remembering camp kowakani...

i somehow let myself be talked into serving as "camp nurse" starting with the second year my baby girl signed up for Camp Fire's "Camp Kowakani".  my first morning on the job was uneventful but as the temp climbed toward the 100's i racked my brain for an idea as to how i could get the campers to drink lots of water, thus staving off potential heat related problems.

the "brilliant" idea i hatched was this.  i'd re-word familiar songs with the theme being, "kids drink your water".  i don't recall what that first song was, but i do remember the boos from the campers when i was called to stage for the second.  and so it went for the rest of the camp, they would boo, i would "sing".  something must have clicked, we had no heat related issues to deal with.

fast forward to year two as camp nurse.  i about dropped my teeth when as i was called to the stage to be introduced. a  resounding chorus rang up from the campers... "song, song, song, song. and thus a tradition was born. i became part of what made "camp kowakani" a fun (and safe) experience.  i even went to camp for a couple of years after my daughter had lost interest in the camp fire experience.

comments after the latest posting at www.monkeyheartdiscourses.blogspot.com suggested i should sing some of those songs to share.  I even went as far as downloading a voice recording program onto my computer and "singing" my campy version of marty robbin's, "streets of laredo".  shall we say, i soon realized why the campers were booing.  there'll be no posting of my singing onto the world wide web to be available via the ethernet forever and ever, amen. no, thank your very much.

i will venture to share my bastardization of marty's famous tune and lyrics.

as i walked out on the streets of kow'kani
as i walked out in kow'kani today
i saw some young campers, they looked mighty thirsty
they looked mighty thirsty, their tongues like baked clay

i told those young campers that they should drink water
i told those young campers they looked awful dry
and most of those campers, they did as i'd asked them
they drank all their water and so weren't so dry...

                                                                             
on hot, dry and windy days like we're having here in the texas panhandle it's important to stay hydrated. remember this, if you wait until you're thirsty to start drinking, you've waited too long. hydrate early and hydrate all day long. water is the best-- even cacti need a drink now and then. don't make me torture you with another cheesy camp song.  aio