This summer, I was one of the people in charge of doing the island trip. The island trip was only for our senior (11-15yrs) campers. Tuesday we took the girls. Thursday, the boys. The island trip was basically just another opportunity for the kids to do more water activities like banana boating and tubing and maybe a jet ski ride. We go to this island (that has been shrinking every year because of erosion) that is just up the river from our camp. It has a decent sized beach with absolutely nothing on it but trees. Perfect for dropping off the kids and letting the run around for a few hours.
At the end of one of the boy's island days, I was making one of the normal runs back to camp. My boat was filled with 10 people (me, campers and counselors). We pile the kids in to shuttle them back and forth from the island. Ten people is the max in the Moomba, the boat I was driving this particular day. This means that there are kids in every seat available. They are sandy, sweaty and usually have their hands full of towels and candy or drinks. Once I get them loaded on, I quickly announce the normal amusement park ride rules "no arms, legs, hand or feet outside of the boat at anytime. and stay seated." Sometimes the kids are grumpy because they are tired and it's HOT and they want to be back on dry land in their "cool" clothes. Then other times they are happy, laughing and enjoying every minute of their fast boat ride.
So, as we pull away from the island and head into the river, I see the kid in front of my windshield look at me and say something. It's so windy that I can't hear him, so I ask him to repeat what he said. This was our conversation...
"Miss Cottage Girl (no, he didn't use that name. He used my real name.)"
"Yes, B??"
"Can we sing a song on our way back?" (note: B is a 15 year old boy.)
Big smile from me and a laugh. "Sure, what would you like to sing?"
"Oh, I don't know. What do you think?"
"How about you sing your favorite song." (thinking I would hear 50 Cent or one of the other bazillion rappers I know nothing about)
"Ok!"
Then he, no lie, began singing...
"Just a small town girl,
Livin' in a lonely world,
She took the midnight train goin' any where."
I could not stop laughing for about 20 seconds as he belted out the entire first verse. Then I joined in and we sang (screamed so you could hear us over the wind) that song the entire way back to camp. He was smiling and weaving his head back and forth enjoying every minute of it. The rest of the boys were looking at us like we were crazy. Who cares?!
This kid was one of my very favorites this summer. He was here for 5 weeks. He laughed, sang, was polite, funny, caring and just adorable. His mom told us over and over that he just loved it here and kept asking to come back again and again. I can't wait till he is old enough to work here and watch God use him in some amazing ways.
One of my favorite memories from this summer. I still get a huge smile when I think about it.
2 comments:
So funny. Is that who I think it is? If it is, I think he's still mad about me tricking him into thinking I was from England last summer.
Anyway, two nights ago there was 7 people piled into my car as we drove back from launching fireworks in the middle of nowhere. I was listening to Journey's greatest hits and this song came on. We all started belting out the lyrics at the top of our lungs. It's definitely going to be one of my favorite memories of this summer.
Love that story!!!! I'm going laugh every time I think of it....
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