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Friday, 31 January 2014

Camping: The activity that best promotes the value of a hotel

I just keep on dreaming. Virtual Reality Dreams. They are usually accompanied by pain and by morning I have forgotten the theme of the dream. Not last night however. The dream last night seemed so real because the incident really did happen.

About 35 years ago, I taught school, grades 7 & 8 in an upscale neighborhood, which just happened to have a large Jewish population. In June, the grade 8 teachers decided to take the children to camp out at a wilderness site. I was to go to the site a couple of days prior to the students' arrival to check the site out and make sure there were no bears nearby (there was one, but that is for another dream/story). I decided I would take a couple of the boys, both of the Jewish persuasion, with me to fish and have some fun. We had a fabulous afternoon, canoeing the lake and catching some good-sized fish and releasing them, but when it came time to eat, we built a fire and the following conversation took place:

  • Me: OK, what do you have to eat?
  • Student M: What do you mean?
  • Me: What did you bring with you for supper?
  • Student L: I didn't know we were supposed to bring food (and turning to Student M) Did you bring anything?
  • Student M: No..... Mr. J, you didn't say we had to bring our own food.
  • Me: I sort of thought that would be obvious but anyway that's OK, I have enough for the 3 of us.
  • Student M: Great, what do you have? What's for dinner?
  • Me: I have a large tin of Pork and Beans. I hope you like them because there is nothing else.

A funny look appeared on both of their faces and Student L announced "Mr. J, we are Jews; we don't eat pork!" Well, I wasn't going to let them starve, so there I sat, picking all of the pork out of the pork & beans. Think about it for a second. It proved to be a rather nasty and messy chore. Fortunately, they happily ate the remains.

The next day we had exhausted the "pork and/or beans", so for obvious reasons, we did not release the fish we caught that morning.

I enjoyed that dream but, as usual when I get these vivid dreams, I was awakened by a muscle cramp, of the nth degree, in my right lower leg. A few minutes of standing and remembering the incident, cured the cramp and made me smile.

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