Come to Jesus Meeting is a southern saying it means that you are in deep trouble and you better make your peace with the your creator. Memphis and Will were told many times in their youth by their parents they were about to have a "Come to Jesus Meeting."
It was early summer of 1973. Memphis went to church camp in the Smokey Mountains with his friend Will. After about 10 hour drive, they finally arrived at the camp. They arrive in time to get their instructions and assigned cabins. The first day was spent like a meet and greet. Will and Memphis spent the day getting acquainted with the other campers. They quickly became friends with Bounce, Red, Stumpy, and Doc. Bounce was a big ole boy. He was round like a beach ball. Hence, the name Bounce. Red was tall and thin with bright red hair. Stumpy was short and stocky like a bull dog. He was strong and to the point. Doc was from a family of doctors. His dad was a neurosurgeon and his mom was a pediatric doctor. He knew a lot about medical stuff. So, he earned the name Doc. This motley crew was the miss-fits of the camp. They were kind of like the toys of Miss-Fit Island. The rest of the campers did not want to be around them. So, the counselors decided to put the boys into cabins next to each other. This way they could keep a close eye on the pack. They became a tight knit group of guys. Any activities that required teams, they made sure the pack was together. They became known as the six pack of trouble or triple deuce(3D) since they bunked in pairs. After the third day, two counselors decided to take a larger group of campers way up stream to the mountain top to see the shell of an helicopter crash. The pack knowing that two counselors could not watch that large of group closely. Well, triple deuce found their opportunity to split from the group. They walked real slow and waited for the larger group to get far ahead of them. 3D(triple deuce) took off running in the opposition direction down stream. They were about two miles down stream when the river forked. They took the fork to the left. After about a hundred yards, a large chain linked fence blocked the creek and had a no trespassing sign. The sign was ignore as Will and Stumpy pulled the bottom of the fence up as the rest of the crew slipped under it. Once, all the group was on the other side. 3D came upon a shed standing along the bank of the river with pipes going from the river to the shed. There were hundreds of white jugs some filled with a liquid and some waiting to be filled. They had to walk about thirty yards to find a spot to get up on the bank and to back track to the shed. The group had found a still and a bunch of moonshine. "The Comstock Load" , they were all excited. A pig in slop couldn't have been more excited. Will had been prairie dogging it for ten minutes.(needing to take a crap) So he ran to find a tree to drop the turd behind. All of sudden he comes screaming trying to pull his pants up. He was screaming, "RUN!" The group looked puzzled. He was running like his butt was on fire. Then in the distance we heard the barking of hounds. Further in the distance we could hear someone scream "Get the Hell out of here"! Stumpy grabbed a jug and they all were looking for a place to get back into the river. The bank was eight to ten feet above the creek bed. Memphis jumped and the rest followed over the edge. Who ever gave Bounce his name gave him the wrong name. Memphis found out the hard way. Bounce jumped after Memphis and landed right on him without a bounce. It flatten Memphis against the hard stones of the creek bed. For a big round guy Bounce could run. Memphis popped up and drafted behind Bounce. The group was running for their life and the dogs finally made it to the river bed. 3D finally made it to the fence and got to the other side. They were waiting for Red. They busted out laughing at Red. His arms and legs were flying in all directions. Imagine a wet noodle trying to stand straight. He was kind of like those tall skinny stick men with a large fan blowing it around. It is used at grand openings to drawing attention to the event. Or was he trying to take off flying. The group finally made it back to camp. Memphis was nicknamed spots because of the bruise spots from the rocks all over his stomach. Thanks to Bounce falling on him. After making it back to the camp ground, 3D never left the grounds of the camp for the remainder. They stay close to the counselors and watched all the strangers closely. The boys made it back home safely and were friends for a few more years.The bloom of friendship between Memphis and Will slowly whithered and died. As with a lot friendships it was a slow death. Their friendship is another story to tell. May your friendships bloom forever my friend.
Keep Hope in your heart and Love will bloom.
see ya,
dog gone,
Dogman707
No comments:
Post a Comment