First Experiences at Camp

My first trip to Camp Sheppard was winter camp with my troop , probably Jan. 1965 at the latest. I was impressed by Max's hut delivery system then too. I met him the following summer on a Cascade Trailblazer trip with Doug Driscoll. But that's another story. Doug and I came up to camp to check out the tube runs Christmas vacation 1965. That's when Max asked me to staff the first summer in 1966. I was flattered. By the way, those Fireside Cream weapons ahh, cookies also make good projectiles during impromptu hut skirmishes. Head on impact with the hut wall requires a pocket knife to remove the evidence before Max showed up. In the mean time I was coming up with OA also to help on weekends when Max was still cooking for all 300+ out his own kitchen in the house. What an exercise that was. Later, he said he needed to relocate the Wolf stove plus add another out to the breeze way. So I helped by fitting in the gas pipe to the back of the Wolf's one spring or fall in the garag! e before it got closed in. With a little helpful coaching from Max too in those days. That must have been around the fall of 1966 or 1967 before we got going on the river bridge. The other smaller camp bridges and trails were clearly just a warm up. After my first summer as trip staff, the projects to help Max, Staff and" The Program" was my path to fuuuuun. Whoah, man was that a riot or what.? Many times I would leave for camp right after high school or junior college on Friday, with my car already packed with bag and pillow, stop at the closest McDonalds on my beeline to camp and go find Max. He was always glad to see me and gave me a nice menu of projects to pounce on. We had the run of camp and the mountains. Max had the vision, courage and enough toys to turn us loose. What a blast.