Elk Shoals 1999 (with a does of Pfeiffer 2002) - Added June 23, 2009
I remember this time that we did a skit at Elk Shoals called the "Jesus Pops" skit. This involved getting out the largest mixing bowls, a mixture of leftover cereals, milk jugs full of water, and large spoons. Three "monsters" would then walk out - Carrie Frazer, Abbey Noell, and Mary Smith, each of them with another staff person tucked behind them and underneath their shirts pretending to be their arms. I don't know who Brandon and Tara were stuck with, by I was always Mary Smith's arms. I remember this because it involved getting very, very close to Mary Smith. Adam was the keeper / feeder of the animals. Basically we made a big mess until the creatures were satiated with enough "Jesus Pops."
I still remember one of the adult evals to this day: "I hate to see skits wasting food - too many hungry people."
good times. Here is a drawing recollecting the event.
I remember this time that Abe Cox, a preacher who lived in Statesville, was our camper for the week. When it came time for Friday night worship, rather than simply blessing the communion elements and inviting us to partake of them, he launched into a complex sermon which no one present will ever be able to do justice to in their recounting. The most essential element of the sermon that we all recall is that our generation will likely live to see the Lord's Supper (a.k.a. communion) celebrated on the moon. Later in the sermon this was changed to Mars as well as the moon. We will never be able to do the sermon justice, but if you watch the Elk Shoals '99 VHS, we come pretty close while playing with those pieces of wood in the back of the truck.
Good times
Three years later, I remembered the sermon so favorably that I requested Abe Cox to participate in a Friday night worship at Pfeiffer. There was no talk about the moon this time, but he did bring up how one of his CMGs had used chainsaws to cut down some very tall trees, and then jumped off of a roof onto a large trampoline that the family had. He then invited us to draw connections - what's the chain saw or the trampoline in our own lives?
good times.
We then went to Abe's church the following Sunday (which was no longer in Statesville, but in Harrisburg), and during the sermon he acted several times like he was having a conversation with me. (Me, personally.) He then invited us to have lunch with him at the Captain's Galley, which we did.
good times.
Guest nostalgias from Anna Carlton!
Pfeiffer 2001 - Added December 19, 2002
I remember this one day at Pfeiffer 2001. It was a thursday and I was visiting this nice lady named Charlotte who has so many dogs that if she counted them she says she'd pass out. I believe her too. When I got there, she was really upset because her littlest dog, the one that sleeps in her bed, had stopped breathing. The dog was lying on its back on a pillow on the kitchen counter, and she was giving it CPR (mouth to mouth and all). Then I had to feel for its heartbeat to verify that it had indeed passed away.
good times... but there's more
The same day, a young camper left a letter under my windshield wipers. It said something about how my eyes looked like diamonds. We had to have a talk that evening to clear things up a bit. That letter stayed on the staff refrigerator for weeks. We got a few chuckles out of it.
good times ... but there's still more
Still that same day. A group of my campers were painting the house of this little old lady who was almost deaf and i think she was a little crazy too. A rebelious camper decided to convince her that the adult woman in the group was a man and that she was marrying a man, and that he was marrying a black girl. This woman was your typical southern woman, and didn't take this too well. After a few hours this got a little out of hand and the woman finally declared "If I was able, I'd tie you up to a tree and beat you with a stick until you yelled 'Oh Jesus.'".
Good times
Pfeiffer 2002 - Added October 22, 2002
I remember this time I saw Melissa Lineberger in a high school production of "Oklahoma!" This involved Kat and I driving from a wedding in Spartanburg, SC to Burnsville, NC. We thought we had made amazing time, only to discover that both of our watches were an hour behind. I didn't really know this Melissa girl before the play, and I didn't afterwards either, because you know ... she was acting. After the play, Melissa was bombarded with people wanting to take pictures of her and congratulate her. I was very interested in talking to her as well, but mostly because she knew how to get back to Charlotte from there.
good times
Pfeiffer 2002 - Added September 7, 2002
I remember this time I found my entire staff with the exception of Tripp and Chris on the steps smoking cigars with Bryan Rush, Pfeiffer’s summer program coordinator. I went upstairs and told Tripp this and he said “Dude, you’re lying” about 7 times.
good times
I remember this time that Chris McAlister and I drove to Locust Lumber, only to find that Locust Lumber was closed for the Fourth of July “weekend,” which apparently lasted from Wednesday through Tuesday of the following week. Of course we hadn’t thought to call first. We then went all the way to northern Davidson County to another lumber company, only to find out they would not donate. It was nearly 5:00 by then, so we went back to camp. This was perhaps my least productive day ever on staff.
good times
I remember this time that Becca Saunders got us 4 pizzas donated from Papa Johns in Albemarle because she knew a guy who worked at the store in Newton (“You know a guy…” as Terry Benedict says (Ocean’s 11)). It was cool because it saved us staff food money. Melissa and I then picked up these pizzas and she suggested that, as a joke, we take out the garlic sauces. The rest of the staff would then ask, “Where’s the garlic sauce?” “Guys, they were DONATED…”
good times
I remember this time that I got about 10 cases of Sun Drop donated, along with 5 cases of Cheerwine. There’s not really much more to say about this, but Tripp had a lot to say when it was time to unload these.
good times
Pfeiffer 2002 - Added August 11, 2002
I remember how Melissa Lineberger and myself used to play something called the "heat game." It's a two-player game. Basically, while riding in a car on a sweltering summer day, you turn the heat on full blast. Whoever turns the heat off first loses. Melissa is the champion of the game, but the second time we played I turned it off because Tripp Setliff was in the back seat shouting threats if the game didn't stop right away.
good times
Pfeiffer 2002 - Added August 8, 2002
I remember how I started using the expression "Boy howdy!" a lot starting at 2002 staff training, although it was not my expression, it was something I stole from T.L. Berry. I continued to use it and Katie used her expression "Man yeah!" Soon the rest of our staff picked up these phrases too, and they became overused. Pretty soon nobody could say "boy howdy" or "man yeah" without somebody in turn saying the other phrase. I would say that, in my opinion, this cheapened both of the phrases, however, they weren't overly special to begin with.
Pfeiffer 2002 - Added August 5, 2002
I remember this time at Pfeiffer that Tripp, Daniel, Becca and myself were loading lumber at about 11:00 at night. Before we knew what happened, the campus police were upon us asking how we were doing that night. This was the code word for "Who are you and what are you doing," but when they found out it was the CCC idiots they left us alone. We then took all the lumber to Locust, completing the delivery by about 12:30 A.M. This was the Saturday before campers were to arrive.
good times
Pfeiffer 2002 - Added July 2, 2002
I remember this time at Pfeiffer that the campus police came and found our staff after lights out. "We've got a problem with the guys on the top floor playing tennis in the hall." Enraged by the stupidity, Tripp, Daniel, Chris and myself stormed over to the dorm. Tripp spotted campers through the upstairs window and shouted the now classic phrase: "Aw, y'all have done MESSED UP." There was much scattering, and by the time we reached the top floor, the hall was strangely empty and quiet.
Most of the stories I can think of for that week involve lights out ... good times.
Now let's wax nostalgic with Robyn Smith!
Carolwood 2001
i remember our first day of pre-pre camp it was awesome! then i remember day two.. mitchell and i decided we would go to good ole boone for the day to visit some people. so all morning we drive around boone trying not to get lost. after awhile we found some of the houses but no one was home. i hate it when that happens.
so we get to the next house and the driveway looks like an empty creek bed or something so we decide we'll just walk up to the house from the road. its all peacful and quiet, then BAM out of no where, three dogs...big, ugly, mutts. they obviously didn't want us there so they're barking and growling at us. so mitchell and i decide to bail...they didn't like that either, so we both get bitten by the dogs.(not that badly) FINALLY this lady comes out and gets the dogs, but we're driving away by then.
so we get back into town and decide to get some lunch and refocus. needless to say we were a little discouraged at this point. we decided to go to one more house and that is when we met sefrona miller, one of the nicest ladies ever. she totally made our day. it turns out she's the only one we worked for in boone the whole summer. but it was worth it. good times :-)
Guest nostalgias by Clark Chilton!
Carolwood 2001
I remember this one time at Carolwood, I decided to buy this dog for $20 that was living in an old pig pen in my feeble attempts to be noble. It turns out this dog was absolutely insane, and had never been leashed. Upon returning to camp, I proceeded to give the dog his first bath, and ended up getting dirtier than the dog. This dog was not too bright.....consequently, this was the same dog that jumped out of the back of Mitchell's truck while going 35 mph....and LIVED.
good times
I remember this one time during brown bag skits, a CMG proceeded to present that TIMELESS lesson of robots and God's love = teamwork. This was done with various objects in the bag (rubber bands, tissues, etc) in a skit form. Needless to say, this was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
good times
I remember this one time, some campers in a skit pretended to give birth to a smaller, more effeminate male camper.
good times
i recall quite a battle i had with the said insane dog and getting it into beccas car...and then washing the dog....i definitely got washed by the dog
i share in the memory...
without me, its just a story about clark
-- Robyn Smith
Carolwood 2001, Added 3-4-02
I remember this time the Carolwood staff went up to Zona's house where we had school-cafeteria-style pizza. And hey, it was good, and then we all left except Clark, who had to stay for a 2 hour meeting.
good times
I remember this time that Clark picked up a cork board and said "we can use this," and turned it around to reveal a brown wolf spider. At this Clark, Becca and I all screamed, and he threw it outside. This just one of a series of screaming episodes for our staff.
good times
I remember this time that we told the Elk Shoals staff we would meet them in Boone. But we left way early, and were going to "swing by" Elk Shoals while they weren't there to commit some general pranks. Among other things, we were going to leave an old toilet we were carrying in Mitchell's truck. However Mitchell's truck broke down on the way, thrwarting our plan and severely setting us back on the time it took to reach Boone. But I think we still somehow made it there before the Elk Shoals staff.
good times
Elk Shoals 1999, Added 2-26-02
The Worst Shingle Day of My Life
I remember this time at Elk Shoals that Brandon Long did a roofing project which resulted in a large pile of ripped, torn, rotting shingles in the person's yard. We put off retrieving these shingles until the last day of camp. Then using buckets, shovels, and our hands, Brandon and I loaded the shingles into Dorkey. This took no less than 40 minutes. We then proceeded to look for an elusive dump with these directions: "Somewhere around Crumpler." I stopped once to get a Cheerwine and candy bar, because I was falling asleep. We finally arrived at the dump late in the afternoon on this Saturday only to discover that the dump was closed. We returned to camp, where Adam and I proceeded to unload all of these shingles, one handful at a time, into the dumpsters - half in one dumpster, half in the other. As it turned out, this was one of the most mind-numbing, repetitious, exhausting tasks I have ever done. It took no less than 40 minutes. I would wager that this was one of the most time-consuming shingle disposal tasks in the history of CCC, and with probably the worst final results.