My Last Summer at Woodland Altars 1990
Thursday, April 5th, 2007
I remarked at the last campfire that this was my final year at camp – and rather than going out with a ‘bang,’ I went out with a ‘nice quiet week.’ I’m not sure why this was, but I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that I had aged – so to speak – several years once I became a father, and was facing the future of ‘adulthood’ head on. Also, I recall that there were only two groups at camp and smaller somtimes meant less. This was my tenth and final year at Camp Woodland Altars, having consecutively attended every year since the Summer before fourth grade. Read the rest of this entry »
Sons of the Desert conventions in the past had usually begun in the evening with a mixer and little else following a day of registration. Therefore, I had assumed that the Seattle convention in 2000 would be the same. Only Denise and I travelled to this convention. Lisa had decided not to go for some reason that I do not recall. We left on the afternoon of Thursday, July 20 – and not terribly early.
It was September 28, 1987 and I had gotten off the bus and was heading for home when I stopped off to get the mail. Inside the box was an envelope addressed to me from NASA. I wasn’t sure what this could be, but when I opened it up, I found a personally autographed color photo of the first man to step foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong. I was legitimately surprised to find this, as it had been more than two years since I had sent this request. It was, in fact, the sixth autograph request I had sent since starting full-force with the hobby early in 1985. 
Before I move into my two vacations in the Summer of ’85 (to Woodland Altars camp and to Florida), I wanted to touch on what were some fond memories from the Summer of ’85. Obviously, I was heavily collecting autographs during this time period as the concurrent postings indicate. And as we rolled into the warm weather, I, now being school-free, ramped up my efforts. I even created what I called my ‘autograph kit’ – it was a box that included my address book, postage stamps, the rubber stamp of my address, envelopes, notecards, and everything else I needed to complete a fan letter. 
If the first part of our Myrtle Beach seems rather uneventful, that is because it was. I sometimes love to take vacations that are go-go-go, seeing as much as possible, and keeping so busy that I need a rest by the time I get home. California is always one of those types of trip. This one wasn’t. Mostly we ate…and watched TV…and played games for the first couple of days. The weather wasn’t quite warm enought to do a lot of swimming, so we found a lot of indoor fun, combined with jacketless trips to some local tourist draws.