COMMENTARY - This was an article that appeared in the October 1995 issue of the Falcon -- Kinkaid's more or less monthly newspaper. The pictures didn't appear in the original article and were taken at various times and places.
I suppose it was my own fault, but very early in the first year I taught at Kinkaid I somehow let the cat out the bag and it became known, not only that I liked to go camping, but that I had often taken students at the Texas Medical Center on camping trips with me. If memory serves, I think it was Jeff Williams, a freshman that year, who talked (pestered) me into agreeing to sponsor The Outdoor Nature Club. Somehow in succeeding years the Nature part of the title got dropped.
The club may even have been founded under somewhat false pretenses since I recall a few of my new Faculty colleagues complimenting me on taking the initiative in leading Kinkaid students toward environmental activism. As a matter of fact, having become an outdoor enthusiast largely through participating in scouting with my sons (rather than as an avid hunter or charter member of the Gulf Coast Gun Club), I had actually been sensitized to environmental concerns and favored the lightpak camping approach to hiking (as in "enjoy nature -- take nothing away and leave nothing behind but a footprint"). But I did outdoor things because I enjoy doing outdoor things and have no valid claim to the environmental altruism I was being complimented on.
Probably my colleagues could not imagine that any sane sexagenarian would voluntarily allow, nay even encourage, a bunch of hyperhormonal teenagers to share his woodland retreats if there were not some redeeming educational goal involved. The truth is, my kids are now living in other parts of the country and my wife is more of a stiff upper lip trooper than an eager, dirt floor camper. Since at my age it is more than prudent to camp in the company of CPR proficient companions, why not my students? I always figured they would go to heroic measures in an emergency just so they wouldn’t have to get used to a substitute teacher for the rest of the year. Besides, since I reserve to myself the role of chief cook, it gives me a chance to try out new recipe variations for a largely uncritical (when starving) clientele. My favorite effort as cook, and I modestly admit, a real hit with the club members, is to have French fried doughnuts (beignet!) for breakfast.
For the first few years the club was rather small and exclusive with pay as you go financing; only rarely would more than six or eight members show up for a campout but we would occasionally have 20 or more members and friends show up for water sports which, at this time were centered at Clear Lake where the William’s boat was moored. Then the class that eventually graduated in ‘93 came along, established membership dues and transformed recruitment to a fine science; so that, for instance, the club membership in ‘92 reached close to one-fourth of the total Upper School enrollment. As Kevin and Conner, the leaders in these years, soon discovered, participation in camping events didn’t increase all that much and even the water events didn’t get that much larger. Thus, the net effect of the new dues policy provided ample money in the treasury to cover the costs of events for everyone who did choose to participate and to replace equipment which by this time was getting pretty worn.
In the past few years Lake Conroe became the focus of the club’s water sports through the graciousness of the Gallaghers and even more recently Lake Livingston, through the kindness of the Bells. The club averages two or three events a semester with at least one overnight campout included. One of the most popular outings has always been a canoe trip and campout along Village Creek which runs through a part of the Big Thicket just North of Beaumont. Driftwood is always plentiful and the evening bonfire is unfailingly a memorable experience. The club has fostered a number of legendary fire builders (pyromaniacs): Keith (I swear that tree was already dead) Koford and the owl man himself, Cullen (the bigger the tree the better) Hanks.
It is around the bonfire when my presence seems to fade into the flickering shadows; I can almost become a part once again of the intensity, boredom, vitality, triviality, gossip, conviction, oppression, freedom, agony and fun which is the unique growing time in our lives we call the teen ages. It’s a great antidote for aging!