Ah, Bible Camp. I remember it well.
Every summer, I’d trek north to “LaBeCoBeCa” where for one solid week, I’d go to chapel, make shrink-ee-dinks, swim in muddy waters (complete with leeches), and sleep in a bag atop a metal bunk bed. I even worked as a counselor at said camp one entire summer.
Those were the days, my friends.
I recall attempting to become a Polar Bear. Each morning, I’d crawl on my hands and knees down the lake dock while yelling Psalm 96:11: Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, and the sea roar and all that’s in it. Then I’d roar at the top of my lungs while a staff member placed the sole of his foot against my rib cage and pushed me into Lake Beauty. Each morning I’d slid into my moldy swim suit (it never had a chance to dry properly) and the ceremony commenced one hour earlier until on the final day, we did said activity at 4:00am.
I never made that one, much to my chagrin.
Those who were able to rise so early, received the honor of a mimeographed paper declaring them an official “Polar Bear.”
Dang. Another dream not realized.
Thing is, it was important to be “hip.” We were as hip (or possibly even more hip) than the “world.” That meant we often did crazy things like the Polar Bear Club, getting forced awake at all hours of the night so we could march the camp grounds while praising the lord, and such.
So, I wasn’t all that surprised when I read this.
A hazmat team had to decontaminate more than a dozen campers at a Maryland bible camp thanks to a prank that involved deer repellant and a fart spray called “Liquid ASS”.
The chemicals were sprayed in two bunks and caused eye and respiratory irritation in about a dozen campers. Six of those campers had to be transferred to a local hospital for further treatment. Three different medic units, including one called in from Pennsylvania, worked on the Camp Wo-Me-To campers, and the bunks had to be ventilated due to the strong odor.
I can’t help but wonder what these folks were trying to do. Perhaps they were just over exuberant youth. Perhaps they weren’t thinking. Perhaps they suffer from mental deficiencies. Who knows.
“The only way I can explain the smell is imagine putting a pile of cat crap in a bathtub full of rotten eggs, and urine that has been farted, and vomited in, then left to sit in the sun for a couple weeks. Two squirts of it had my wife gagging and me rolling on the floor laughing. It is truly a soul shattering smell.
Lovely.
