Yesteryear

Looking at camp from the point.

Back in what sometimes feels like another life, I spent at least some part of my summers at my local boy scout camp. For me, this was Camp Sunnen outside of Potosi , MO. It wasn't very local to me, but our this was the camp that our council owned. Besides, the area and terrain down there is much better for a scout camp than the local cornfields.

I'll admit that as a youth, I was somewhat embarrassed to be a boy scout. Not that I didn't like being one, but just that it wasn't the cool thing to do socially. Today, I am very proud of what I have accomplished, the friends I have made and the places I have gone through scouting. Just don't expect and eighth grade version of me to get up in front of class and try and tell everyone how cool boy scouts are.

I got involved with scouting when I was 5 years old as a Tiger Cub. I don't remember much of what I did. My parents signed me up for it. I am not sure if I was a willing participant or not. I went through the normal progression of cub scouts and then followed moved on to the ranks of boy scouts. The big leagues. Camping, merit badges, planning your own adventures instead of your parents doing it for you.

Once in boy scouts, I started going to weeklong summer camp every year. This started in 1992. At summer camp you could earn merit badges, explore, and goof off. You also learned some responsibilities. You and your patrol had to cook and clean up after yourselves for every breakfast and dinner. You had to show up to merit badge class on time and complete your requirements before the week was through. Of course there were still adults around to make sure you didn't fuck up too much. Sometimes overbearing parents stayed all week to make sure their model children were on the right track to severe burnout. One time this kid had such a busy schedule at camp (because his father made him) that he didn't have enough time to make it to the latrine so he shit in his tent. It was fantastic. I can still hear his dad yelling across the campsite, "Robert, have you taken your diarrhea pills?"

I went to Camp Sunnen as a camper for 5 years. Every year I had a little more responsibility in the campsite making sure that everything went smoothly. Every year we had new first-year scouts that always had some unique problem during their first stay at camp. My troop also had some members that worked on staff at the camp for the summer. As a camper you look up to the staff tremendously. These are older scouts (16+) that always seem to be having a good time, no matter what they are doing. They taught the merit badge classes and were always hard at work, but still finding plenty of time to goof off and screw around. And they got to stay in cabins. They were like gods to the campers.

In 1997, I decided that I wanted to work on camp staff. This would end up being my summer job for the next 4 years. We only worked for about 5 weeks each summer, but those weeks were the greatest part of my teenage years. Working on staff was great. We were responsible for giving all campers an excellent week of camp when they were there. Not only did we provide learning and advancement opportunities for the campers, but we were the entertainment as well. And I had a blast, hardly ever realizing that what I was doing was actually a job. It also gave you a chance to be yourself without anyone to give you much grief about it. As staff members, we had to eat with a troop for breakfast and dinner every day. They cooked. On monday mornings (their first meal) it was always a rush to the bathroom afterwards. As the week progressed, so did their cooking skills. By the end of the week you developed a bond with the kids you were eating with. They were always full of questions about what you do and how things are, and looking back on it I realize how cool I probably seemed to them. One time one of the campers in the troop I was eating with came up to me and asked me why none of the kids back at his school were as cool as I was. Me? I thought I was just a big dork boy scout. But to this guy, I was somebody. As it turns out I was a somebody to many kids that came to beautiful Camp Sunnen, I just didn't know it at the time. Now that I do it means a lot to me.

As staff, we made the best of our free time. Burning shit. Shooting bb guns at each other. Shooting slingshots at each other. Shooting fireworks at each other. Smoking cigarettes in your cabin. Playing the shit out of goldeneye and mario kart. Going to town on the weekend and hitting up wal-mart, pizza hut and sometimes the movie theater. Making fun of the locals.

Of course, if you do something long enough something will make you tired of it. Every summer during my years it was the same core group of guys working. We were close friends, and close to the camp. But in charge of everything was politics, economics and adults. The youth versus the evil adults. The adults in charge of the council and camp wanted to make money from the camp instead of breaking even. Our fires were too big and unsafe. Bullshit this and bullshit that. After 2000, no one wanted much to go back and work there. A few of us put up with the crap and went back to work another summer of two. But things were different. More business like. Not as much free time for campers or staff. Not as much fun.

That said, Camp Sunnen still means a lot to me. I have always talked about it fondly. Last week I had the chance to take Bridgette down and show here something that is special to me. I showed her around and told her stories of this and that, and most of them involved me getting in trouble for something or other. Some things are in disrepair, and other things are fresh and new. I missed the place. It's not the same anymore, but it still is.

Mountain Man cabin-it was bad when I left, but this is worse.

Entrance to the mud cave

This used to be wal-mart. Now Potosi has a new super wal-mart