Memory Day: Science and Energy Camp Journal Entries

Sunday
The three people from our Troop who went to camp were Tom, Chris, and myself. The bus ride took forever and I sat next to Chris. He's a nice kid but by about Tuesday, he really got on my nerves. We got to Goshen around four o'clock or so. The head guys divided the 43 Science and Energy guys into 4 different campsites. Dave and Ian were the Junior Staff guys who got paid 75 dollars to help out. They got into just as much trouble as the rest of us.

Monday
In the Energy class, we saw a stupid movie.

Tuesday
It became apparent that Atomic Energy was the most boring class. At the Electricity lab that night, I built an electric motor. It finally worked but it was all messed up. After the lab (at around 8), everyone gathered for a game of Manhunt in the nature area. The game had barely been going for five minutes when someone leaned against a wooden flagpole and it fell on Ian. A staff guy kicked us all out.

Wednesday
We all got in trouble for the Manhunt episode so we had to clean the nature area. But they gave us meaningless tasks. Some people had to dig a hole and fill it in while others (like me) had to pick up all the sticks and put them in a pile and then scatter them again. I whittled a bird. We had foil packs for dinner. Dave and Ian almost got into a fight. At Energy class, we made Solar Energy Boxes.

Thursday
When I went to Space Exploration class, I found that someone had taken the rocket that I brought from home and painted it. I still used it but it was a bad paint job. The camp director got mad at us again because he found a broken tree in our camp. It turned out that the tree had always been broken. At the Atomic Energy class we used Scalers for radioactivity.

Friday
Friday was the day of all quizzes in the classes which would earn us the merit badges. I passed them all. Ian read some of my books. (Before he had been burning things with my matches and this diverted his attention for a while). I whittled some and I had swordfights with Ian (using sticks).

Saturday
On Saturday we launched our rockets. Nothing else happened really. I got the Outstanding Energy guy award and I won a patch, a shirt, and a hat. The campfire that night was a bust.