Hope you enjoy this story for the
Summer Lovin' Story Contest 2022
. A vote and comment would certainly be welcome!
Summer of 1994 Georgia:
The summer heat in Georgia was something I would never get used to. One week as a camp counselor at some unpronounceable Indian named Bible themed campground and I had already decided that it was one week too many. It had seemed a great idea while in high school a few months back to get some valuable leadership experience over the summer. Plan A was to then use that experience to get a resident assistant job once at college. The pay was awful but college resident assistants got reduced tuition, room, and board. The resident assistants position were good enough that there was always a waiting line. If Plan A worked as planned then three months at a camp counselor should move me to the front of that line. It was better than getting a part time job as a cashier or working for three months in fast food. As an added perk, it meant I got to spend the summer a thousand miles from home and my parents.
The first night we had a mixer in the main building which served the camp ground as a mess hall, general store, post office, and aid station. In an effort to build the team and have everyone meet the people they would be working with, the lead counselor had asked each us to list three true facts about ourselves and make up one lie. The rest of us would guess which was the false statement.
As the questions and answers session slowly worked it's way around the room, I realized just how dull these people were. One young woman's lie was that she once missed church to visit her sick grandma before quickly telling everyone that she and her grandma would never miss church no matter how sick they were. The lie of the guy sitting next to me was that he had visited Mexico, before confirming that he would never visit Mexico because in his words "They don't know how to speak American there".
I started my four fun facts by talking about how I had come to Georgia for the first time a few years ago to buy a few thousand acers worth of tree farms, had sold it this year for a return was almost three times my investment. I went on to say that I was running for state senate back in Massachusetts. For my third truth I told them I had a partial scholarship to Bob Johnson Farmers University, which should cover most of my costs for the next two years. For my lie I decided to claim to be a native of Georgia.
"Are you a Jew?" one of the girls at the table next to me asked, her face a twisted mask of confusion and revulsion. She quickly made the sign of the cross on her chest. I was not sure of her name, Jessie maybe, or Jamie, something like that.
I pointed out to her that I am not Jewish and none of my fun facts had anything to do with religion.
"The things you were saying were all about money and New York, that means you must be a Jew." She continued on.
"If you're not a Jew, what church do you go to?" Her friend sitting next to her asked.
"Which church did St. Timothy go to before meeting St John? That the same one I attend". I was trying hard to keep myself under control. "Didn't you mother ever tell you it is not polite to talk about religion or politics? And New York city is not in Massachusetts."
At this point the lead camp counselor decided that I must have gotten the instructions wrong, that it should be three facts and one lie. Somehow he had decided that three of my statements must be lies and one of them true. He repeated the instructions for everyone and they quickly when on to the next person. The rest of the question and answer icebreaker went quickly. I tuned it all out, wondering which of my statements they believed was true.
The first week passed in the blink of an eye. Most of the crew had spent first week cleaning up, setting up, and hooking up in the cabins the young campers would be using. I, being somewhat of a gearhead, had spent most of my time alone trying to repair the backup generator, the motor on the motor boat, and most importantly, the HVAC system that provided the air conditioning and hot water to the main buildings of the campground.
The camp ground had been without hot water for the last three years. Back home in Boston Massachusetts, I would have assumed that the owners would have called someone to have it repaired within hours of it failing. In my two weeks in Georgia, I had learned that things that I normally would have taken for granted such as hot water or indoor plumbing were seen as a sort of unnecessary luxury by some segment of the local populace.
Breakfast was a box of cereal. Lunch was open grill from 11am to 2pm. However, everyone was expected to eat dinner together promptly at 6pm. I had quickly come to understand that 6pm Georgia time was anywhere from 6:12 to almost 7pm in normal non-Georgia time.
The first day the young campers arrived for camp drop-off was a hectic mess. Emotions were running high with many of the young campers and their parents experiencing deep anxiety knowing they would be apart for the next few days.
The camp ground hosted an Amazing-Race style scavenger hunt for groups of campers and their parents to visit prominent camp locations. This gave them a chance to visit the dining hall, cabins, the camp store, pool, and horse stables. It also was designed to wear them down so they would sleep soundly the first night.
That night as we were finishing dinner was when I first noticed the herd of deer. At least two dozen were standing at the tree line outside the mess hall. More were on the other side of the building between the mess hall and the lake where tables had been moved to feed the hundreds of kids who had shown up for camp.
Everyone had put down their food and a large crowd of people had gathered on the porch to watch the deer. Finally the deer ran off back into the woods and the young campers went back to their meals.
As it got dark all the young campers were assembled at the fire pit in front of the stage pavilion next to the mess hall. The itinerary for the evening was some skits, a review of the rules and a lengthy lecture on safety, There's nothing young people like more than a lengthy lecture on safety I thought to myself as I watched the kids start to nod off as the camp host explained the camp rules again for the fourth time in five minutes.