On the Shores of Gitche-Goomie
Thursday, July 13, 2006
It was an evening for another OA ceremony down at the good old S-F. For the first time ever, they would be visiting twice in a summer. But this time, it would be with Troop 957 and they would not be bringing dinner to the Scouts. While they were out in the wild, Joe and Wally would be having their third and first Eagle board of review, respectively. Wheel chair ramp regulations had been throwing Joe into tailspins for the past year, and Collette was certain that even on Christmas Eve he had been seeing visions of regulations and ramp inclines, instead of sugarplums.
Meanwhile, back at the office, Ivy was ready for a Cardinal’s game that night, and Jimmy was running around making suggestions for items for the church picnic that Saturday: five pounds of braunschweiger.
And then it was to OA. Rose had also opted to stay home that evening in preparation for another CLEP exam the next morning. And so it was Mom, OLeif, Collette, Carrie-Bri, and Linnea who talked tattoos over Steak ‘n Shake on the way down. And arriving once again at Camp Famous Eagle, they greeted Dad on the way to the site.
He and Frances were looking quite fully adapted once again to the roughin’ it Scout life despite the fact that Frances was wearing a Hawaiian shirt upon arrival. He was pretty home-sickly happy to see the family again and showed them about his site, he and Dad introducing them to the other scouts of Troop 957. They brought them down to the swimming and canoe dock and talked about the huge pop-up thunderstorm that had just driven through and of the mile-swim the next day in which Dad and Frances would partner, and the sand castle building contest.
“We (the Big Red One),” Frances was saying, “built a giant 9-5-7. But they voted for the mermaid instead. Because the judges were boys!”
And after Frances and the rest of the boys had made sad little longing waves after their families at the camp, they trooped off for the beginning and the rest headed to the lake front. There, Collette battled out her summer cold amidst the bullfrogs and waited for the beginning. The level of noise from the crowd had not really improved. However, upon close inspection that night, Collette’s faith had been restored in the Boy Scouts. Quite a sharp lot, all of them in uniform, except for a patch of jeans in the middle of the line. But they looked smart; the Indians were on cue, on voice, on pitch, as were the drum beats, the arrows, and the bonfire. The bonfire – perfectimisio! Collette had never seen such a perfect looking bonfire. And thus the boys were chosen.
On the way back home, they heard from Rose that Joe and Wallace were out celebrating over chili dogs for the successful completion of Joe’s first board of review and he would move on to district, just in time.
And so, they all decided to hit a drive-through for little pies and ice cream on the way back in additional celebration.
“Ooooh!” Collette ogled the pictures at the drive-through. “I really want one of those Johnny Depp plush toys. Look at those eyes. I feel like pushing them in.”
Collette laughed at the picture of the toy – two perfectly round cartoon-eyes with black dots in the middle. He rather looked as though he had just sat on a pin. OLeif attempted to order her the toy separately from the happy meal, but they were out of all the toys except for blow-up swords. She would try again another time.