Summer was a magical time during my youth. For most of the summer I would live with my grandmother on her farm but for six weeks my parents would send me to summer camp in the Appalachians. My brother hated summer camp but I loved it. Alex would cry when he had to go. I would cry when I had to leave. Camp was an adventurous time filled with hiking, overnight trips, trout fishing, arts and crafts, canoeing, etc. I also made some friendships that are still thriving today despite the great distances between us.
Summer camp was also a place where a boy could have his first experiences with things he shouldn’t have been doing at that age. My parents paid thousands of dollars every year for me to experience this and one summer I almost ruined it. I came close to getting sent home.
My counselor that year had the nasty habit of dipping smokeless tobacco. I and two other boys decided we were going to “borrow” a can and try it for ourselves. For this offense, you could be sent home and banished from camp. I and my two accomplices crafted a devious plan.
The tobacco was kept in a locked trunk but we knew where my counselor hid the key. I, Dave, and Pete decided to skip a period of class that day and would sneak in the cabin, open the trunk, and take one of the cans of tobacco and try it. We had heard you could get an incredible buzz or high from it and wanted to experience it. I managed to obtain a can and we sneaked behind the cabin to try it.
“Did you get it?” Pete asked excitedly.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the can of Kodiak tobacco.
“Who is going to try it first?” Dave asked.
“Let’s all do it together,” I replied.
I opened the can and we each took out a liberal pinch and placed it between our gums and teeth.
“Yuck, this stuff tastes nasty,” said Pete.
“Keep it in a few minutes,” I said. “You are supposed to get a buzz.”
Within minutes, my head started to swim with a feeling of euphoria. We all started laughing hysterically and couldn’t quit. It was quite a pleasant feeling in the beginning. By this time, Pete’s face had started to turn green.
“Are you okay, Pete?” I asked.
“I think I am going to get sick,” He said.
In our ignorance, we had all been swallowing the tobacco juice and not spitting it out. One by one, we each grew violently ill. We were soon heaving and throwing up.
Our counselor just happened to come back to the cabin for something and he heard the commotion behind it and investigated. We were caught red handed with the can lying on the ground beside us. At first, he was very angry with us and gave us a long lecture about what we had done.
“I ought to take all three of you down to the office and turn you in,” He said.
We pleaded with him not to. We all started to cry. The thoughts of what my parent’s would do to me weighed heavily on my mind.
“Okay, we will keep this to ourselves,” He said. “But if I ever catch you three doing anything like this again, you are going home.”
We all sighed with relief. We ended up having to do cabin cleaning duty every morning for the rest of our tenure there. It was a small price to pay compared to the beating my father would have given me if I had been sent home.
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