Re: Death Camp Kids - Savannah's Story

On Jan 29, 10:58 am, woodstock <thirdwavevisi...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 29, 11:21 am, Butterfly Bill <butterflyb...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

This was posted to Facebook by Ouiluv Yu. It was a public post, and I
get the idea that the author wants it to be spread widely, so I am
posting here to a.g.r

It is not about the July 4th incident in Pennsylvania. Instead it is
about something that happened on their way to the Wyoming gathering.
About two thirds of the way to the end the author recounts an incident
that left a deep emotional memory.

I'm having trouble reconciling the names given to the people I saw on
July 4th. There is "Me", who might be either the female who was
wearing the yellow and orange sun suit and had the camera, or the one
with dreadlocked hair wearing a purple elf skirt. I thought this
person was a girl, but some people have told me that she is a boy. The
third child there was definitely female. But in the list the next
three in age after Me are boys, and the one who was wearing the bodice
looked too old to be 6.

But Savannah is one damn good writer. The only thing I would have to
do if I were editing would be to cut up some of the long paragraphs
into shorter ones. This person has done a lot of reading, and knows
how to use words like "myriad". And at only 15!

-BB
_______________________________________

SAVANNAH'S STORY

Intro

Rainbow

A rainbow gathering is a place where many different people gather to
pray for peace (or so they say). They set up free food kitchens and
camps where the hippies can get free food. There is front gate, which
is the welcoming comity. There is a camp where the alcoholics stay and
get so drunk that they start beating the crap out of one another (you
don’t ever want to be there at night).

The Woods

There are two different parts of the woods: the dirty kid half and the
yuppie half. The yuppies hate the dirty kids and try to kick them out
of the woods at any chance they get. Everyone is supposed to be really
peaceful, but not many are. If you knock over a rock tower or say a
curse word you will have a whole group of people around you trying to
hurt you. That is their idea of peaceful.

Gatherings

There are two different kinds of gatherings: regionals and nationals.
Regionals happen all year round, and nationals are only once a year.
The gatherings are always held in a national forest, but it doesn’t
matter which national forest.

The Dirty Kids

Dirty kids are the kids who live on the road all year long and don’t
work. They live off of everyone else and they spange. Spanging is
sitting on the side of a road and holding up a sign. They write things
on the sign to try to make people who are driving by feel bad and give
them money. They get food by using food stamps, going to the food
bank, or going dumpster diving. Dumpster diving is when you go to the
back of a store and see what they have thrown away. You would be
surprised at what stores throw away. For fuel they gas or diesel jug.
Gas and diesel jugging is when you go up to someone pumping gas or
diesel and ask them if they can spare a few gallons. They are the ones
who set up all of the regional gatherings, and they are usually the
only ones who go to them.

Holding Camp

Holding camp is where the people who are going to the gathering wait
for it to begin. People sometimes wait for over two months at these
camps.

Nationals

There is only one national gathering a year. There are usually over
ten thousand people at these gatherings. Nationals are what we dirty
kids call the yuppie gatherings, because no one likes the dirty kids
there. The yuppies always try their best to find a way to kick us out
of the woods.

Regionals

There is always a regional gathering going on somewhere. You can go
from one regional to the next all year- they are never ending. There
are even regional gatherings going on when national are taking place.

The Yuppies

Yuppies are the people who have jobs and only go to nationals. They
believe that they are all knowing and powerful because they have been
to so many gatherings. They have council about every little thing,
such as people cursing or someone bringing alcohol into the woods.

Council

Council is where the yuppies talk about all the problems they are
having in the woods. Usually they talk about how the dirty kids are
disrupting the gathering, and how they should just kick them out of
the woods. They also talk about how death camp terrorizes people. The
yuppies blame anything out of the ordinary that ever happens on them,
such as things getting stolen, people getting a cut on their foot
(they say that death camp sharpened sticks and put them in the
ground), a tent gets slashed, etc.

~ ~

My Family and Friends

My darling mother- she is the one who brings us to these gatherings

Me- 15, I am the controlling one and the leader

Forest- 13, he is the obnoxious and a troublemaker

Katsura- 11, he is the crazy one and a troublemaker

Ozawa- 9, he is the sweet heart and a troublemaker

Annaleise- 6, she is the tomboy

Bubblegum- 4, she is the cutie pie and a little devil at times.

Harlan- he used to be my boyfriend

Kramer- we usually call him daddy Kramer because he was so good to us
and always took care of us.

~ ~

Savannah's Story

We were almost to the Wyoming holding camp. All of the kids had fallen
asleep, and only mom, Marcus (mom’s boyfriend), and I were awake. The
whole bus was filling with dust, and it was making us very congested.
We had to cover our mouths so we could breathe. The road was really
bumpy, so we were bouncing all over the place. Amazingly none of the
kids had woken up. We had been on that road for half an hour, and were
beginning to think we had made a wrong turn somewhere. Then I saw a
rock pile! Rock piles in rainbow mean that you are going in the right
direction. I saw a dim light up ahead, and I could smell the aroma of
a fire. We found it, yay! Mom parked the bus in the grass on the side
of the road. Everyone at holding camp was sleeping so we got in the
back of the bus and laid down to go to sleep.

I woke up to the kids walking all over me. Still half asleep, I got
out of the bus and was so amazed by how beautiful it was outside. The
wind was blowing, the trees were swaying back and forth to the wind,
the ground was covered with vibrantly colored wild flowers, and the
woods were flourishing with life. I saw a river less than 50 feet away
from me, and I ran over to it. It was a huge river, approximately 100
feet to the other side, and the water was so clear

I could see right through to the bottom of the it. I saw little fish,
algae, and hermit crabs; I pulled up my pants and stepped into the
water. It was so cold, but also so relaxing that I stood in it until
my feet got numb. I walked back to camp to put some warmer clothes on
because it was rather chilly outside. When I was changed I came back
outside and saw that none of the kids were washed up. I went back into
the bus and got out the propane stove, some propane, and the teapot. I
set up the propane stove because I didn’t want to use our spring water
to make wash up. There was no spring there yet and if we used all of
the water up then we would have to take the half an hour journey back
into town. I sent Ozawa to fetch me some water from the river. I
turned on the propane stove and the flames were so high I almost burnt
myself. I had to turn it down really low because our propane stove was
a little broken. I put the teapot on, and I went to wake up the rest
of the kids. They were all snuggled up in the blankets on the floor of
the bus. It was so cute! How cute the kids were distracted me. Then I
heard the teapot whistling! I ran out of the bus, turned off the
stove, and dumped the water into the red bucket. I put some cold water
into it I and got the soap and tooth brushes out of the bus. I put
them on the picnic table and called the kids because it was time to
wash up. The kids came out and we all washed up.

Mom made eggs and potatoes for breakfast. After we were done eating
some people came over and asked if we needed any help with anything.
We told them we were okay. Everyone seemed really nice. There were
approximately 20 people there, not including us. We asked mom if we
could go exploring, and she said yes. She told us not to go to far we,
and said okay. I asked the kids who wanted to go exploring. Forest,
Katsura, Ozawa, Annaleise, and Bubblegum all wanted to go. First we
went over and looked at people’s camps. We saw that a lot of people
just slept in their sleeping bags by the huge fire, while other people
had pop up campers, and others had strings attached to different
trees. There were tarps laid over the strings, and the people put
their stuff under the tarps. There was only one tent set up in the
whole campsite! A few others just slept in their buses as we did.
There were a myriad of fire pits already at the campsite, along with
picnic tables because it was a free campground. This was unusual
because holding camp is usually in some small part of the national
forest, not at free campgrounds. Some people had dug some new
campfires so they could sleep by them. We found a part of the campsite
that was right next to the river, and it was the most gorgeous place
ever. Enormous, long vines and gigantic green oak trees surrounded it.
We felt we were standing in a forest castle. People kept trying to
talk to us, but we were very shy so we decided to venture into the
woods where we hoped there would be no people.

We found what looked like a little path and started walking on it. It
smelled like wild flowers! As we walked we kept getting stuck in
pricker bushes, getting cuts all over our legs, and tripping over
vines in the pathway that we didn’t see. At the end of the path we
came to a dam. To one side of us we could see the road we drove in on
the other night, so we knew we would find our way back easily. It was
very strange that on one side of the road there was just grass as far
as the eye could see, and the other side was covered in green trees
and flourishing with life. We walked over to the other side of the dam
and saw tons of water gushing over it. It looked like an enormous
waterfall and it made the river part. I told the kids to come away
from the dam. We came to an opening next to the river, and we decided
to sit down. There was a big dirt pile next to us and the boys kept
trying to climb it. However, it was too steep and the dirt was so
loose that they didn’t make it very far. After watching and laughing
at them when they fell, the boys stopped trying to conquer the dirt
pile. They decided to collect rocks with us instead. We dug into the
dirt and got covered in mud. We picked up big rocks from our holes and
found a whole bunch of limestone. We thought it was the most wonderful
rock in the world! We put all of our rocks in a pile and sat in a
circle in the mud. We sat in mud for a while trading our rocks.

We got tired of collecting and trading our rocks, so we went exploring
though the woods. It was a breathtaking sight, the oak and pine trees
surrounding us. The wild flowers smelled so sweet, and the crisp
breeze coming off the river smelled very fresh. We came to an opening
near the river. In the middle of the river we saw an island. All of
the kids wanted to try and get to it, and even through I told them no
they somehow persuaded me to go. We took our shoes off and put them in
a pile by a rock next to the river. We went into the water and started
walking toward the island. The water was very shallow, and there
wasn’t much of a current. It was, however, very murky and gross, and
every time I took a step there would be a big brown spot in the water
where my foot had been. My feet kept sinking into the muck. I thought
it was disgusting, but the kids didn’t seem to mind at all. We made it
to the island with no problems other than all of the kids’ pants
getting a little wet and muddy The island was a massive beach with a
bunch of little rocks covering it instead of sand. There were a few
baby trees and some weeds scattered all over the place, and it had
bunch of colossal rocks surrounding it. The boys decided to see who
could be the biggest man and climb the most rocks, they kept almost
falling, and therefore I told them to get down so they wouldn’t kill
themselves. They all came down from the rocks. The babies and I were
collecting more rocks, and the boys came and collected rocks with us.

The wind started to pick up, and it was almost three o’clock. I told
the kids it was time to go back across the murky river. The kids just
ran across the river this time. We got back to the beach, put our
shoes back on, and grabbed the rocks we had collected. We walked
though the woods until we found the main road, and took it back to
camp. The kids started running around, and since the dirt was so dry
they made a massive dust cloud. We played run away from the cloud of
dust, and we were amazed when we saw the bus. We couldn’t figure out
how we got back so fast.

We saw that mom was making lunch, and we asked her what we were
having. She told us that we were having macaroni and cheese with
applesauce. All of the kids were in the bus changing, and I went to
join them. After we were done changing mom called us all to the picnic
table. She told us she had a surprise for us. She told us that daddy
Kramer had just called her. He said he was coming and that he would be
there in 20 minutes. We all started jumping with joy! After a bit we
all calmed down. We went into the bus and got the dish baskets. We
brought them out of the bus, and since there were only four clean
plates we all sat at the table after fighting over them. We ended up
sharing plates to eat lunch. As we were eating we saw Kramer’s big
white bus driving down the dirt road. We jumped up, but mom told to
wait until he parked the bus. He parked in some grass in-between two
trees next to our bus. We ran up to his bus, and he opened the doors.
He got up from the driver seat and gave us all a big gigantic hug.
Puppy Face and Remarkable, Kramer’s dogs, came running up and jump all
over us. They started kissing us, and than we saw that Harlan was on
the bus too. We gave him a lot of hugs as well. The bus was a mess! It
smelled like dog poop, there were tools all over the chairs, and there
were clothes everywhere. We asked Kramer why his bus was such a mess,
and he told us it was because he didn’t have a woman on the bus and
men are slobs. We all got off of the bus and went over to the picnic
table. Kramer ate what was left over from our. We sat at the picnic
table for a while and talked about our adventures.

Kramer saw pole across the river that looked like an electric pole. He
called everyone in the camp over, and they agreed with him. He had a
crazy idea that we could take an extension cord across the river and
plug it in to the electricity if it existed, but first someone had to
go across the river to see if it was really electricity. No one
volunteered. I finally said that I would do it, because I am always up
for a good adventure. First I had to walk back to the bus, climb up
the black later to get to the roof rack, and unbungee the totes. I had
to unbungee five totes before I got to the one I needed. The floaty
tote was wet and it smelled like mould. I threw the tote down off of
the roof rack and climbed down the latter. I found the boat that I
thought didn’t have any holes in it yet- most of them did and we just
never got rid of them. I went into the bus and went into the grey tool
drawer. All of the tools in it were rusty. I went though every drawer
before I finally found the pump. I went back outside and inflated the
boat. I asked Forest for his phone and charger so that if there was
electricity I could see if it worked. He said okay and went into the
bus. He went to the back of the bus and under the bed, because there
is a compartment under the bed where we keep our stuff. He had to take
almost every crate out from under the bed before he found his red bag
that his phone was in. He got a piggie bag out of food basket, put his
phone and the charger in it, and gave it to me. We were ready! We took
the boat over to the river. The current was moving really fast at this
part of the river, so when I put the boat in the water it started
drifting away. I had to hold it to keep it from floating down the
river. I told Ozawa to get in the boat and hold the phone so it didn’t
get wet. I got in the water and pushed the boat out further.

I jumped on the back of the boat with my feet hanging out the back and
my chest in the boat. Then I started kicking. We were moving, and the
water was much colder now. It was taking all of the air out of me. We
were going against the current, so it was really hard to get across. I
thought about giving up a couple of times because it was so hard. I
was so relieved when I could reach the bottom of the river again. We
walked though the grass over to the pole and looked at it, but all we
saw was a bunch of wires wrapped around a pole, no outlet. We were so
disappointed! We yelled over to them that it was just a pole, and they
were disappointed too. I had to rest before I could start heading back
across the river. After a few minutes I was ready, so I got back into
the freezing water. Ozawa got back onto the boat and we began the
journey back. It was a very easy journey back because we were going
with the current. When I made it back and pulled the boat onto shore I
was so relived to be back on land. I ran to the bus because I was
freezing, and I changed my clothes.

I came out of the bus when I was done changing, and mom asked who was
going to do dishes because the water was done. I told her that I had
done them the last time. Forest ended up doing them because he had not
done dishes in two weeks. While Forest did the dishes I asked if
anyone wanted to play a game of dice. Marcus, Harlan, and Ozawa did,
so I set up the game and everyone came over. We were in the middle of
playing when mom came over to the picnic table and asked me if I knew
where Katsura was. I told her I didn’t know, and suggested she check
in the bus. Katsura appeared out of nowhere, but before I could tell
her that I had found him an angry man came up to us. He asked who
threw a rock at his old lady, and Forest jokingly said he did. The man
grabbed him by the neck and dumped one of the dishpans. He started
shaking him, and was going to hit him, so I jumped on top of the
picnic table and leapt onto the man’s back. I wrapped my arm around
his neck and tackled him to the ground, making his glasses fly off of
his face. Then I screamed at him, and told him to never touch one of
my siblings ever again. At this point the man had let go of Forest. I
got off of the man, and everyone started yelling and cursing at us.
The kids were crying hysterically. People started threatening our
lives, and in all the madness I heard Marcus yelling, "Leave them
alone! They’re just bunch of kids!" Suddenly a man jumped on his back,
putting a knife to his throat, and trying to slit it. I jumped on top
of the man to try to get him off of Marcus, not realizing that the man
had a knife to Marcus’s throat. After a couple of moments of everyone
thinking that Marcus was going to get killed, Marcus managed to get
the knife away from his throat. He pinned the man to the ground.
People came running over, and pulled Marcus off of the man. They
checked to see if the man was all right, but not to see if Marcus was
okay. I didn’t understand why they came running over to the man since
Marcus was the victim and the man was the perpetrator. At this time
Kramer came running over with a big metal object and was waving it
around telling the people who were still yelling at us to back off.
They were yelling things like "I hope you die", "I hope that you get
in a crash and your family dies!" We yelled back, "go away hippies,"
"go kill yourselves," and we yelled, "You tried to kill our friend!"
They screamed, "Your friend deserved to die," " you all are a bunch of
little brats," and "your mom has promiscuous sex!" Mom yelled at us to
stop, and put us all in the bus.

I ran to the back of the bus and got my phone. I hopped out the
driver’s side window so mom wouldn’t see me. I went to the back of the
bus climbed the latter and sat in the totes on top of the bus since
that is the only place I can get service in the middle of the woods. I
called my dad crying hysterically, and he told me to calm down and to
tell him again slowly. I told him what happened again, and he told me
to call the police immediately, before someone gets really hurt. Mom
saw me on the roof, and yelled at me to get down from there and get in
the bus. I told dad I had to go, and I got into the bus. All of the
kids were still crying uncontrollably, so I tried to calm them down
but I just ended up. crying with them. Some of them were hiding under
blankets because they were so scared I managed to get them out from
under the blankets, and I told them it would be okay. We were still
very angry, so we screamed to get our anger out.

There were still people outside threatening our lives and telling us
what horrible people we were. Marcus was yelling at the people because
the man’s punishment for trying to kill him was to be tied to a tree
for five hours. He got his knife taken away, but only temporarily. The
man was a white supremacist he hated Marcus because Marcus is black.
That is part of the reason he attacked him. After everyone calmed down
we went back outside, packed everything up, and threw it all in the
bus because we just wanted to get the hell out of there. While we did
that, a man came over and put some bandages on Marcus’s arm. Some
people reassured us that no harm would come to us and that we could
stay if we wanted to. We told them that we had other things to do. We
got all of the stuff packed, said goodbye to our friends, and left.
Once we were driving, we asked Katsura why the man came over asking
who threw rocks at his old lady.

Katsura said he was throwing rocks and one hit the lady in the leg. He
was only throwing pebbles, so I didn’t understand why they got so mad..
I asked Forest what happened to the man’s glasses. He told me that he
smashed them into little pieces and threw them into the river. In some
strange way this made us feel better.

We drove back down the dirt road, and I put on a movie to get the
kids’ minds off of what had just happened. We were on our way to the
nearest town to take Marcus to the hospital, because during the
conflict the man with the knife had cut his arm. We got off of the
highway at the first exit that said hospital on the blue sign. We
followed the little blue signs and found the hospital. We had to drive
around the hospital a couple of times before we found the entrance. We
drove Marcus up to urgent care and dropped him off. Mom gave him her
cell phone so we could get in contact with him, and so he could call
us when he was done.

When he was done eating we went to CVS and got various medical
supplies for his arm. We got a hotel room for the night so everyone
could get a shower, and so that Marcus could get all the dirt off of
his arm so his wound wouldn’t get infected. After he was done
showering I bandaged up his wound. We all got into bed and tired not
to think about the horrible things that had happened to us that day.

There should be a punishment for threatening the lives of innocent
children, and attacking them should require a substantial punishment.
A grown man or woman should never lay a hand on a young child under
any circumstances, and an innocent mans life should never be taken
away for defending the lives of innocent children. Especially when
they are helpless against 20 other adults surrounding them, yelling at
them, and threatening there lives People should be put in jail for
these kinds of things.

When I first heard of Death Camp- I imagined like a whole tribe of
maniacs- but someone told me it's like only 6 (six) CHILDRED wtf! I
think I like these kids..... -w-

you wouldnt like them so much if you were the one they stole from..or
one of the guys they kicked in the nuts...or if the threw urine on
you .....
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Death Camp Kids - Savannahs Story
    ... The yuppies hate the dirty kids and try to kick them out ... There are two different kinds of gatherings: ... whole bus was filling with dust, and it was making us very congested. ... There was a big dirt pile next to us and the boys kept ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Death Camp Kids - Savannahs Story
    ... The yuppies hate the dirty kids and try to kick them out ... There are two different kinds of gatherings: ... whole bus was filling with dust, and it was making us very congested. ... There was a big dirt pile next to us and the boys kept ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: Death Camp Kids - Savannahs Story
    ... The yuppies hate the dirty kids and try to kick them out ... There are two different kinds of gatherings: ... Holding Camp ... whole bus was filling with dust, and it was making us very congested. ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: Death Camp Kids - Savannahs Story
    ... The yuppies hate the dirty kids and try to kick them out ... There are two different kinds of gatherings: regionals and nationals. ... Holding Camp ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: Alligator Opinion
    ... would retreat into national parks for national and regional gatherings ... Hippies do not exist anymore. ... I was not talking to a bunch of kids from square–shaped ... That one night destroyed my qualms with living inside of a system. ...
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