Oh, the Train

I was counseling in the camp for elementary schoolers this week. It's called Wagon Train and it's really a fun place for kids to spend the week. There is a huge fort with a pond and bridge, as well as a three stroy tree house, giant swing, and zip line. The most unique thing about the camp is that the kids do not sleep in cabins, but wagon trains. Yes, like the pioneers. Readers of this blog belonging to my generation, imagine the old computer game Oregon Trail. I lived that for a week. Except instead of a nice family to help with everything, I was solely responsible for nine girls who were only seemingly sweet, angelic balls of innocence upon arrival. By day two and a half, all of them had turned into raving maniacs who managed to maintain one very loud volume for the rest of the week. They were all great, but it was a very interesting week.

Upon meeting my girls, I was greeted with an intersting first question. It was, "Do you like bugs?" Here is the rest of our first conversation. I'm Macaroni. That was the nickname deemed appropriate for me by the youngsters.

Macaroni: Well, I don't mind bugs, but I don't collect them or keep them as pets. Why?
Campers: Well because we have a lot of yellow and black flies in our wagon.
Macaroni: (trying not to laugh out loud) Are you sure they are not bees?
Campers: Oh no. Not bees. Just yellow and black flies.

They were bees. Yellow jackets to be precise. There was a nest. It was great! The rest of the week was an adventure. I wish I had time to write all the details about it. There are so many stories that I could tell, but instead I'll just share a quote that really did make me laugh out loud.

We were all in the wagon for what we like to call nappy-poo time. It's the hour after lunch we all take to spend resting and being quiet in the wagon. My girls never grasped the concept of rest or quiet. So, of course they were talking, and by this time in the week, I was just going with it. Anyway, they were talking about television and to my surprise, one girl asked if anyone had ever seen Gilligan's Island. I loved watching Gilligan as a kid. I was not surprised that none of the girls had seen Gilligan's Island, but they wanted to know more about it so my girl continued to describe the show this way: "Gilligan's Island is this show about these people who crash on their boat called the Anchovy."

She continued to describe the characters a bit, but I laughed quite a bit at that one. Kids say the darndest things.