Day Off Story #1

There are many days off that I remember fondly, but I'll start with the one that makes me laugh the most. I believe it was 1987, and it was the pre-camp day off. Most of the C's had gone down to Toronto for bus run, and the less PR savvy of us (being brutally honest), were charged with looking out for the AC's. We all ended up going to Rotary Park, as it was the default location for days off back then. Will/Crockett had managed to get us a two-four of Blue in cans --side note: I've not touched Blue since I became of age, and I'm convinced that the only reason why Blue sells, seeing as its only steps removed from urine taste-wise, is that its the simplest name to blurt out as a terrified underage kid clearly out of your depth at the Beer Store. Once we got settled in Rotary, Will suggested that we place the case in Rotary Park River, to keep the beers cold. I thought that a smart enough suggestion, but was slightly concerned that the current may move the case. Not to worry, Will declared, we'll place a big stone on top to keep it in place. Problem solved.

After finishing an extremely tasty barley sandwich under a warm June blue sky, I got up and went over to the river to grab another. I leaned over the river's edge to grab a water-cooled beer, and noticed with some concern that the case was gone. I thought I had the wrong place on the river, so I paced along the embankment, searching for the wayward case; I mean it was a 2-4, where could it go? But slowly, a horrific acknowledgement overcame me, that our very precious beer case had, in fact, gone missing.

I was at a loss as to what to do. I went back over to Will and said, "Hey man, I think our case has gone AWOL". He looked up at me with a grin that said that he thought I was messing with his head, but then realized from the look on my face that I wasn't. He quickly hussled over to the riverbank, and began to prowl it like a giant cat, occasionally stopping, pointing and muttering, "its right here...no, no, its right here...no wait its over here". I finally broke that spell by saying in a perfectly lucid moment that of course its gone, the cardboard box broke apart and the cans floated away. Will turned towards me with a look that was a cross between dispondancy and defiant anger, and then without any warning suddenly whipped off his shirt, dove into the river and started swimming away. I just watched; I mean, what are you going to say?

A couple of hours passed by and I was starting to get worried about the boy, and the fact that I was going to spend the entire day off sober with AC's I barely knew. Then out of the corner of my eye I see this figure ascend from the bull rushes beside the bank at the end of the park, arms filled with beer cans. It was Will, and I swear he was back lit by a warm glowing light and somewhere angelic choral music was played; the new Messiah had come and he had brought me beer!

I was speechless, and simply gave Will a 'how in the hell' look. He just looked back at me and said, "I just just kept swimming, and every time I found one, I would swim over to the side of the river and put it on the bank, and just picked them all up on the walk back. I was just on the other side of Minden when I got the last one..." I was truly astonished, and this is one of the leading reasons he's my best friend to this day. And I'll tell you another thing, those were some of the finest tasting beers I've ever had in my life.