The photo shows a young me with my Forestry hard hat.
It was when the crew were called to eat and they lined up to fill their plates, that I first noticed Todd. Having lived on the fringes of hippiedom during the late 60’s and early 70’s, worn my hair longer than the norm, and suffering the consequences for my appearance, left me drawn to those who might be kindred spirits. Todd looked like he might be such a spirit.
Todd had long stingy, dirty, shoulder length, blond hair which rested atop his thin, 6’5” (2m) frame. He wore old jeans with holes in them, an old sweatshirt, and raggedy old running shoes. He looked every bit the stereotypical hippie, and as I was soon to learn, no one else I have ever met, came closer to living up to that stereo-type, than “Odd Todd”.
After helping with the kitchen clean-up, I did my time-keeper chores. I went through all the names, trying to mentally put a face to them. I recorded the hours everyone had put in for the day, then repacked all the forms and pencils back into the brown envelope, did up its string-joined tie, walked over to my designated tent, slid into my bedroll, and fell asleep.
I was somewhat dismayed, upon awakening at 6:00 the next morning to discover that during the night it had begun to rain, in fact, it had begun to pour. A cool grey dampness hung over the camp. I forced myself from the sleeping bag and blanket and put on my clammy, but dry clothes and wandered over to the shelter of the tarp that served as the roof to the camp kitchen. JJ was already at work scrambling eggs and frying bacon.
No comments:
Post a Comment