Middle age plus 7/31

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Nothing makes me realize the passage of time more quickly than to be involved with a great grandchild in the same type of activity I had shared with her grandmother and mother. This week our daughter, Shirley, and I took her granddaughter over to Camp Galilee in El Dorado Springs. It was deju vu all over again. When we lived in Archie, Missouri in the 60s, we took several trips each summer down to Camp Galilee to take Shirley or her two brothers to church camp for a week. Often we would also take another child from the church who was also attending camp. At that time Lester took his turn at being a camp counselor several summers and I attended many retreats and meetings on the campgrounds. So the terrain is very familiar to me. In fact, even before it was made into a camp, when it had been purchased by the Methodists of Missouri West as a campsite, we attended a wiener roast up on the hill where the buildings were later erected. N. Earl Walker, who was Superintendent of the Eldorado Springs School at that time, and his wife had invited us to come up from Stockton where Lester was the Cedar County Agent, to join them in seeing the camp site and enjoy a picnic together. Our son, Michael, who is now in his 50s, was just learning to walk then and delighted in trying his balance on the rocky hilltop. So when we drove up that same familiar hill this week with Marilyn, I knew I would be able to give her any advice needed. Shirley was busy pointing out such things as where the boys' side of the camp was, and where the girls would be. We had arrived early and spotted the poster telling which cabin each camper was assigned to. Marilyn was to be in cabin seven. We walked down to find cabin seven on the girls side of the camp and almost started unloading her things there, but decided we should wait for the cabin counselors' okay first. As we lined up for the registration we heard the news that the older elementary campers (which Marilyn was) would be housed on the south side of camp, while the Junior High Students would be on the north side. So the cabin seven that was Marilyn's home for the week was at the exact opposite side of camp from the place we had picked out earlier. Not only that, it was the side of the camp that didn't allow cars so we had to carry all her treasures for the week the long walk to cabin seven. It was a thrill to see that one of her cabin counselors was our own Amanda Schowengerdt from Nevada. It made the long walk worth while. Then we learned another big change in the mere fifty years since we have known the place. We can now log on to the Internet and see pictures of our campers doing some of their daily activities. It's like being able to be a little mouse and watch your child at camp without being there. Each day a different set of pictures is posted for families at home to see. Not only that, we got an email address where we could send letters to Marilyn while she is at camp. As we drove away from the camp, we hurried to get to a quick food drive through window to get a cold drink. One thing hadn't changed in 50 years. The water still tastes terrible!

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