowdy. The opposite was actually true. Each camper had a counselor directly watching him or her; no one got out of line. She was complaining because, in her eyes, our campers were "different" and didn't belong with her "perfect" children. What right did she have to judge? Later when I really thought about it, my feelings to her turned to pity. Her ignorance of anyone different will block her from some wonderful people.

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