O Brother Where Art Thou - Song of the Sirens

What a fun movie. I can't seem to see it enough times to get tired of it. (And you know that it is actually the Odyssey re-written right?)

Today, unlike yesterday was a gas at work. My students were extra funny... the staff were happy people and my favorite weekly drop in came to share my habitat. He's a counselor for at risk kids. N is a great guy who has been with the district as long as I have. We dinosaurs need to stick together.

So today we were singing camp songs. As in I went to Y-Camp growing up each summer and took every single red cross swimming lesson ever offered and so did you??? Do you remember the "fried ham, fried ham" song? His answer of course was "cheese and balogna". Y-Camp speak. This lead to a list of songs. Such as the one below... it's kind of gross actually.

NCS 2009 Camp Bonner - Johnny Verbeck





Of course there was "Living in tents and cabins under the watch of God, he made the pathways that our feet have trod. So I will live, and live to love, for all these wonderful things... Boom de ah da... 3X". Or what about "Valderee... Valderah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha." Yeah... i was a real sucker for the Boom de ah das and the ha-ha-ha-ha-has.


I got my boating license one year at the end of the camp session and returned the following year. They foolishly allowed me to have my license without retesting me. A group of us got into the row boat and off we went... to the center of Lake Sequoia where we managed to get stuck until our exhausted arms had time to recooperate and then, we managed a shaky return into the swimming area... over the ropes set up to keep fools out. Truth was, I could no more control where my row boat was going than I could kiss the moon! Still no one took my license away. What were they thinking?

The last day of Y-Camp at Lake Sequoia was a big deal... the boys camp... yes, I attended an all girl camp (You gotta keep 'em separated!)... the boys camp would march through our camp and then have lunch with us. It generated a great deal of excitement. Girls were painting their nails, faces and primping all morning. You never saw so many curlers in your life! I didn't have much hair... my mom insisted that I wear a pixie cut at all times... so no curlers for this gal. I opted for short shorts to get attention.


As it turned out the short shorts were not required... when the boys arrived I was trying desperately to get down to where the other girls in my cabin had a good spot steaked out right in front of the craft shack with it's long chest high counter. (My regular readers by now are sensing a bit of dread and the promise of blood.)


It was clear that the boys would reach that spot before me if I did not break into a run... so run I did. I was fast then. I leapt over big rocks and darted around trees with total grace and confidence. At the very end of my run was a big log. I cleared it effortlessly! But when my foot came down in the dry powdery dirt... it slid forward under the counter... dragging my body down until my chin made contact and with a very icky sound my head snapped back and my chin split wide open. Yes indeed, those boys were looking right at me. Boom de ah da boom de ah da!


So what about you folk? Did any of you go to summer camp and have fun experiences like mine? Did you make lanyard necklaces with little pinch hooks on them to give to your mom and dad for their keys? Lace a leather wallet with some badly pounded designs on the side for uncle Louis? What about those resin grapes you could make? I liked to make those, but I think it was because the fumes made me high. I didn't know I was a stoner yet. That came a couple of years after.


What about camp songs? Church camp songs work too! Come on... give 'em up!