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Dear Reader,
In yesterday's column I began sharing some favorite summertime memories and ran out of room. The column is continued below. If you missed Thursday's column, you can find it here: http://dearreader.typepad.com/dear/2014/07/dear-reader-column-07-24-14.html
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continued from Thursday...
When I was a kid I spent two weeks of summer vacation at a Girl Scout Camp, where one of the "Always Be Prepared!" skills I learned was how to dispose of cooked prunes when no one was looking. Every morning a huge bowl of warm, cooked prunes was part of the breakfast fare. Thinking about it now--come on--how many kids did they really think were going to be excited about eating cooked prunes? Maybe the camp cook got a real deal on prunes he couldn't pass up? I understand what they were trying to accomplish, but there must have been something else better tasting that would have kept 160 campers "regular" while they were away from home.
Skill sets were presented each day and I volunteered to demonstrate the proper way to use an axe when cutting wood. I was trying to earn a Safety Badge, and in order to get it, the final requirement was to do a demonstration in front of a group of fellow campers. I was a motivated kid, I wanted that Safety Badge. The front of my sash and half of the back side of it was already filled with badges, and I knew exactly where I was going to sew this one on, too.
I could tell I was impressing the camp counselor with my demonstration, she was smiling and nodding her head at me in encouragement. And I'm sure that she would have given me my badge, if I hadn't miscalculated one of the swings of the axe. Instead of splitting the wood, I split my left leg open alongside of my knee. (You can still see a small scar there and unfortunately, it's the only "badge" I earned on that particular day.) That axe was good and sharp because I had also demonstrated how to sharpen it before I started my demonstration.
My leg required stitches, so the nurse took me to see a doctor in a nearby town. The trip was one of those good news/bad news things. The good news was the nurse bought me an ice cream cone and a box of candy before we went back to camp. The bad news was the local doctor thought the best way to clean out my cut, before he stitched me up was to pour alcohol on it.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS
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