SUMMER CAMP
By; Speaker Gerald A. Polley
When I did odd jobs I worked for a lot of
interesting people. There was a variety of summer camps in
thearea, some of them very expensive and exclusive.. I got a call
one day from a Mrs. Pick.
"I've heard you do very good work," she remarked,
"and are an honorable young man."
"Well, I hope so!" I answered.
"I can't keep a maintanence man," she continued, "I
desperately need someone to do some work. Can you come up for a
few days?
I said sure, and drove up. The place had five log cabins, housing
forty campers, all between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, and
all girls; spoiled rotten rich girls, the cream of society!
When I pulled into the yard and got out in front of the matron's
house some of the older girls disappeared into the bushes. A few
minutes later the PA system sounded, as the girls emerged.
"All right, girls!" it announced, "Back in the
bushes! Put your bras back on!"
The girls looked disgusted but returned to the bushes. Mrs. Pick
came out. "you can see the problem I have here," she
ramrked.
"Yeah" I agreed.
"The last man I had working here was 60 years old," the
matron continued, "and he left. He said he couldn't take the
girls making advances towards him all the time."
"You're kidding!" I remarked.
The matron shook her head. There was so much work that needed to
be done that I spent several weeks there off and in that summer.
One time I was under one of the cottages when several of the
girls came in. I had considered men talk dirty...these girls put
most of the guys I knew to shame! But part of their conversation
totally bewildered me.
"Cathy," one of the girls said, "I heard you got
to go to Sweden again."
Yes!" the girl answered. "My father's irate, but mommy
says she's not going to have my life spoiled, and that I've got a
right to have a little fun. It's easily taken care of."
"My father laid down the law," one of the other girls
said. "if it happens to me again, I've got to go through
with it. So from now on if the boys won't take precautions they
don't get it."
"I don't understand what all the fuss is," one of the
other girls put in, "I mean, you can take care of it so
quickly, why do they worry about it?"
That was all the conversation I heard, as the girls were finished
changing and were headed for the pool. It wasn't til years later
that I came to realize they were talking about abortions, but at
the time the conversations totally perplexed me, and of course I
wasn't about to ask anyone to explain this strange conversation
to me.
I thought some of the fights I'd seen between my friends over
girls were pretty bad, but these girls had nothing on them! I
heard an qawful commotion one afternoon and rushed out to the
middle of the camp to find two girls really at each other. By the
time I got there they had literally torn most of each other's
clothes off!
The matron was trying to seperate them and though she was a good
sized woman was having no success, whatsoever. She turned to me
and snapped "Don't just stand there, do something! Stop them!"
"Do you really want me to?" I asked.
"YES!" she screamed. "They're both going to need
stitches now!"
I walked over, grabbed both girls by the hair and softly banged
their heads together. When I was sure I had their attention I
remarked "That's enough, young ladies! Go to your cottages
and clean up."
Both girls looked at me dazed, and said "Yes sir!" and
headed back to their cottages. I looked towards the matron who
just nodded, so I guess I had handled the situation to her
satisfaction.
The only thing that really bothered me about working there was
having these young teenage girls calling me "Sir." It
just seemed very strange! But that's how the matron insisted they
address me. They were not to use my name. For some reason it made
me very uncomfortable.
THE END