Camp 2005

I got a summer job through Larry Sutton, Erika’s friend’s dad.  My mom sat next to him at the REF auction and mentioned that I was coming home and needed a job.  He said that Camp Cascades is always looking for people to fill spots.  I haven’t been out there since 1996.  He was the head chef there and said that he would love to have me on the summer kitchen staff.  Keep in mind that it is a Christian camp.  I filled out the application and did a phone interview earlier that spring because I was still at school.  Initially, I thought I would be working with kids from the Thurston county area or even kids strictly from Washington.  I also thought since I lived less than ten miles away, I wouldn’t have to spend the night at the camp.  Boy, was I wrong.  When I arrived that Friday, I did not want my mom to leave me there.  I didn’t recognize anyone and really didn’t feel like talking to anyone either.  I just kind of stood there, while everyone seemed to know each other and was chatting away.  A few people came up to me and asked who I was and what department I was in.  This one kid, who I surely thought was gay, came up to me and introduced himself.  He really didn’t stay long.  I finally found some kitchen people and started getting to know them. I noticed this short chubby girl wearing a jean jacket and one of the staff members asked her to come join the circle.  We found out she was also a kitchen member and her name was Jessie.  Most of the people who work at camp are college aged and went to North Park, a Christian college in Chicago, Illinois.  I met people from all over the U.S.  A girl from Indiana, people from Oregon, Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, Michigan, Connecticut…all over the place.  There even were some locals from Yelm, Lacey and Olympia.

The rest of the weekend and even part of the next week we started our summer staff training.  I got sick in the middle of the week and felt like absolute poop.  I was tired, grumpy and had no one to really talk to.  I sort of bonded with one of the ladies who worked there, her name was Izzy.  She was hilarious.  I really didn’t think I should be in the kitchen with a cold because I wouldn’t want a sick person handling my food, but I continued on regardless.  After work, which was normally about 7 or 8, I went and passed out in my bed, I didn’t participate in the activities they had planned for us.  My roommates came in around 11 p.m., and wondered where I was.  They figured out I was sick and needed my rest.

I got to know the people I worked with on a very fast level.  I knew things about them a person shouldn’t even know about after two weeks of knowing them.  I would consider a few of them I met friends.  I was Myspace and Facebook friends with several of them.  One of the girls I met, I continued to be friends with after I was done with the camp.  On the flipside, I got annoyed with people I worked with very quickly.  Especially this one girl, she drove me insane.  She was home schooled, parents were wackos, she had an attitude, didn’t really know how to socialize with people.  Her personality just didn’t click with mine.  I tried to avoid working with her and after work; I would try to ditch her.  Luckily, she hung out with other people like her and left me alone.

I got into a routine.  I got up at 6:35, was at the kitchen by 7:00, breakfast was served at 8:00, break at 10:00, lunch at 12:00, break at 1:30, dinner at 5:00 and left the kitchen by 8:00 or so depending on how much we got done.

Later on in the summer, we found out that we should have more than two drivers and one of them should be a girl.  I was the only one Larry trusted with a van.  It was nice to have the responsibility of a vehicle; I was really getting tired of walking everywhere we went.  That meant I could sleep in longer.  The two food service vans were the “Man-van” which only guys got to drive and the Selah van, which I called the “Jelly van” because of its license plate (669-KYY).

During our morning break, we would do this thing called “Devos”.  We would get into a circle and read a passage from the Bible.  Afterwards, we would talk about it and a person would volunteer to share their life story.  Hearing some of these stories people told…wow.  These people had some real problems and some severe addictions (drugs, alcohol, divorce, jail, abuse, sex, hated their family etc).  I found out later that a lot of the people who come here every summer to work were escaping from real life, their problems and how bad their home life is.  And I just came for the money, so my story was probably the funniest because I had no problems.  Plus, I noticed that these people at first put on their “Christian face” while they worked.  When I got to know them, they were worse than juveniles.  They swore, shared things they shouldn’t have, tried to sneak in alcohol and even got sexual with other workers after work.

About a month into camp, I started acting like myself…I no longer had to be shy and quiet.  It was getting boring and I needed to liven it up a bit so I went goofy.  I was the entertainer, made lots of jokes and ha ha’s.  I used the people as my comedy fuel.  Izzy and Larry got into it.  I think we went too far with some of the jokes and I came up with my own day called “Awkward Tuesdays”.  I made people feel really weird around me.  I had the question of the day and even got answers out of the people who never participated.  This was also the summer when I went “trunking,” riding in the trunk of the car while someone else drove it (which I heard is illegal, whoops).  The adventures and goofiness was probably the best part about camp besides getting paid.

I stared having pop withdrawals and needed my caffeine.  The camp had pop machines but I didn’t want to spend a dollar on a bottle of pop and I never had cash money with me anyway.  When I got to go home on the weekends, I would bring a case or two of the flavor of the week.  That was usually Mountain Dew or Cherry Coke or just plain Coke.

As it got closer and closer for me to go back to school, it seemed like waiting for Christmas, like it would never get here.  Every day seemed to get longer and longer.  I wanted to leave and go back to school where my friends were.  That day soon came.