Fifty Years Ago

Fifty Years Ago

Noel Laflin

6-30-21

Fifty years ago right about now, and give or take a decade either way, Ahwahnee would have been hosting its first week of campers. Records indicate that Camp averaged around two hundred visitors a week. This would be repeated for another seven or eight weeks each summer. 

During its twenty years as an active Scout camp, that meant that somewhere around thirty thousand folks, both young and old, spent a week at Ahwahnee, not to mention hundreds of young men, along with a handful of women, serving as staff members all of those years.

That's got to account for a lot of memories.

Flitting Thoughts

Flitting Thoughts

Noel Laflin

6-15-21

I was sitting in the fragrant shade of a lone orchid tree yesterday morning waiting for a hummingbird or two to come in and fly from pretty bloom to bloom. I have watched this very scene before, and it never gets old. There are still a few blossoms on the gnarly old tree drawing in bees of course, but I was hoping for a hummingbird. One did flit by eventually, but he was too quick, too high up, and clearly too practical to pose for a picture.

A woman I met here a few weeks ago told me that a pair of elderly brothers planted this tree years ago. As to why, she did not know. But when it blooms throughout the entire month of May, and then into the next month, well, perhaps the brothers knew what kind of gift they were bestowing upon future generations, including the old guy crouched below its splendor, waiting for fickle little birds, but until then, enjoying both its fragrance and shade on a warm June morning years later.

Tiger Radio

 

Tiger Radio

Noel Laflin

6-14-21

As I recall, if you wanted to tune into a radio station while at camp back in the 1960’s, KFXM, 590 on the AM dial, was about your only choice.

It wasn’t a bad choice at all – just the only one – at least on the small transistor radio tucked away in our plywood dwelling out in Sherwood Forest, and a couple of summers later holed up in The Land of Nod (old Commissioner Area C – Cherokee, Blackfoot, Geronimo, and Tielroy).

I grew so fond of the 590 format, the DJ’s, the songs (obviously) that I would try to tune it in back home – hoping to catch a tune that would remind me of the summer of 1966, 1968, or 1969.

If atmospheric conditions were right, I could hold the distant station while I did homework in my room, or falling asleep - all the while hoping to hear something from the Grass Roots, Dylan, or Elvis, just one more time.

Lunch with Mary

 

Lunch with Mary

Noel Laflin

6-13-21

Many years ago I took my good friend Mary out to lunch at a local Red Lobster Restaurant.

After scanning the menu, I happened to look up at an old black and white framed photo on the wall behind Mary.  It had been blown up to nearly poster size. It was a good shot – not grainy in the least.

“Hey, when you get a chance, look at the cool picture behind you.  It looks like Laurel and Hardy in a little dingy off a beautiful rocky coast somewhere. They are both holding fishing poles and looking rather relaxed.  There’s one other guy motoring the dingy – must be the captain, judging by his hat. It’s a cool picture.”

Mary set down her menu and turned to look.

“Oh, Good Lord, that’s my father!”

“Obviously the third guy in the skipper’s hat?”

“Yup, that’s pop alright. And that’s his boat.  He ran a small fishing service off of Catalina Island for years.  He would take paying customers to remote lagoons, or wherever the fish liked to hang out. He used to mention some of the famous folks that sought him out.  But gosh, I’ve never seen this picture before.”

About then, the server came by to take our order.

We both had fish.

Nuts About the Future

 Nuts About the Future

Noel Laflin

6-8-21

 

Acorns were scattered throughout the backyard last fall as I wanted to surprise the neighborhood squirrels. Since the closest oaks are across the street and down near the pond, I thought I would save the critters a trip across a busy throughway.

I started to gather pocketful's of nuts after strong winds knocked them out of the Coastal Live Oaks. There were piles of them around many of the old trees.

Of the ones I bought home, I'd either line up on the fence, or place on the stepping stones. Some I pushed gently down into the rich soil thinking the squirrels would sniff them out eventually.

The squirrels did find all of the acorns in quick order - or so I assumed.

But while weeding today I scratched my fingers on some sharp little leaves popping out of the ground.

It's a baby Live Oak, by golly.

Glad the squirrels missed that one. But if that oak seedling thrives, as I have no doubt it will, future generations will thank their distant ancestors.  And maybe even me.