Orchid's Back!! And Other Weekendy Things

Our little Orchid went on her first plane trip alone this weekend to Washington D.C.  She went with people from school, but it wasn't an official school trip because the Catholic Archdiocese has some sort of rules against that sort of thing.

She got back late last night.  I'll get some pics from her and post them here soon.

Tulip was sick Sunday morning and we didn't go to Wisteria's birthday party, church or my in-laws.  She's better now though.  I think it was from the swimming.

Oh, I didn't mention that Tulip and I went to Key Lime Cove in Gurnee on Friday to Saturday with her Girl Scout Troop.  Gardenia and Star were supposed to go with us, but Star came home very sore and hurt from Track practice on Friday and Gardenia didn't want to leave her.

Star had a big track meet all day on Saturday (which was also why she couldn't come the water park) and met Uncle Marigold and Aunty Apple Blossom there.

Congrats Brother Rose!

Yesterday the whole garden went to see my brother Rose get promoted to CW2. This is pretty big because now they commission warrant officers of CW2 and above. As a WO1 he only had a warrant (hence the Warrant Officer), but as a Chief Warrant Officer he now has a commission as an officer and may "command" troops.

Papa Pansy actually swore him in, in front of his unit. It was pretty cool. It's especially cool when your Dad is a retired BG (Brigadier General) and the highest ranking person in the building.

We all went to lunch afterwards and then the Ginger and Holly family all came to Mundelein to see the progress on the house and for Holly to take Gardenia out shopping.

BTW, Papa Pansy has started his new chemo regimen. It seems to be hitting him pretty hard. He is very tired and very sensitive to cold. Ginger brought a wheelchair and we wheeled him into and out of both the military building and the restaurant.

Saturday afternoon (I'm going backwards chronologically) we finished the first floor enough to bring up the Christmas tree and start decorating. We had to replace about 1,100 lights (about half) which, as you can imagine is quite the chore.

I spent Saturday the morning helping out the Boy Scouts. I'm a Unit Commissioner, and as part of the Commissioner staff we help with rechartering. All the rechartering is done at one time now so we had two big sites to handle that. I think I am getting back into the swing of things. I really want to be involved in Scouts and with my older two not interested, I think this is a good way.

Who Are These Men?

In 1982 and 1983 I was on staff at Owasippe Scout Reservation (now Owasippe Outdoor Education Center).

When I started, they had just started a new program that took three years to develop staff members. We were the second class.

The program started with staff members being Apprentices. The first year guys only got paid $20 for the whole eight-week camp season. We were supposed to spend the first week, Staff Week, in training and then rotate to different section camps every two weeks.

Owasippe is so large that it is divided into section camps. In '82, they had Camp Blackhawk (Go!), Camp Wolverine (Zaxie!), Camp Robert Crown (Mojave!), Camp Reneker (family camp), the outposts (Pack and Paddle (canoe and backpacking), horse coral, COPE and Wilderness Survival) and they were just opening Camp Sauger Lake (Over All! (in '83, Sauger Lake changed their name to Camp Carlen (Bahooka!))). Blackhawk and Sauger Lake were dining hall camps while Wolverine and Crown were hotpack camps (they delivered the meals directly to the individual troops by hotpack).

I did so well in training that at the end of Staff Week I and five other Apprentices were advanced to Associate. Associates were supposed to rotate only once in the summer.

I met with Rick Lowe, the camp director for Camp Sauger Lake and we decided I would work in the brand new dining hall. There were two of us on permanent dining hall staff and two more Apprentices that rotated in. We didn't cook there, just served food prepared at the "Ad Center" (Administrative Center) and hotpacked to our dining hall.

Because of my schedule at the dining hall, I was available between meals to help out in other areas. I did a lot of work with the Field Sports area and the Nature area. In the afternoons, I swam with the scouts at free swim (we had a pool).

They liked my work so much, I never rotated and the second year Rick hired me as the Assistant Dining Hall Director with two permanent staff members reporting to me. I spent Staff Week in Philmont because I was nominated to attend National Junior Leaders' Instructor Camp (NJLIC). Only 100 scouts from across the country are invited each year to attend.

Anyway, I had another great year working at my old camp with the new name. That same year my brother Sweet Pea worked as an Apprentice. He would in later years end up working at Camp Robert Crown.

I have the staff photo from '83, but shame on me, I can't remember most of the guys' names. I'm the fifth from the left in the back.

I remember Rick Lowe (far left in the back) and Michael Reese (standing, far right). To my immediate left (as you're looking at me) is Steve Tabor and then Mark Plebanski (my cabinmates). The very tall, blond guy in the back was my boss in the dining hall. His name is Dave and he was from Oconomowac, WI. The guy kneeling on the far right was called Mange (like the French word for eat, he worked for me in the dining hall) and the guy sitting on the far right is Tim Klinefeld (sp? his nickname was Mouse).

Can anybody help me with the other names?