CAMP MEETING MEMORIES #3

Snippet Memories:

• The smell of the cottage.
• My Dad lifting me up onto the roof of the cottage to sweep off the branches.
• Falling asleep on my Mom's lap during church and having my Dad carry me to the cottage, put my pajamas on me and put me to bed!
• Sleeping in the same room as a family - with only curtains separating us!
• Trying to fall asleep while listening to my parents visiting with friends on the other side of the curtain!
• The first year I was allowed to sit anywhere in the front section of the tabernacle! 
• The year I was 10, I got the eleven-day measles...ON THE FIRST DAY OF CAMP!
• My first case of "puppy-love" over Carolyn Van Valin - the song evangelist's daughter.
• Visiting my Grandma Haire at my Aunt Dorothy's cabin and eating her fresh-made peanut-butter cookies!
• Going to DairyLand and eating a 'Pig's Dinner' - an annual challenge for many.  I still have the pin:  "I was a Pig at DairyLand!
• Watching some older boys (PK’s) put M-80's in the old, drop toilets!
• The summer of 1966 when Cirkle's song, "Red Rubber Ball" hit the #1 spot on the charts!
• Bruce Kelly patiently giving every kid a ride around the campground on his1950 Harley-Davidson Motorcycle. 
• When I was fourteen, (an unnamed) preacher's kid took me up on the ballfield to give me a sip of beer he had hidden there.  It was the middle of the afternoon and it was HOT.  I guess I owe him a debt of thanks for helping me to hate beer at an early age?
• The year Bobby Edinfield and I fell in love with one of the Whippo girls - it was Janie (and she was a little daredevil).  We would take her up real high in a swing to try to scare her - but all she did was squeel with delight!
• Counting the number of times we sang verses of "Just As I Am" and seeing if it would break the previous night's record!
• Being impressed listening to every preacher give his benediction at the closing of camp!
• The intense sadness that came the day after camp - knowing that it would be a whole year before it would happen again!

Some of these memories may seem disrespectful;  they are not intended to be.  Every year, I made advances in my spiritual growth.  However, the natural responses of childhood and adolesence are what they are...