Monday and the Start of our Last Extended Camp Week.

Hello Troops,
This is our last week of extended camps. After that, we have a few weeks off so the school's custodians can get the school ready for the school year.

Have you ever wondered what our staff and volunteers do when not at the Center during their summer vacation? Well, today I thought I'd answer that nagging question.


With the Space Center closing for its annual 2 week vacation our staff and volunteers may find other things to occupy their time There's always the Orangeage Shop here in Wonderland where new friendships bloom over chilled glasses of citrus delight and witty repertoire.



Several of our staff will have to hit the books and relearn everything they've forgotten during the long summer vacation.


A few have arranged other employment to hold them over until the Center reopens. Please help when you can. You can recognize a Space Center volunteer or employee by their pale skin (from being in the simulators all day) and their over use of 'big' words used in complex sentences (highly unusual for their age).

"Hello Sir, I can see you've an interest in reading the news of the day. For a few shillings I can satisfy that desire. Shall we complete a transaction that will be mutually beneficial to us both?"

I know a few of our brighter and more capable volunteers will be honing their acting skills on Pleasant Grove's streets performing scenes from Shakespeare. For a few quarters they will delight you with scenes from Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and various other Tudor favorites. They've been taught to take good measure of their audience's intelligence before they begin. This helps them adjust their delivery to match their audience's capacity to understand the complex structure of the language. This is accomplished by standing before them and shouting insults in Elizabethan tongue then watching for a reaction.

"Thou beslubbering bat-fowling canker-blossom!"
"Thou impertinent knotty-pated miscreant!"

If expressions of shock and horror are not forthcoming, then they slow their delivery and enunciate their words in hopes the simple minded capture the scene's essence and meaning.

Others in our Troupe of Troubadours will embrace their two weeks of freedom and strike out on their own to discover what adventures Fortuna has for them in her Basket of Fates and Fortunes. Considering volunteers are unpaid and the Center's employees live on starvation wages, our staff use creative methods to travel with little coin. The ability to run and jump are a plus when attempting to board a moving freight train.


Others in our volunteer and staff corps will use their vacation time for other pursuits. A few will dust off their Red Ryder BB guns and take up defensive positions outside the town to protect our citizens from marauders and bandits. Big Brown UPS trucks are a favorite target not to mention bears disguised as dogs and mountain lions disguised as cats.

You can find them anytime between August 1 and August 16 on the roof of Macy's Grocery Store (between 9:00 and 11:00 A.M.). They break for lunch then move to the town's southern boundary and take positions on the Maverick Gas Station's roof . The evening is spent at Discovery Park picking off Indians disguised as joggers and tennis players.

What will you be doing while the Space Center vacations?

See you in the trenches.

Mr. W