July is over: Pranks

The 2006 Camp Gitchigomee season is over and I'm hoping to blog a few reflections on my time there at each of the three weeks, including how much (surprisingly) I now like buffet-style meals -- for a small group, that is.

But first:
Last century, when we at Dorion Bible Camp acquired Becky Wright from Camp Gitchigomee in the Big Trade* for "future options" (turned out to be me), I got the idea (correctly or not) that Camp G. had a culture of pranking.

* = Insert winky emoticon here.

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See Camp Comments when I refer to Dorion Bible Camp, because of course it is true that I do feel I was greatly hurt by Dorion Bible Camp, wronged even, but I want to be fair to the individuals themselves, especially those who possibly had and continue with inaccurate information. I believed I was going to be given a chance to address such issues of misinformation, but in the end I was never even given that chance.

I'm not calling anyone a liar, but please be kind enough to ask ME what happened and take anything they say with a chunk of salt. Again, I'm not calling anyone "liar", just ill-informed and confused, due to our never having sat down to talk things through.
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In the mid-80's we at Dorion Bible Camp learned by our own foolishness the emotional dangers of pranking. Humour itself did not die out, but we took steps to curb the kind of "practical" (i.e. physical rather than verbal) humour that comes at others' expense (and is emulated by campers).

Speaking personally I did grow uncomfortable for myself and for the camp, when pranks began a condoned resurgence c. 2000. I was told that this is how people make friends and I felt helpless. It's too bad, because I'm sure that we could have talked it through and arrived at a helpful policy.

Admittedly, my attempts to word one in those days were unnecessarily complicated. I now like the way Manitoba Pioneer Camp words it simply (in addition to a few references to misuse of property) "Would the other person laugh?" If the answer is "no", don't do it. If the answer is "I don't know." (possibly because s/he's a virtual stranger), then don't do it.

I would simply add that we also have to remember that the campers are watching and may copy an acceptable joke, but without the same respect for boundaries.

Anyway, I can't comment on what place pranks do or don't have at Dorion Bible Camp since '02, but when I had finished my 2nd week at Camp G. this year, it dawned on me that my times there in the last 3 years had been prank-free -- but also with very little comment about it. (No lectures from directors etc.) Prank-free, but certainly not humour-or-fun-free.

I thought I'd better not blog about it last weekend, however, and tempt fate, until the last week was over.

Camp Cultures are influenced greatly by the long-term leaders and due to the transience of summer staff, can often be changed quickly by a conscious decision. Only two summers need to pass and a Camp Tradition can become history or legend.

July 9 - 15

Here are my crafts done at the Old Fort (the previous week): a wooden nutcracker, a tin nutmeg grater, moccasins (to be finished), a wooden "Jacob's Ladder", a nail hammered on an anvil, beaded anklets and a felt and sequins nametag.

This last week I was at Junior camp at Camp Gitchigomee. I ended up being in a cabin, looking after 8 boys. I'll tell you more, but right now I'm too tired. My apologies to any cabin staff over the years who ever felt as if I expected them to go beyond expectations. I've begun to watch for that failing in myself in recent summers, but I can't guarantee to have avoided it always.

Pix re. previous post

Adam's and my egg survived its descent from the Observatory. One other team's did as well, though they made the parachute of the birch bark and the basket of the cloth.
I udderly refuse to make any obvious pun here.

A second later and this pic would have featured a lot of smoke.

The Fort staffperson is Serena Ireland who used to help with Horsemanship at Dorion Bible Camp. The other staffperson behind the horses is Zach Reszitnyk of St. Thomas' Anglican/Camp Gitchigomee.

I won't be able to post photos picturing any of the campers -- but it's ME you want to see anyway, isn't it?!

(Sorry, no pix of my hattrick or my goalmouth scuffle.)

Check for a few recent church pix at northwoodparkchurch.blogspot.com.

The Old Fort, Hockey and Anger

I don't really like to blog about my travels before they happen, announcing when my house might be vacant.

And right now Rick Three is living here, too -- named Three because of his ranking in the World Bodyguard Championships and number of seconds in which he can kill a burglar.

So now I will tell you that I spent last week assisting chaperoning eight 12/13 year olds from northern schools at the Old Fort. Unfortunately, we were supposed to wear voyageur costumes for a day, but it didn't work out.

However, we did groom and harness and drive the draught horses, play shinny and lacrosse, go canoeing, make beadwork, moccasins, tin nutmeg graters, wooden nut crackers, Jacob's Ladders and nails.

We ascended Mt. McKay and also had one of those crazy drive around town scavenger hunts. The girls team did get photographed in jail. Neither team was successful in being photographed BEHIND McDonald (Arthur)'s counter, but we did get behind KFC's. Conclude what you will from that.

We did archery, shot muskets and the cannon, and did a GPS scavenger hunt.

The program was provided entirely by the Fort. Ryan (Basil) McDonnell did an excellent job assisted by Jane (Angelique). My fellow chaperones, Kate Burns, Honor Wallace and Adam Moir also did an excellent job.

What is the right verb for archery? (Don't say "arching", Robin or Shroom.) One of the chaperones said "play archery", but I know that's not right.
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Got a hattrick last night in hockey. That is very rare for me.

The first was a one-timer in front of the net. I did actually practise my shot (emulating timlap) in the warmup and I think it helped.

The second was a goalmouth scramble. Everybody got a chance to bang it in and let me have the honour of succeeding. You can't blame the goalie when he stops the first six shots, but not the seventh.

I felt a little bad about the third. It was kind of a tie between my stick touching the puck and his glove coming down on it and so the puck slid from under his glove and into the net. No one protested, however. I suppose the whistle would not have gone that quickly.

I also got into quite possibly my first shouting match (bearing in mind that the shouting isn't necessarily anger, but just making oneself heard). To me it felt as if he crosschecked me and so as I slid down I grabbed his stick under my arm and didn't let go when he needed to skate forward.

From his point of view, he likely didn't consider it crosschecking and just saw red when he couldn't get his stick free (and I've had that feeling).

But I apologized for my role and he apologized for getting angry. It's not clear whether his alleged crosschecking was included, but we'll just move on and let that go.

This sort of thing happens all the time to people (on and off the ice) and I have always hated that broken feeling and am glad that we were able to sort it out fairly quickly.

It doesn't happen often to me in FN hockey because usually I am not very aggressive, thereby getting into tangles in the goalmouth and corners. Timlap said I played aggressively last night -- leading to my goals, I suppose.

But over all FN Hockey is not a passion to me and so I don't get into as many angry incidents as some of the other guys do, who arguably are no worse than me, but just passionate about the game.

Angry feeling can start to arise, when our identity is threatened, our goals are blocked or our values are challenged. The closer to our core of beliefs (our passions) -- and I mean our real core, not our professed values -- the more likely anger will be. The other party may be totally baffled and just write you off as an angry person. But s/he would do well to try to understand what values (or goals or parts of your identity) s/he has just threatened.

Not too likely to happen on the ice, I suppose -- but possibly afterwards at Robin's.