Ron Jone's Day Camp Memories

The Bus

Ah, the bus. You could write volumes on bus abuse, bus breakdowns, and bus trivia. Races between the crown bus and the auto with Ed on the way to Magic Mountain. Nothing could coast the down hill of the 5 like the crown... A particular breakdown where we crowded the passengers of two buses onto one bus (the crown, of course!) I think we hit 95 people. ( we didn't go far...) what were we thinking? And then there were the occasional times I would be called into the Pastor's office to explain why one of our buses was going down an alley at about 20 miles per hour with kids screaming and sticking their arms out the window. Yes, I even wrote an ode to the bus somewhere between Children's Museum and somewhere else. "We love the bus, uh huh, oh yeah! We love the bus, uh huh, oh yeah! The bus is your friend the bus is transportation.... We love the bus, uh huh, oh yeah!" It seemed much deeper and philosophical at the time...

The Fish Hook

After much therapy and counseling I was able to overcome the horrific memory of one camper DAVID CROMWELL, who caught his own finger at Clago's troutdale one time when we were there. (I think that one guy who used to work at the troutdale tried to charge me for the catch, but I managed to talk him out of it, since David weighed quite a bit and it would have been so much more of a costly outing. Anyway, I took dave down to some emergency place nearest the trout farm where a doctor snipped the barb off of the hook and then pushed it all the way through and out the other way while I watched. David did pretty well... I saw circles and almost passed out. I still get flashbacks at night. Anyway, that was the only time I remember ever needing to actually use the emergency cards we always carried.

Addendum to Day Camp History

Just a clarification of the Day Camp Genealogy. Steph and I co-directed camp in 1979 (not Lo) and then the following summer we had moved to Washington. Lew and Teri Stone worked the 1980 summer and by 1981 summer we had returned and took over again.

1st CIT Backpack Trip

If I am not mistaken the first CIT backpack crew had the following that I can remember:

• Kathe Roe
• Tanya Rayners
• Ayona Rose
• Melissa Hudspeth
• Perhaps Leslie Wysocki (might have been the followng year)
• Ernie ??? (Can't remember his last name)
• Greg Brown
• Chuck Lockman

CIT Backpack Trip Adventures

The CIT trips were certainly never boring and usually had some incredible moments to remember. They are probably bigger in my mind now than they were at the time.... but I remember..... Just finishing our a prayer for safety with our wilderness leaders and hearing a cry for help as one Andrea Gale floated out of the pool she was swimming in and had started drifting down into the rapids. I remember running down the river along with several others, to get ahead of her to fish her out... and when we finally did, trying to play the whole thing down.

Can you remember others? I can! I could go on and on and on and on...

Remember the time when we had to hike along the trail (about 12 inches wide) on the edge of a mountain during the black of night?