Nathaniel asked me why Grandpa was called the "Mean Dean". I thought I'd write a blog post about it. The stories below took place during the time of life in the photos above. I wish I had photos from him at camp, but I don't.
This is the row of cabins talked about in the stories below.
My dad was the dean at Camp Gilead on many occasions. When it was time to get up for breakfast each morning he would walk along the porch of the dorms and bang on the cabin doors yelling, "Bail out!" Everyone groaned in their sleeping bags and rolled over, hoping for a few more minutes of sleep. About fifteen minutes later he came around again, yelling, "Bail out!" We knew we better move. Showing up to breakfast late was frowned upon. This was the main thing that I remember that earned him the title of Mean Dean. However, there were some girls that found out the hard way that he really was a Mean Dean.
Daddy ran a tight ship at Camp. He knew he could find out useful information by standing out of site behind the girls bathroom just below the open window to listen to the chatter that took place. One day he got in on some good intel. The girls in one of the cabins were planning to sneak out after the counselor went to sleep.
It was lights out in the cabins and Daddy positioned himself behind the girls dorm just up the hill behind a big stump with a big flashlight that worked as a spot light. He patiently waited. About half an hour after lights out he saw one of the cabin's back doors slowly open. A girl's head poked out and she looked around. She motioned for the others to follower her. They all came out one after the other in a line.
Daddy just waited. It had been raining that day and there was a muddy spot just around the end of the row of cabins. The girls got just around the end of the cabins when he put the spot light on them and shouted, "You get back in your cabin!"
The first girl stopped suddenly, and the one behind her ran into her and on down line, like a string of Dominos, they ran into each other and fell in the mud. They all got back up, turned tail and ran for the cabin. Not more than a few minutes after the last girl entered the cabin, Daddy opened the door and walked down between the the rows of bunks. Every girl was in her sleeping bag, mud and all, looking like they had never left. Daddy smiled to himself and walked out. That was punishment enough. They would have to clean their sleeping bags and pajamas now.
