Labor Day never had the allure that July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas did. But I looked forward to it every year because that weekend was a mini vacation for me. A lot of the church groups that came together at Camp Wabanna twice a year also held a weekend church conference in the Washington D.C. area every Labor Day weekend. There was no giant lodge for everyone to stay in. Instead, many of the locals in the D.C. area opened their homes to those coming from out of town. I loved it because it meant eating food I normally didn't get to eat, playing with toys I didn't own, getting slightly spoiled by our host family, and making new friends. It was the moments I spent in these homes that I remember the most.
The first host family I recall staying with were the Kings (yes that was their real surname). They had two daughters who were much older than I, named Jennifer and Joanna. In the down times between meetings and in the evenings after they meetings, they would play with us, but they were more like older sisters than baby sitters. I spent a lot of time in their basement because that's where all the toys were. There was a door down there that led to a storage room. On the front of it where very bold warning signs that read "Beware of Vampires!" Do Not Enter...poisonous snakes!" "Angry Sleeping Bears". There were at least six of those and I asked my dad if they were real. He sighed and said they were meant to be a joke.
That basement was also part of one of the most legendary moments in Watkins kids history. During one of the evening meetings, my Dad decided to stay back at the house with us. My dad, my siblings, and I were all playing in the basement when we all noticed Nathaniel had suddenly disappeared. For perspective, he was a toddler. Upon noticing that he was missing, we turned around and found him at the bottom of the stairs. We all stared in disbelief. His face and hands were completely covered in blue icing, with cake fragments oozing between his little fingers. Then out of his mouth came his two most famous words..."Got cake." I ran over and saw that the beige carpeted stairs had a trail of blue icing all the way up to the top. My dad and I followed the trail up to the kitchen the find that the leftover birthday cake that had been left out on the counter displayed evidence that toddler hands had been in it. My poor dad had to spend the next hour or so cleaning all the rich blue icing out of the carpet and off Nathaniel. When everyone finally came back for the night, my dad explained what happened and the Kings were very understanding especially since the cake was leftover. To this day it's one of our favorite stories to tell as it was quite epic.
The King's generous hospitality kept on giving. One night after a long day, Jennifer and Joanna got all of us kids into the living room, sat us in these huge, comfy, black chairs and popped in one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. Robin Hood. I called it Robin Hood the Fox to distinguish it from the much older real life movies and literature. To be able to watch that movie on a bigger screen than a tiny tube TV and in those large chairs made me feel as if I was in a movie theater. They also allowed me to play on their computer where I discovered a lot of fun games like Gizmos and Gadgets, Freddie the Fish, and fun little battle tank game. I was in childhood heaven.
After back to back years of staying with the Kings, the third time around was something else. We stayed with a new family known as the Millers. The Millers were like us and had a large family as well. I don't remember exactly how many kids they had, but I think it was at least 6. So imagine a house of four adults and at least 11 kids. It was both pure bliss and chaos. One of their younger boys, Kyle, was about my age. We hit it off really quick and spent a lot of time playing with legos and pokemon cards. One of my favorite memories was actually coming back from a meeting. My parents were driving an 90s Chevrolet Caprice station wagon. It was blue and had a backwards facing bench seat in the trunk. As my Dad put it, that car was a bad investment, but us kids loved it. This time, Kyle and I were sitting on the backwards bench seat. We were cracking jokes at the most ridiculous things as we noticed them. Suddenly, the wind whipped a helpless plastic bag right across the back of our car. Kyle then said something about a wimpy bag and I lost it. I wish I could recall the full context of the joke, but being there at the birth of an inside joke is something truly magical.
Something else pivotal happened at this conference. Wesley asked why we never stayed at his house during the conferences. I didn't know, but made up some story that the people in charge placed you where they felt best and if you wanted to stay in a specific place, you had to be request it. He asked if we could request them. A lightbulb went off in my brain. I told my dad after the conference that we should request to stay at Wesley's place each year. Actually I begged him. At the time, the situation seemed bleak. But come one year later, as we were preparing to leave, my dad came up to me with a grin. "Guess where we're staying!" he said. "Where?!" I asked excitedly. "Wesley's house!" Like a pinball launched off a flipper, I began bouncing off the walls. And here's the kicker. Every year after that for the Labor Day conference, that's where we stayed. When him and I were together, shenanigans were bound to ensue.
Wesley was big into anything military related. He had toy soldiers, guns, helmets, and pretty much all the bells and whistles. I guess it makes sense as he eventually joined the Navy when he was old enough. When the weather was good, we'd don the plastic green and sand colored toy helmets and find the perfect spot to set up our base. We'd pretend we were fighting in historic wars and even fictional ones where we were the stone cold generals who led our armies to great victories. Sometimes the enemies would be our unsuspecting siblings who were not even included in our fictional battle. We'd pretend to attack them from afar and they were "eliminated" if they didn't notice our shenanigans. However, our mission would fail if they caught on. His sister Bonnie was our primary target most of the time. Actually some of our games involved messing with her because we were deep into the "boys rule and girls drool" phase. It was never malicious and she sometimes got us back. One time when Wesley and Bonnie were arguing, Bonnie said something that caused Wes to unload a phrase I used throughout the rest of my childhood. He stared her down and like a machine gun unleashed, he fired the words "I am rubber, you are glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you." The dagger had been thrown. All Bonnie could do was stick her tongue out and storm off. Wesley let out an evil cackle as he claimed victory.
Like the Kings before, Wesley's house was like a kid's paradise. They had an in-ground pool which we utilized extensively. They had a camper trailer that they let us sleep out in one night instead of in the house. And they also had a computer that Wesley had a lot of games on. It was here I was introduced to Roller Coaster Tycoon, Sim City, and the ever classic Ages of Empires. Their mom, Cindy, also pulled out all the stops when it came to breakfast. When Reese's Puffs were released, she made sure to stock up on a few boxes for us. Reese's Puffs are still one of my go-to cereals.
The children's service meetings were a whole different story. When young children are placed with a large group of their friends, things could go in any direction. Wesley would constantly be challenging others to a battle of wits. Chess matches could get intense. And creating games out of the limited things at our disposal was a common pastime. It was in one of these children service craft times that I taught myself how to fold a paper airplane. Followed promptly by attaching objects to it to make it more like a missile that I could launch at people.
I wish my mind would release other memories it is holding hostage from these days as there were some moments that shaped me. One last highlight was at the end of one of the conferences, before we made the drive back to Pennsylvania, Wesley's family took us to the Potomac River. I remember gazing in awe at the raging river and then promptly begin rock hopping. That short experience was a perfect way to cap off another labor day conference. What a time it was to be alive.
