That summer I went camping with the scouts for the last time. With
the new freedom of my car and my increased focus on the ladies I had
all but lost interest in hanging out with a bunch of guys for a week
doing arts and crafts. When we got to camp I was almost the oldest
boy and I outlined that wee should get logs and build Ewocks like I
had at camp the year before. Our leaders were not entirely excited by
the idea of us hanging out and sleeping twelve feet off the ground
but said we could if we would put up guard rails we could build them
we promised, built them, and didn't. We spent much of the first day
building our three platform sleeping area and then we turned our
interest to trying to catch chipmunks. There were thousands of the
little guys and we thought that it would be pretty fun to catch one
and keep it in a box for a camp pet. You would not believe how crafty
a career chipmunk can get when he lives full time by a camp for boy
scouts. We tried all kinds of baits, traps and skills but the
chipmunk was much quicker and smarter. When after a few hours we
realized we were ot cut out for the capture of the mighty chipmunk we
decided to play a little steal the flag. Steal the flag in the wood
and in the dark is not a good idea because you cannot see, you don't
know who is on your team and there is a lot of sticks, which are
pointy. About ten minutes into our game several people had been hurt
but we played on until two guys from my team both ran for the flag at
the same time and crashed heads. One guy bit his lip all but off and
the other lost a couple of teeth. They made it back to camp after the
game was quickly called off. When the leaders saw the extent of the
damage they decided that a trip to the emergency room that was an
hour away was what was needed and they headed off. They didn't come
back that night because the one kid's, the toothless one's, parents
came and got him and the other guy was getting his lip sewn back on
until four in the morning. When they came back the next day his lip
looked like a mangled worm sewn to his face. It was a pretty good
first twenty-four all in all but the second day is when we really
started to get crazy.
