Air Born

Now that I mention my first week in church camp along with my Aunt and Uncle during the summer of '89. Being 10 years old and so deeply sheltered I trusted everyone I met. I wanted to make new friends and so I followed all the girls around. One older high school girl looked at me strangely asking "What is wrong with you? There has to be something wrong with you, if you DO NOT know what an Nintendo is!" She didn't wait for me to reply and I was left holding the same question I had just asked I wondered to myself "Well, really WHAT is it??" Some girls were very nice, some were rude. Others used me to pass secret notes to the boys they liked. I didn't mind whatever a new friend wanted from me I did it without question. That game night had been so much fun to watch, My Aunt Sonja asked questions like in that TV game show about married couples. Where one person left, the other stayed to answer all the questions as if they were that one person who left. Then the couple with the most correct answers won! Now I had never seen the TV show but I caught my Grandma watching it once and quickly understood the rules. When the question came up "What would you do with a hundred dollars?" My future Uncle Robert wrote in huge letters "Nintendo" The whole room exploded into cheering, everyone was thrilled. I of course joined in with everyone but asked my new friend "uh hmmm what's a Nintendo?"   Oooops! Soon those girls were not my friends anymore. "What are you totally stupid?" was the common reply. I gave up, thinking I will always remember this word Nintendo until I discover what it actually is!

Out on the Cascade lake in the bright blue sky I watched the kids swim. I couldn't join them unless an adult was there. So for that first hour I just sat on a rock and watched. These were all high school kids, boys so tall with shaggy hair, girls so brightly covered in wild swimming suit prints. The guys splashed and the girls squealed. Sometimes a tossing over the docks game took place with usually girls bodies flying in the air and guys laughing. "Oh dear." I thought "My Mom would be so upset by this." Then I relaxed realizing she wasn't here so if everyone else thought it was okay, I would let myself smile and laugh. Now the most popular dock on this lake was tied to the main docks by a thick huge rope. This one squared dock only had half the floating stuff under it. I watched as it tilted half in the lake water, half stick out into the air. The guys soon played "King of the dock" whatever guy could stay on the longest while they all shoved each other won. The 2 most popular boys that girls talked about all the time was a very tall blond haired boy named "Matt" who always let the girls braid his hair. Then a red hair boy named "Adam" who played the piano all the time and not just church songs either. My favorite tall guy there was named "Wes." I just remembered he always looked out for me when playing on the docks, when running in the night through the forest in a game. He would just appear suddenly helping me out, hardly saying anything except "Watch out Debby." If I could of had an older brother maybe that's what it was like?
When Robert joined in the swimming, I got off my hillside rock and ran into the lake. Finally, an adult showed up so I could go swimming! I was scared of the water. I was unsure how to swim. Where it grew darker out in the deep end I would wonder in fear what could be out there? So I just stayed close the sand. The Boat would show up with my Uncle Dan ready to pull the water skiers and girls on the board. My Mom had already told me I wasn't allowed, though I watched across the lake at what looked amazing! To this very day I can't bring myself to try the water skies. Maybe it's my mom's voice in my head saying "That is the most dangerous thing to do."
When the girls all took over the half stable dock, I was asked to join them and so I sat on the highest corner relaxing in the warm sun light. Suddenly the girls all around me screamed in unison as the group of boys jumped on the dock at the very same time. It was like a rocket was lit under that dock and it shot up into the air so high. I was just sitting there holding on to the mossy corner of the dock caught by surprised. I looked for just a second over my shoulder to see everyone was gone. I was the only one on this flying dock, that took off over the lake. It all happened so fast, everyone stood still for a moment to watch me. "WOW!" Was all I could say just as I held tightly to the dock as it came back down crashing in to the water like a huge whale. I was still safely on the dock again. Drifting a ways out from the swimming hole. Soon the rope was tugged back to the main dock. Robert's face showed he was not impressed, especially with all those boys. "Are you okay?" he asked as soon as I stood next to him but my heart was pounding."DID YOU SEE THAT!?! Let's do it AGAIN!!" Robert gave me a high five while chuckling "No, let's NOT." I was shaking so much but it was more from the pure thrill I had just lived through. "That was AWESOME! I hung on when no one else did! I was flying! I was flying! I was like "Whoa, where did everybody go?" then I was like "What?!? I am IN the AIR?!?" I was thinking to myself that I better hang on I don't swim very good and I could drown, But I was also thinking this is fun! I would LOVE to do that again! It felt like a rocket was behind me! It like made a huge pop sound and I just grabbed the corner of the dock quickly, not sure what was really happening! WOW! hahahaha!" I took a deep breath after explaining this to Robert who stood there watching me. He was nodding for he had seen the whole thing too. Then as I raced off to go tell my Aunt Sonja all about this newest adventure. All those boys stood on the dock listening to me, while watching Robert. They put out their hands for me to hit them with high-fives on my way back to the camp. I suddenly didn't feel so afraid of that lake anymore and I honestly Loved everything about a church camp!
The last event on the beach was the "whip cream pie in the face" game/war. Maybe it was more like a war of whip cream since the actual "Pie in the face of the camp leaders" contest  went from gooey fun to an all out war! We just grabbed what whip cream we could find to get everyone. I was so sticky with sand on my smeared whip cream clothes, with wet shoes from running away into the water. I had learn so much in just that one week of camp, then in all my 10 years. I had learn that lying just makes a problem worse, that not all girls are nice. I learned how easy it is to hurt someone's feeling when you are mean right back at them just because you want to "fit in". I also learned how to sneak food to the trash can when you didn't want to eat it. I loved that candy shop most of all and ended up wondering why do people pray with their arms up in the air? The speaking in tongues never scared me, I just watched and listened wondering what part does God understand? The Chapel time always ran a good 3 hours. I had never been in a church service that lasted so long and it really felt more like a tent revival. I had seen so many things in there, to wonder, to questioned. But I just took it all on my faith, I left that camp wanting be a better Christian. For I had actually lived a week in the mountains right next to God!