How Pierogi Fest was saved and other Indiana tales
I brought this up the other day but never finished the thought. The reason the group moved downstairs to the rec room at Mr. M's house was because Phil and Nick were going to tell me about how they saved Pierogi Fest. You see, Mr. M played in a number of bands, and one of them typically closed out the festival. The last few years of camp, our first day butted up against the fest's last day, so Mr. M would arrive at camp shortly before auditions. This was from 2018, the first summer where we officially didn't have camp and he didn't have to rush back.
Phil and Nick are there, watching the band, and a song or two in, Mr. M points a finger and motions Phil to come over. Concerned and confused, he did. Mr. M says, I need you to go to Walgreens. Uh...what? That's weird. That's when Mr. M says that Henry, one of the guys in the band, is having trouble with his dentures and can't play. They needed Phil to run to Walgreens to get Fixodent or something similar so the band could go on. So Phil and Nick run to Walgreens, get the Fixodent, come back, and the band is able to resume. I mean, you can't have Pierogi Fest without a polka band, and as the last band of the whole thing, they have to end it resoundingly. What's funny is that I've totally heard Mr. M talking about Henry before, this older guy--I feel like he's in his 90s--who just keeps playing. Like, Henry's going to outlive us all, that sort of thing. Phil mentioned that his dad would check up on Henry, bring him food, that sort of thing. That's really sweet. It's too bad he's not around to keep doing that. And I'm really bummed I didn't get to see him play--especially since the one time we did go to Pierogi Fest, we were there on a Sunday. If only I'd known! I didn't find out until a few years later that his was the closing band. Rats.
When Nick arrived, he handed Phil a small bottle of something. It was bulbous and green. The writing on it seemed strange, yet familiar. I went, oh, it's Klingon! Phil went, no, that's Star Trek; this is Star *Wars*. ...My bad. I was unaware the nerdery was so strong with him, but then again, it would be a couple hours before I discovered R2D2 was part of his childhood decor. The bottle, by the way, ended up being some special container of Sprite.
When we were down in the rec room and I got up to get the picture--which we had to do twice because the first time, the only picture my father took was a blurry one of my legs when I handed over my phone--I made an old person sound, like a groan. I was like, we're all old here. Yet we determined I was the youngest one there. Nick is oldest, then Phil. John rattled off his birthdate; while we were born in the same year, he's an August. I'm younger than him by three months almost exactly. I also asked about Phil's kids and what grades they're in; his son just finished 5th grade and his daughter finished 4th. Their school did a whole big moving up ceremony that sounded pretty neat, and considering they're moving, I'm kind of bummed his daughter won't get to do that. They're actually 21 months apart, but because of where their birthdays fall (his son was born in October) they ended up just one grade apart. I also wondered, since they're moving back to Virginia, how close they are to where they used to live. It's just next door. Like, if they were at 507 the last time, they'll now be in 509. That's gotta be trippy, but it's base housing, so you go to what's open, I suppose.
Back at home, I've gone through a few things and definitely found some treasures. There are envelopes labeled by year in the picture-only box, and I pulled out 1987. There are various group pictures from the very first camp in there, including some nice ones of the entire camp, which had just 60 campers that first year. Better, there are the only three pictures I've ever seen of the original chapel. It was only there that first year before it was replaced by the one at the top of the hill that everyone else knows, and the old chapel was taken down. I had this memory of it as being this log cabin-style building with bare lightbulbs. I'm really impressed that that's not too far off from the truth. There really were bare lightbulbs, and the walls had wood paneling. Not bad for a 9-year-old. There also were original copies of fliers from that first year, stapled to the Camp Lawrence fliers from the same year or the year before. It's blatantly obvious to me that those were copied to create the band camp fliers, but hey, they had to come up with something. I showed it to my parents and my mom was like, it was that expensive? It was like $150 for a week. Granted, I have no idea how expensive that was back then, but mom was like, that's about what I made in a week. I was going to contrast that with the pricing from the 2017 flier, but no pricing was listed on there. I did say to mom, compared to how long I attended camp, you really got off with a bargain.
Phil and Nick are there, watching the band, and a song or two in, Mr. M points a finger and motions Phil to come over. Concerned and confused, he did. Mr. M says, I need you to go to Walgreens. Uh...what? That's weird. That's when Mr. M says that Henry, one of the guys in the band, is having trouble with his dentures and can't play. They needed Phil to run to Walgreens to get Fixodent or something similar so the band could go on. So Phil and Nick run to Walgreens, get the Fixodent, come back, and the band is able to resume. I mean, you can't have Pierogi Fest without a polka band, and as the last band of the whole thing, they have to end it resoundingly. What's funny is that I've totally heard Mr. M talking about Henry before, this older guy--I feel like he's in his 90s--who just keeps playing. Like, Henry's going to outlive us all, that sort of thing. Phil mentioned that his dad would check up on Henry, bring him food, that sort of thing. That's really sweet. It's too bad he's not around to keep doing that. And I'm really bummed I didn't get to see him play--especially since the one time we did go to Pierogi Fest, we were there on a Sunday. If only I'd known! I didn't find out until a few years later that his was the closing band. Rats.
When Nick arrived, he handed Phil a small bottle of something. It was bulbous and green. The writing on it seemed strange, yet familiar. I went, oh, it's Klingon! Phil went, no, that's Star Trek; this is Star *Wars*. ...My bad. I was unaware the nerdery was so strong with him, but then again, it would be a couple hours before I discovered R2D2 was part of his childhood decor. The bottle, by the way, ended up being some special container of Sprite.
When we were down in the rec room and I got up to get the picture--which we had to do twice because the first time, the only picture my father took was a blurry one of my legs when I handed over my phone--I made an old person sound, like a groan. I was like, we're all old here. Yet we determined I was the youngest one there. Nick is oldest, then Phil. John rattled off his birthdate; while we were born in the same year, he's an August. I'm younger than him by three months almost exactly. I also asked about Phil's kids and what grades they're in; his son just finished 5th grade and his daughter finished 4th. Their school did a whole big moving up ceremony that sounded pretty neat, and considering they're moving, I'm kind of bummed his daughter won't get to do that. They're actually 21 months apart, but because of where their birthdays fall (his son was born in October) they ended up just one grade apart. I also wondered, since they're moving back to Virginia, how close they are to where they used to live. It's just next door. Like, if they were at 507 the last time, they'll now be in 509. That's gotta be trippy, but it's base housing, so you go to what's open, I suppose.
Back at home, I've gone through a few things and definitely found some treasures. There are envelopes labeled by year in the picture-only box, and I pulled out 1987. There are various group pictures from the very first camp in there, including some nice ones of the entire camp, which had just 60 campers that first year. Better, there are the only three pictures I've ever seen of the original chapel. It was only there that first year before it was replaced by the one at the top of the hill that everyone else knows, and the old chapel was taken down. I had this memory of it as being this log cabin-style building with bare lightbulbs. I'm really impressed that that's not too far off from the truth. There really were bare lightbulbs, and the walls had wood paneling. Not bad for a 9-year-old. There also were original copies of fliers from that first year, stapled to the Camp Lawrence fliers from the same year or the year before. It's blatantly obvious to me that those were copied to create the band camp fliers, but hey, they had to come up with something. I showed it to my parents and my mom was like, it was that expensive? It was like $150 for a week. Granted, I have no idea how expensive that was back then, but mom was like, that's about what I made in a week. I was going to contrast that with the pricing from the 2017 flier, but no pricing was listed on there. I did say to mom, compared to how long I attended camp, you really got off with a bargain.