Friday, April 17, 2009

Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Canteen Time

I have already mentioned that after lunch it is naptime for the kiddos, and free time for the junior staff. Naptime (officially called “Rest time”) lasts for a half hour, and if you have been paying attention to me, you may also figure out that if the “rest time” lasts a half hour, so does junior staff free time. But that’s not important. The importance of this paragraph is to show
How you don’t know

About Canteen

Which is keen

And the kids that couldn’t stop

Wanted candy and pop

And I’m trapped in this rhyme, so you can move on and I’ll keep working on it, okay?

Anyway, after free time is “Canteen Time”. This is the time when Mr. Lehman blows a really loud whistle, and all of the little munchkins leap out of their bunks, step into their shoes, and run over their counselor and each other in an effort to make it to a little white shack that stores an abundant treasury of candy, sodas, and other items of that sort. The rule is as follows: one is only allowed 60 cents worth of whatever they have in Canteen. When I—never mind. I’ll tell you what happened that first afternoon and maybe you’ll better grasp the very difficult concept of Canteen. Unless you are Hagar the Horrible.
Like I said, I didn’t hear the whistle blow that Monday; I was too engrossed in my box hockey. Then the whole “engagement” thing occurred, and I just got over my embarrassment, and moved on.
It was at that time that I noticed the large crowd of screaming kids standing in front of the small white shack.
“What’s up?” I asked my fellow junior staffers.
“Canteen time,” they replied.
“What’s that?” I wondered.
Rachel spoke up, “It’s when everyone gets sixty cents worth of candy and soda free.”
“Really?” I said.
“Yup,” came the reply.
“Junior Staff too?”
“Oh yeah!”
I needed no further prodding. I went and checked it out myself. Apparently there was a boys line and a girls line, and I was in the wrong line. Thankful that no one had noticed, I quickly switched lines. Both lines drew closer to the shack, and I saw Shannon and a senior staff member in there, handing out various unhealthy items to multiple munchkins. Aaron, Trent, and Rodney joined me in line, and we eventually got candy and stuff.
You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you all this, and I’m not quite sure why, except for the fact that it was an awesome part of the day and it happened every day, and I had to have something to introduce the next chapter.
Plus, you may have read this far, and thought, what is the point of this book? Well, mostly it is to entertain you, and it is also to get my feet wet in a big writing project. So bear with me, and remember that this is mostly a trial run. I don’t think this message was necessary for my swampy friends, but for all you cynical critics who think everything in life needs to have a specific purpose, the prior message was meant for you.
I have had difficulty remembering the exact order of the events for that day, so I will tell them to you in order of significance. Hmmmmmmm……………..let’s try the order of how I remember them. This has been Chapter the eighth, and the following random and somewhat humorous happenings will be told in the following chapters in this collection of amusing anecdotes entitled, Junior Staff at Camp Swampy.

9 comments:

  1. Sodas? SODAS???? what is this strange new word???????? since when do people say that???


    seriously. nobody around here calls it soda. it's pop. just a little info, so we all can truly understand the story's background of Being in Northern Minnesota.

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  2. Would I be considered one of your "cynical critics"? :)

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  3. I was trying to throw in some variety. I couldn't remember, so I just guessed. A lot of Winsconsin people say soda, so, I assumed. Apparently I assumed wrong. Sue me.

    And to answer John's Question, no you aren't.

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  4. yeah Rachel, that's alot coming from you - who comes from WISCONSIN! for your information - i have lived in Northern Minnesota for my entire life and have never even moved out of the same house and i call it SODA!!

    -rissa

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  5. you weird people. my dad has said pop since he was a little kid and he lived in northern minnesota. and some people in wisconsin do say soda. or we could just say something totally different and call it all coke. and this is a really dumb thing to be arguing about, so I'm going to shut up now.

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  6. by the way, this is me, but I'm on someone else's computer and it won't let me sign in to mine own account. in case you were ondering.

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  7. who is me? what are you talking about?

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  8. Is there ever going to be a new chapter??

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  9. i've been looking at that last post for nearly a year now - waiting for "me" to reply... and since i know who it is and cant stand to see a non-replied-to post...... 'me' is Rachel. :P

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