Secret Origins, Chapter 3: The First Defining Moment

Whoa, two chapters in one week, much less one month.  Yeah, I know.

We now fast forward another year.  I have completed my first and only year at the University Of South Florida (the summer camp relationship ended about six weeks after my time in Leesburg ended, and I met a young lady whom would take me through the rest of that first year of college), and was living in an apartment with two friends of mine off campus.  I was also working as a busboy and dishwasher at the Chili's right by the University (in retrospect, I shouldn't have let them pick the job I would have when asked "what position do you want?").  As that year (from the fall of 1991 to the spring of 1992), I had realized that my time at the South Florida camp had really a huge impact on me, and I wanted to be a part of it again.  I had not applied to be a member of the staff, so I could not be paid at that point.  So, in order for an "everybody wins" situation, I would drive down there on my days off, spend a couple of days, and then drive back on days I had to work.  Considering it was 3 hours each way, I am amazed that I did this that often to this day.  For the most part, the staff was the same great group of people that were there the summer before, with a couple of people that I knew from Leesburg that wound up down there as well.

That summer, the before mentioned Casey & Kellee developed a fondness for a song by Young & Restless called "B Girls".

Look at me, getting all high tech on you and stuff.  THAT, my friends, is the first time I ever embedded a video.

Anyway, they formed such an affinity for said song that they decided to give everyone on the staff nicknames that started with the letter "B".  Now, I am willing to admit that "Bamm-Bamm" came to me as a hand-me-down, as my good friend and fellow Facebook-er Larry Gray decided he liked "Bubba" instead.  (And for that, sir, I will be forever grateful.)  So, "Bamm-Bamm" fell to me, and it stuck.  From that point forward, I would start to collect anything I could find with the Flintstones character represented on it.

One would think that this is where the story ends, no?  If you think that my friend, then you are sadly mistaken.  Check back next time for "Chapter 4: The Second Defining Moment (On Multiple Levels)."

Oh yeah, and there were a couple of "summer girls" there too.  Oh hell, why not, since I am now an embedding fool...

Until then...

BB

Secret Origins - Part II: Post Graduation

So, continuing on....

A year has passed since the end of Part 1 (not literally, although some of you are claiming as such), and I have completed my Senior year in high school.  Literally THE DAY AFTER I GRADUATED, I was on a train headed for Leesburg, Florida to be on staff at the Warren Willis Youth Camp to work with what is known as Children's Camp (the same age group I worked with the year before of Rising 5th and Rising 6th Graders, but they closed the camp I worked at the summer before and combined it onto the same grounds as the Junior High and Senior High camps).  The week before campers were to arrive, we spent time getting the camp in order.  For those of you that are familiar with the camp in Leesburg, this was the last year that the camp did not have air conditioning in any of the cabins, and the showers and bathrooms were in their own building.  That's right, kids: the cabins were just beds, windows, and a door, and you had to walk to a separate place to shower or go to the bathroom.

The day before campers were to arrive for the first week of camp (campers came in on Monday and left on Saturday mornings... different campers every week), as I was helping put some of the final touches on our brand new sand volleyball court, I was summoned to our camp director, Margaret Johnson's, office.  She informed me that I was "elected" to spend two weeks in our Rustic camp in the South Florida Camp branch, located in Alva, near Fort Meyers.  (Leesburg is between Tampa and Gainesville.)  Now, I found out by "elected," they meant, "the only one that we can get to go that won't quit on the spot".  So, being the nice guy that I am, I repacked all of my stuff and headed to Alva.  As I was on my way, I found out that Rustic Camp consisted of a smaller group of campers, and not only did we have cabins with no A/C (which I was prepared for), but showering consisted of either swimming or a trailer bed with hoses connected to plastic "stalls," and all of our meals were to be cooked ourselves, over an open fire with hot plates we had to hand make out of coiled cardboard, wax, and a match.  Seriously, I'm not kidding here.  And to cap it all off?  I'd be there OVER MY BIRTHDAY.  MY 18TH BIRTHDAY.

So, I am doing what I can to make the best of a bad situation, and things get a bit brighter.  I find out that not only will I be accompanied by Chauma, who I knew from the summer before, but I would also be just a stone's throw from another of my friends from the summer before, Larry.  (Both of these cats are on my Facebook friend list now).  Larry, and a few of the other girls, would be handling our Horsemanship camp, with all of the comforts of home.  The rumor was that they always knew we were coming by the flies that worked as our heralds before us.  (It was grimy, but not THAT bad.)

So, as Week 1 wrapped up, there was a plan for all of us to spend some time in Fort Meyers taking in the newly released "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" and "Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves," spending some time in a hotel (YES!) and just bonding.  During this time, I gained some closeness with a young lady that I was on staff with (if ya don't know, I ain't tellin' ya), which sprouted my second Summer Love of just as many summers.  There were also two other young ladies on staff, Kellee and Casey (the former is on my friends list), who were TOTAL BFF's.  They supplied us with much comedy, and I really learned a lot from them in the next part of this story.

During Week 2, I found out that they would need me to stay down there for an additional week, which kinda set me off, but being the guy that I am, I stayed.  I also found out that the young lady that I had become close with would be coming up to Leesburg with me, so I bit the bullet (while many mosquitoes bit me) for an additional week.  Also, though, my bond with friends both old and new became deeper, and in retrospect, I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.  (PS - This will come into play in the next chapter.)

The next week, I headed back to Leesburg with lady friend and another staff member in tow.  We stopped off in Orlando to drop the other staff member at her house, and then headed to the camp (in Larry's car, as he would drive a van up there for the camp's use).  I spent the next five weeks there, having the time of my LIFE.  I met so many great people (a good number of which are on my friends list to this day), and lived what is known as the "fairy tale".  What I mean by that is that you spend so much time literally away from the rest of the world (we would go into town every once in a while, but we spent most of our time at the camp itself... Leesburg is nowhere NEAR as lived-in as it is now).

Five days after I returned home, I departed for my one year spent at the University of South Florida, and the following summer, made a decision that would change my life forever.

There are many side stories that I can tell that coincide with these summers, but I have to have stuff to write at a later time.

Until next time, when we have Chapter 3, "The First Defining Moment"...

BB