Thirty Years Ago at National Center West!

Well, if there’s anything that’ll make you feel old, it’s realizing how long ago something happened when it feels like just yesterday.  Later this summer, Jenny and I are planning on getting together to go through all of her Troop 20 pictures and scrapbooks and reminisce!  I gotta figure out how to bring along a scanner!

Lately, the National Center West Facebook group has been very active with the planning of an archive.  Some of the 1987 staff members are in the group too!  And just by coincidence, this is the 30th anniversary of Troop 20 taking our Trip Out West!  We arrived at NCW on Sunday, June 28th and left on Tuesday, July 7th of 1987.  You could create your own schedule by choosing from a variety of sessions.  Here was mine! 

Monday, June 29th
11 – 12pm:  Wildlife @ Program House 3
1:30 – 3pm: Wayfinding @ Trading Post
3 – 4pm:  Bare Necessities @ Program House 3
4:30 – 5pm: Spock Planning @ Trek Living Area

Tuesday, June 30th
9:30 – 11am:  Microscope @ Program House 3
1 – 4:30pm:  Stream Stomping @ Program House 3
4:30 – 5:30pm:  Plan Your Own Overnight @ Trek Living Area
8pm – 7am:  Search for Spock @ Program House 3 (This was my favorite session at NCW.  We spent the night under the stars and that was the first time I had ever seen the entire Milky Way Galaxy band stretching across the sky.  Amazing!  I also remember making a friend who introduced me to Doctor Demento via her cassette tapes and Walkman.  So wherever you are very kind and funny NCW friend – I don’t remember your name or where you were from – every time I hear about Doctor Demento, I think of you!)

Wednesday, July 1st
9 – 10:30am:  Archery @ Trading Post 3
12 – 1pm:  Beneath Your Feet
2 – 4pm:  Donuts
5 – 5:30pm:  Nightwatch Planning (I’m not sure why I crossed these out or what I did instead)
7:30pm:  Swap Night (The patches I traded for are on my patch blanket!)

Thursday, July 2nd
5:30 – 6:30am:  Sunrise Expedition (I have pictures from this session, and even though they were taken with a crappy camera, they are still beautiful)
10 – 3:30pm:  Llama Lunch Hike @ Trek Corral (my second favorite activity)
7:30 – 8:30pm:  Horseback (I have two written copies of my schedule.  This is listed on one as crossed out but it’s not even included in the second one.  However, I distinctly remember going horseback riding because my horse kept stopping to eat, and I ended up being way behind the group because I didn’t know how to keep the horse from stopping.)
7 – 8am:  Nightwatch (apparently I changed my mind about this activity too)

Friday, July 3rd
9 – 10am:  Pictures
2 – 5pm:  Nature Splash (not sure why this was crossed out)
(Here’s where things get confusing.  On one schedule, I wrote RODEO for July 3rd, but on the other one, I wrote that there was a rodeo on July 5th.  I looked back at Marla’s journal, and her schedule also has the Rodeo on July 5th.  However…)
OVERNIGHT (I’m assuming this overnight means our backpacking trip, but I remember not riding with the rest of the troop in the van to some event that the whole camp was going to and having to hike there instead.  An incident occurred.  I also remember arriving late to whatever event this was and then having to turn around and backpack many more miles to where ever it was we camped out.  Perhaps Jenny can help me sort this out when we meet up!)

Saturday, July 4th
10am – ??:  Anthropology @ Program House 3
I’m not sure what I did during the afternoon.  I was probably recovering from that backpacking trip.
8:30pm:  Old Tymes @ Plat (??)

Sunday, July 5th
1:30 – 5:30pm:  Visited Ten Sleep, WY (had the BEST Cherry Coke EVAH from an old fashioned soda fountain!)
RODEO

Sunday, July 6th
11:30 – 4pm:  Mystery Walk
5:30pm:  Chuckwagon Dinner

Monday, July 7th
5:30am:  Left NCW!

Thirty years!  I was originally hoping to plan a trip to the old NCW site this summer, but meeting up and reminiscing with Jenny will be even better.  And of course there was a newspaper clipping from this trip, but I’ll post it later this week!