A Letter from Your Son Marvin at Camp Brokentoe

Dear Dad and Mom,

They made us write home about the wonderful time we are having at Camp Brokentoe. Don’t worry mom, everything is fine. You were right dad, I am safe, now. Boy were those mosquitoes big. We got covered in skeeter bites. I scratched too much on some of them. They got all red and yucky. But I am doing really good now. My cabin counselor gave me a shot of some of his medicine. The needle hurt. He said he never gave anybody else a shot of this stuff. But it worked good. I slept for three days. The only sad thing about sleeping so much is I missed the big storm. It swept away one of the cabins. They think everyone has been found. Only Larry is missing because we think he is still up on the mountain looking for the assistant director Ben. Poor Ben. He’s never been to camp before and they made him assistant director. The last anyone saw of him was when the bear was chasing him. Larry’s cabin counselor called for him to get back here but Larry plugged both ears with his fingers and did he ever run. When he got far enough away, he unplugged his ears and started taking pictures of Ben and the bear.  He kept taking pictures of that bear chasing poor Ben. They were going to be great pictures until he dropped his cell phone off the edge of the mountain trail. That must have fallen a thousand feet. Too bad about the pictures.

Mom, I know you didn’t want me to come to camp. You and dad yelled at each other a lot. Dad said I would be safe. You screamed it is a terrible idea. But I want you to know that I am having a great time now that I woke up. They take good care of us here, except for the first night when three of our cabin campers got food poisoning. I am glad I didn’t eat the warm potato salad. There were so many flies on the top of it that we took turns guessing how many. It wasn’t Aunt Bertha’s fault about the food poisoning. She just forgot to put it in the fridge when she made it two days before. Zeek is my new best friend. He brought firecrackers to camp. Zeek sure has a sense of humor. You won’t believe where he lit them off. I promised I wouldn’t tell. I’ll just say a whole cabin full of girls ran screaming. It was wonderful.

We get to do a lot of other fun stuff. Our cabin counselor takes a nap every afternoon and we have found a lot of fun things to do when he’s sleeping. Did you know that the camp jeep doesn’t have brakes? That was a lot of fun. That last curve coming down the mountain road was amazing. Did I tell you that Aunt Bertha is the camp cook? She has weird tattoos. When she jumped in the pool, we all jumped out and ran away. She laughed as she climbed out of the pool and chased us.  The camp director still hasn’t found his false teeth. Jimmy is the skinniest kid I ever did see. He liked being tied to the flag pole. I’ll be right back…… I am back now from the emergency room. They were going to call you but couldn’t find your number. Good thing you signed that paper. It only was eight stitches over my eye. I am hoping it will leave a big scar so that I can scare Monica when school starts in September. The doctor says they will dissolve whatever that means. I was hoping they could stay there forever.

I am having a great time at Camp Brokentoe. Tonight we are having a fire. Luke the activities guy has built a wood pile that he says is ten feet high. You ought to see all the gas that he says we will use to get the fire going. He says it makes the biggest boom we ever did hear. I won the contest so I get to light the fire. Well mom and dad, this is only the first week of camp. I am glad that I have another whole week left. I hope that Ben will be found by then. He probably will because Zeek just snuck off to find Larry who was hunting Ben. If they aren’t home by tomorrow I will go looking for Zeek. You were right dad, What could possibly go wrong. It’s summer camp and I will be fine. I hope my letter helps you know that this was a very good idea mom. We’ll have a lot to talk about when I come home. Maybe you and dad will be happier now that you know I am having such fun. By the way, I think I am in love. Her name is Marge. She came up to me the first day and said, “My name is Marge and I am large like a barge.” Then she picked me up over her shoulder and twirled me around. She won the burping contest at lunch. I wish I could burp like her. See you next week. Don’t worry about me mom. Gotta run. It’s time for the knife throwing contest. Your son, Marvin.