in my youth, i was very fortunate to have parents affluent enough to send me to summer camp. when i was very little, i went to one down the street from me. kind of an outdoorsy/sports camp. we had weekly hiking/camping trips and things were fun.
now, as a kid i always had to have a hat pulled down low over my eyes. i suspect that my eyes may be a little extra sensitive to bright light as i, to this day cant stand to be outside, even on a cloudy day, without sunglasses or at least a hat pulled down low. i've also never been discriminating with what i wore. i was always more focused on my need for the functionality of it. i had every concievable hideous hat including what i can only chalk up to as a replica of something that the french foreign legion wears. a flat topped hat with a short brim and cloth that went from the hat and down covering my neck and shoulders. it isnt exactly what they wore but it feels in my memory like it was sort of a movie replica from something like lawrence of arabia. i cant remember where i got that hat...but i do remember it was expensive (and i proceeded to destroy it in a matter of a few weeks).
anwyays back to how this relates to summer camp.
at that first summer camp i went to on my first day when i was like 4 or 5 i was running outside to go and i remembered i needed a hat. so i grabbed the first one i saw. it was a horrible like dull lime green hat (which over years or use faded to an almost pale olive green) with bright yellow lettering reading "BOSS". i'm sure most of you are familear with their line of clothing...although you may know it with "hugo" stamped in front of the name "boss"...yeah in the late 80s they made an ugly hat. lots of ugly things got made in the 80s...anyways its better than what they made in the 30s...(nazi uniforms)!!!
so i went to camp with a hat that said "BOSS" on it...so i gained the nickname "the boss" and it stuck with me for quite a while. in fact i'll run into people who know me as the boss from time to time. Bob, the guy who ran the camp lives a few streets over from me and he still calls me boss.
the second summer camp i went to was strictly a sports camp. again on my first day needing something to not go blind in the sun, i grabbed an all black trucker hat emblazoned in gold lettering with the logo "Dan Post Boots". its a hat i got for free when i bought my last pair of hiking boots. so, from day one at that camp i was known as "boots". at this camp the boys and girls were separated. when i got to high school, my first girlfriend was one of the girls who went to the same camp years earlier with me and she only ever called me boots...even after i had finally told her my real name. force of habbit i suppose. we broke up after a few months of "dating".
it was at the sports camp that i found out that i hit baseballs better with wooden bats (i have the tendancy to swing too early...the wooden bat is heavier and slows my swing. turns out that i'm a real slugger). its where i first discovered one of the loves of my life, lacrosse. and its where i found out that i really have a quick left jab. i got in a fight in the locker room one day and i ended it by socking a kid in the eye. no one ever messed with me after that. which now that i think of it, is kind of an important life leson. the winner is the guy who is willing to go the furthest. i escalated my fight to a real fisticuffs brawl. he didnt want to. i win, i get to be a winner. he loses, he gets a nice shiner under his right eye.
and yes, i know most of you dont agree with me that violence does solve everything. but its true. look at history and tell me what violence didnt solve?
and i dont know where this conversation is going. nor do i know why i decided to tell you about my nick names coming from hats when i was in camp in my youth. when i do know is that i've been up for just under 24 hours now and i'm in some sort of horrible sleep deprived state where i dont feel tired enough to sleep but am wandering around like a zombie...in and out of conciousness.
so i should probably end it here.
now, as a kid i always had to have a hat pulled down low over my eyes. i suspect that my eyes may be a little extra sensitive to bright light as i, to this day cant stand to be outside, even on a cloudy day, without sunglasses or at least a hat pulled down low. i've also never been discriminating with what i wore. i was always more focused on my need for the functionality of it. i had every concievable hideous hat including what i can only chalk up to as a replica of something that the french foreign legion wears. a flat topped hat with a short brim and cloth that went from the hat and down covering my neck and shoulders. it isnt exactly what they wore but it feels in my memory like it was sort of a movie replica from something like lawrence of arabia. i cant remember where i got that hat...but i do remember it was expensive (and i proceeded to destroy it in a matter of a few weeks).
anwyays back to how this relates to summer camp.
at that first summer camp i went to on my first day when i was like 4 or 5 i was running outside to go and i remembered i needed a hat. so i grabbed the first one i saw. it was a horrible like dull lime green hat (which over years or use faded to an almost pale olive green) with bright yellow lettering reading "BOSS". i'm sure most of you are familear with their line of clothing...although you may know it with "hugo" stamped in front of the name "boss"...yeah in the late 80s they made an ugly hat. lots of ugly things got made in the 80s...anyways its better than what they made in the 30s...(nazi uniforms)!!!
so i went to camp with a hat that said "BOSS" on it...so i gained the nickname "the boss" and it stuck with me for quite a while. in fact i'll run into people who know me as the boss from time to time. Bob, the guy who ran the camp lives a few streets over from me and he still calls me boss.
the second summer camp i went to was strictly a sports camp. again on my first day needing something to not go blind in the sun, i grabbed an all black trucker hat emblazoned in gold lettering with the logo "Dan Post Boots". its a hat i got for free when i bought my last pair of hiking boots. so, from day one at that camp i was known as "boots". at this camp the boys and girls were separated. when i got to high school, my first girlfriend was one of the girls who went to the same camp years earlier with me and she only ever called me boots...even after i had finally told her my real name. force of habbit i suppose. we broke up after a few months of "dating".
it was at the sports camp that i found out that i hit baseballs better with wooden bats (i have the tendancy to swing too early...the wooden bat is heavier and slows my swing. turns out that i'm a real slugger). its where i first discovered one of the loves of my life, lacrosse. and its where i found out that i really have a quick left jab. i got in a fight in the locker room one day and i ended it by socking a kid in the eye. no one ever messed with me after that. which now that i think of it, is kind of an important life leson. the winner is the guy who is willing to go the furthest. i escalated my fight to a real fisticuffs brawl. he didnt want to. i win, i get to be a winner. he loses, he gets a nice shiner under his right eye.
and yes, i know most of you dont agree with me that violence does solve everything. but its true. look at history and tell me what violence didnt solve?
and i dont know where this conversation is going. nor do i know why i decided to tell you about my nick names coming from hats when i was in camp in my youth. when i do know is that i've been up for just under 24 hours now and i'm in some sort of horrible sleep deprived state where i dont feel tired enough to sleep but am wandering around like a zombie...in and out of conciousness.
so i should probably end it here.