You probably figured I'd title my final blog with a Beatles song (this is Ballibay after all) and "The End" just seemed too pedestrian. Any similarities between Her Majesty and Dottie are purely coincidental.
Burnt out colleagues back home ask why I would want to share any portion of my summer off with kids. I describe how last year the final Harry Potter book was released, and the Fed Ex truck arrived on the hill and about a hundred Amazon boxes were unloaded for a group of kids who looked like they'd just gotten front row tickets to the Stones. "How can you NOT want to be a part of something like that?" I countered. Ballibay is my reward for a year in the trenches...my dessert.
It would be self-indulgent to list everyone and everything I'll miss, like those Oscar acceptances speeches that everyone tunes out. And eventually I'd inventory the entire joint. What I'll miss is name-able but then again not. Other people throughout the year will high-five me but it won't be the same as when Sam or Aviva does it. Students at school will shoot me the devil horns rock salute but without Moose's sly grin I won't enjoy it as much. I'll see crazy hair but none of it will say "Stay Cool, American Girl" the way Jackie's does. No one, I mean, NO ONE will make me crazy while simultaneously inspiring me and making me miss my late mother the way Dottie does.
It has been my absolute pleasure and privilege to blog for you these past five weeks. The real world is calling and sometimes you can't let it go to voice mail. I will very nearly count the days until I'm inside the red barns again.
(As overheard at the end of the Let It Be album) "Thank you on behalf of the group and myself and I hope we passed the audition!"
Robert N., aka Fergie Ferg, soon to be once again just Mr. Naugle,
(Ex)Camp Nurse
funbobbymucha@hotmail.com
