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July 12th,2004
A Letter Home From Camp
For those who remember Allan Sherman’s famous song “Hello Mother…”
Dear Mom & Dad,
Our Scoutmaster told us to write to our
parents in case you saw the flood on TV
and are worried. We are okay. Only one of
our tents and two sleeping bags got washed
away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because
we were all up on the mountain looking for
Adam when it happened.
Oh yes, please call Adam’s mother and tell
her he is okay. He can’t write because of
the cast. I got to ride in one of the search
and rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would
have found Adam in the dark if it hadn’t been
for the lightning.
Scoutmaster Keith got mad at Adam for going on
a hike alone without telling anyone. Adam said
he did tell him, but it was during the fire so
he probably didn’t hear him. Did you know that
if you put gas on a fire, the gas will blow up?
The wet wood didn’t burn, but one of the tents
did and also some of our clothes. Mathew is
going to look weird until his hair grows back.
We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Keith
gets the bus fixed. It wasn’t his fault about the
wreck. The brakes worked okay when we left.
Scoutmaster Keith said that with a bus that old
you have to expect something to break down;
that’s probably why he can’t get insurance. We
think it’s a neat bus. He doesn’t care if we get
it dirty, and if it’s hot, sometimes he lets us
ride on the fenders. It gets pretty hot with 45
people in a bus made for 24. He let us take turns
riding in the trailer until the highway patrol man
stopped and talked to us.
Scoutmaster Keith is a neat guy. Don’t worry, he
is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Jessie
how to drive on the mountain roads where there
aren’t any cops. All we ever see up there are
logging trucks. This morning all of the guys were
diving off the rocks and swimming out to the rapids.
Scoutmaster Keith wouldn’t let me because I can’t
swim, and Adam was afraid he would sink because of
his cast, – it’s concrete because we didn’t have
any plaster --, so he let us take the canoe out.
It was great. You can still see some of the trees
under the water from the flood.
Scoutmaster Keith isn’t crabby like some scoutmasters.
He didn’t even get mad about the missing life jackets.
He has to spend a lot of time working on the bus so
we are trying not to caus him any trouble. Guess what?
We have all passed our first aid merit badges. When
Andrew dived into the lake and cut his arm, we got
to see how a tourniquet works. Steven and I threw
up, but Scoutmaster Keith said it probably was just
food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said
they got sick that way with food they ate in prison.
I’m so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster.
He said he sure figured out how to get things done
better while he was doing his time.
I have to go now. We are going to town to mail
our letters. Don’t worry about anything. We are fine.
Love, Chris
Originally published July 12th,2004 on Fly Anglers Online.