HAPPY CANADA DAY!

In a few short days we'll be celebrating again, on the 4th of July. Today is the 1st of July, and that is Canada Day. Because it falls on Sunday this year, tomorrow is also a day off. So it will be quite a week for us, celebrating almost every day!

However, we won't be celebrating like the group of young folks that are sharing our campground with us. When we arrived a week ago, we were one of only three campers. A few more came in last week, but it was still a quiet, peaceful, country campground. That all changed on Friday when the younger crowd came speeding down the dirt road to claim their spot for their tents. By late afternoon there were about 2 dozen small two person tents in a rainbow of colors and in various shapes dotting the edge of the field by the tree line. Ernie and I, and Dick and Bev looked at each other and said "Oh, oh!" A very nice young man from across the road came up to us and asked if he could use our electricity to blow up his air mattress. We told him he could, and we chatted while his mattress inflated inside his small tent that he had dragged over too, as the door would not open wide enough for his bed to go in when it was inflated. He told us the crowd was arriving for the concert that would be held that night and Saturday night.

We were impressed when the taxi cabs arrived to transport the youth to their concert, thinking that maybe this was a responsible crowd. WRONG! When they arrived back at the campground after the concert, the merriment began. Campfires blazed, beer flowed, and music and exhuberent voices drowned out the silence of the peaceful little campground. (To those of my family who remember, think Blue Bird Springs!) I watched and listened until well after one, but then, thanks to my little purple friends, my earplugs, I went to sleep. When we woke up the next morning and scanned the grounds, there was nary a soul to be seen. The tents were still there, the beer bottles were lined up on the picnic tables and tossed around the grounds, and the campfires were nothing but smouldering ashes, and the youngsters were sound asleep. Then we were warned by the gentleman up the road that this night, the second of the concert series, would be worse!

Cars sped back and forth all afternoon, and girls made their way up the little hill to the public bathrooms to shower and primp and to don their favorite jeans and tanktops. Soon the taxicabs arrived again, loading up their fares and driving them the 7 or so miles into town, only to return in twenty minutes to pick up the next load. However, there were a few young men who this time braved the roads and the police ticketing party goers, and they took their own vehicles. When they sped back into the campground around midnight, they announced their arrival with loud honking of their horns, all the way down the road, past the elderly crowd who was snoring away in their campers, and they joined their friends that were already partaking of refreshments. Again I watched out my window for a short while, then found my little purple friends again, and I shut out the noise and drifted off into dreamland.

The party must have lasted most of the night, and I'm thinking it was a bit more lively than the night before. Our friend walked up to the campground bathrooms this morning, and found a partition between the stalls was broken down and there was foul "stuff" decorating the whole stall. Beer bottles covered the ground, and the manager was out picking up the liter and having animated conversations with several of his young guests. He was heard to say that he would never again rent spots to the young folks.

Thank goodness we weren't in a tent, but were safe and protected from most of the noise in our RVs. But the weekend has left a bad taste in our mouths. Up until now, we hadn't seen the irresponsibility and recklessness of the kids, and we had thought that this place was indeed the quiet, peaceful, gentle island. I guess youth is youth wherever you are! Happy Canada Day!