(Stan & Kathleen's daughter, Marcelline, recently sent her sixth-grade son to a five-day winter camp in northern Minnesota. He's back now, had a great time, and it appears most of the difficulties were Marcelline's. The recent Minnesota blizzard extended the experience by one day.)
Here is his Mom's report:
The troops have returned from the Ely tundra. A blizzard in Duluth kept the children there for one extra day.
In a one hour lunch with my son today I learned of his many adventures on his first five days of life without a mom or dad.
We have the "Biffy Challenge" where the children could elect to use the outdoor bathrooms the whole time at camp. Only two handfuls of the kids took the challenge and a only the few (and the proud) received the prize of a bag of chocolate chips at the end of the trip. The chips tasted good to the moms also. Over 250 gallons of water were saved by the Biffy kids.
The 6th grade only "Polar Bear Club".
The optional jump in the lake after a sauna (but not back into the sauna). Only a swimsuit and socks allowed. As my child ran from the sauna toward the whole in the lake, he describes " The water was black, mom!, black!..I almost chickened out, but then I thought I had to have an exciting experience to bring back home to mom and dad."
And with that, into the frozen lake he went. Back on shore, he ran to the changing room, tore off his freezing clothes, ("I didn't care who saw me naked I was so cold,") and into his Patagonia's.
Another child nearby had misplaced one of his socks. Max offered an extra pair of his, saying "I feel for ya man". (See photographic evidence of wool socks frozen to swimsuit even after 5-hour bus ride home!)
On the last day there was another child who wanted to buy a camp hat but did not have enough money with him. Max had already purchased a t-shirt for himself and a t-shirt for his mother.(" I knew you were a woman's size medium.") but he still did have an extra $10 dollars, which he loaned to the boy, so the boy would have a souvenir also.
All the necessities
The best part of the story, besides the young man is back, safe and all in one piece, is not that he had everything on the list of equipment that the school had given the parents 3 or 4 times. Or that he had plenty of supplies to spare as he didn't even use all of the underwear mom packed (although she packed "Just enough" for the "Planned" days away). Or that somehow a child can survive 5 days without showering.
It was the moment that the children found out they were to stay an extra day and overnight due to weather conditions that made the roads have white out conditions.
It was that moment that as a mother I hoped that I had given Max all the necessary equipment. It was that moment that everything mattered.
As Max observed and described "A third of the all the boys were crying and about half of all the boys were complaining and there were about a sixth of them were crying and complaining at the same time. About a seventh of the boys were just milling about looking forlorn.
"Were you ok?" I asked. "I was one of a tenth of all of the boys who were watching."
A feeling of having done something right welled within me. The equipment needed was there. I could let go a bit more now, give more space, more independence, more trust that he could and would be OK.
Of couse back at the home front "THE MOM" was a basket case about the whole thing..but that's another story. She's doing great now.
