plastic utensils unless they wanted share the fork for the rest of our stay at the lodge.

We had told all the students to bring music stands, but, as we have found to be the case every year since, many had forgotten to bring one.  Here is a picture that demonstrates one of the many makeshift solutions we came up with.  

It consisted of a box taped to a canopy pole stuck in the ground.  The music was taped to another horizontal canopy pole which was also taped to the box.  I have always been know for my scrapping ability that I inherited from my Dad.  I believe that became the preferred music stand at the Pine Basin Lodge.

When it came to skit night, I was not in agreement with Brian.  He kept saying that we ought to have a skit night/campfire program which sounded to me like a plan that was sure to ruin Mountains & Strings.  I had only ever done skits in scouts and hated every minute of it.  I eventually caved in as I often do, and so began a wonderful tradition of Mountains & Strings skit nights.  His idea of skits was considerably more elevated than the scout skits.  Since then I have even starred in a few, but my favorite is when the students make up their own skits that make fun of all the leaders.  Overall, the skit night has become one of the most important elements of our music camp.

As the camp continued, there were more unforgettable events than I can remember.  Time after time, we would realize we needed something we didn’t have, and we always found a way to get it or improvise.  After it ended, we realized that what had just happened was beyond any of us.  Somehow the train we