The World According To Chris Brewer

Today marks the beginning of crunch time. One week left until camp, one week left of major fasting and prayer, and one more week left of devotion and sermon preps.

Yes it’s the toughest week for us camp workers, the week when we frantically rush to get everything done in preparation to make Camp go smoothly. It’s especially tough on our director, Shelly Symonds, who does a great job each year to make sure Senior Camp is well-enjoyed by all. Join me in keeping her and the rest of our staff in prayer for spiritual guidance and peace throughout this week.

And join me also as I present memory #6. We’ve reminisced through a few sports games and revisited the memory of Kelso sending a bunch of kids to camp. Now it’s time for a little mischief.

Memory #6: The (Highly “Illegal”) Pillow Fights, 1993-2000

A few years ago, those of us male campers that were not too faint of heart participated in a long-running tradition that is one that was enjoyed by most who participated, but loathed by those in authoritative positions. After church would let out and the snack bar closed, the bell would ring and it would be time for all campers to head down to their cabins. Then the shenanigans would begin.

The group leaders would be gathered outside by the campfire, thus allowing us kids to take over one cabin and turn it into an absolute war zone of hard hits and multiple injuries. Most, if not all, kids within the immediate cabin area ended up participating in one pillow fight a week, if not more. And some ended up taking home some souvenirs too…

I call the Camp pillow fights of yesteryear illegal because the staff frowned upon us kids always holing up in a cabin and duking it out with our pillows for a solid half-hour — someone ALWAYS got hurt and they got hurt BAD.

I remember the worst time was in Junior Camp ‘95, my friend Andrew always hid his candy he bought from the snack bar in his pillow, and forgot to take it out before the fight…I’ll leave the rest up to the imagination.

My first year of Senior Camp was 1997 and I remember two guys throwing down their pillows and grabbing a mattress, bulldozing through everyone and spraining a couple kids’ ankles in the process. Then Don Blumenthal walked in the room and it was OVER.

I do admit the pillow fights were fun. Who wouldn’t like bashing someone else over the head with a tightly packed apparatus of feathers or down? They were cool, but like I said someone always got a shiner or got the wind knocked out of them and someone always ran away gasping for breath or crying. Then again, that’s not so cool.

After many years of camp pillow fights, Junior and Senior camp both began enforcing a strict “no pillow fight” policy in 2001 that created an atmosphere of relative peace and calm…and lo and behold, the camp nurse’s duties were cut in half throughout the course of the week. I worked Junior Camp in both ‘01 and ‘02 and there was nary a pillow fight to be partaken in.

Kudos to the camp staff for enforcing a no-tolerance policy and ensuring the safety — and sanity — of all the campers from ‘01 on.