Bigfeet and Wild Men

The other night, the boy and girl campers split up, and the boys went to camp out up the mountain. We were trying to create sort of a "right of passage" type feeling for both the boys and girls. Anyway, we thought it'd be great for both groups to get a Bigfoot sighting. So, we scrambled and managed to put together a pretty good bigfoot costume for me. My friend Emily spent about 5 hours cutting fabric and hot glueing it to this cheap painter's coverall I was wearing. It actually turned out really good! So, we staged the boys' sighting at dusk. I was standing in the middle of a clearing, and they came through the trees marching and hollering and carrying on. When they saw me, they all stopped and stared dumbfounded. Then I took off toward the edge of the clearing using my well-practiced Bigfoot Walk. But, I wasn't really prepared for what happened next. They chased me! Luckily one of the counselors basically tackled the chasers, which gave me time to get to the tree line. Oh, and then I discovered that half the trees up on that part of the mountain are covered in thorns! That started the steady decline of the suit, which would continue through the night.

That sighting done, I went down to the camp where the girls were. They finished the night off with a campfire, and my friend Wyman told them a scary story (this was all part of the set up). Here's the story: There are some old house "ruins" at the lower end of camp. Those are the remains of the house that belonged to the Valdez family. Mrs. Valdez died in childbirth. The father, grief-stricken, took to drinking, and couldn't take care of his new boy. He locked him in the basement and would feed him scraps. The boy grew wild, with mangy, matted hair and long fingernails. One day, a neighbor girl heard the boy's howls and came to investigate. She let the boy out of the basement. Then, the father came home, and started shaking the little girl. The boy got angry and knocked the father against the wall. The little girl ran away and told her parents, who called the police. They came to investiage, and all they found was blood and hair. The place was destroyed, and the boy was gone. Every once in a while, cats and dogs go missing up on the mountain. They say that's what Juan survives on.

Anyway, just at the end of the story, I came shuffling up to the campfire making strange noises (still wearing my suit). The girls all screamed, but then they started chasing me too!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun.