With our 20th wedding anniversary coming up, I decided to write about our love story. Please join me in the upcoming days as I tell A Summer Camp Love Story.
Twenty-one years ago this summer, I packed my maroon Honda Accord trunk with everything a girl needs for two months at summer camp. I still can't believe my parents let their 20-year-old daughter, with a terrible sense of direction, drive herself eight hours--and across two states. However, I had cash in my wallet, gas in my tank, and the route on my map marked with a yellow sharpie, leading the way to Versailles, Missouri--home of a dear summer camp friend. The plan was to stay at her house a couple of days and drive down together to begin Staff Work Week at Kanakuk Kamps.
In between lying out at the pool, cooking Chinese food together, and meeting all of her family, Tracey and I talked non-stop about summer camp. Who we'd kept up with during the year, who we'd seen, and who we were looking forward to seeing.
Ah, and that is where this love story starts: A list. Tracey and I each made a list of who we'd like to get to know better that summer. Okay, more specifically--which guys we thought were cute and would love to date.
And, I know what you're thinking, and yes. Yes, I do remember who was on my list. Do I even dare to mention them now...after these twenty-one years? It's a nice list. I'm pretty everyone on my list has ended up a good guy. Oh, all right. I'll tell you the list. Anyone who knew me back then will surely know exactly who I am talking about. I'll just mention first names, though.
Scott, Ted, Britt, Shannon, and Dave.
I had met all of these guys the summer before, and each one intrigued me for different reasons. I had been dating a guy from home the summer before, so I never even thought about these guys back then. However, after a New Year's Eve broken heart, these guys were the ones I told Tracey I was looking forward to seeing at camp.
Oh, but what's a list, right? Girls always make mental lists of guys they think are cute. I certainly wasn't expecting any of those guys to pay me any special attention. I was never a flirty girl, and always felt like I just blended into the crowd. However. Because the movie The Dead Poets Society had been a popular movie that year, I was heading into summer with the theme "Carpe Diem" in the twinkle of my eye.
How fitting that the very first person I saw as I pulled my car into the Kanakuk driveway, was a guy on my list. Out of the fifty or so guys arriving that day, I first ran into the blond-headed, blue-eyed, tanned smiling face of Dave. Just outside the dining hall, just steps away from my car, Dave came over and hugged me.
Of course, it was a very quick, all-friendly hug...followed by lots and lots of other friends and "Hey, how was your year?" and other hugs.
But, Dave's was first.
From that very first moment, it was Dave.
I don't know if you believe in fate, or if you believe in God playing Matchmaker. I'll let you draw your own conclusions in this story.
But, just remember: Dave was first.
To be continued...
