Some of my memories of TMR camping.
There are things you remember from days at Ten Mile River, things that remain with you for your entire life. One of those things for me was a Scoutmaster in a neighboring site of my Provisional troop at Camp Kunatah. Each morning at around 6:30am, we would hear, loud & clear, “Rise and shine, it’s gonna be another beautiful day!” It may have been raining, hot as heck, cold as ice, but this guy, a few sites over always had an optimistic outlook for the day at hand.
Friends Denis & Jerry.
It was a year or so later that I finally got to meet and become friends with that Scoutmaster at OA chapter meetings. It was Jerry Reimer. Jerry had been a Scout going to TMR as a young boy and stayed with Scouting for the rest of his life. Though he didn’t have a car or drive, Jerry got his troop to go camping almost every single month and every summer they were at TMR. Jerry was more than accommodating to take boys from other troops with his unit if the other troop wasn’t able to get an adult leader to take them.
When I was on staff at Kunatah, as the Quartermaster, Jerry would stop by the QM hut each and every morning to get a fresh roll of ‘Willie paper’. He used to complain it was always the same ol’ plain white. That he would prefer if the camp had designer paper to use. As a thoughtful quartermaster, looking to do my part, I would then draw designs on the paper; polka dots, circles, animals, whatever.
Jerry was very appreciative and would buy me a frozen Milky Way bar at the canteen at night in appreciation. Then one day I messed up. I drew horizontal lines on the Willie paper. The next day Jerry was very upset. He said the lines were going the wrong way and hurt his delicacy when he used the paper. Needless to say, he was a character. After that I drew vertical lines on the paper and it all went quite smoothly after that. Jerry was right, it was a beautiful day at TMR, just like every other day! Like I said, some memories stay with you forever and I have many from my days at TMR. How about you?