A Bad Week in Summer

During my freshmen year, four of my friends and I banded together and walked around the campus during lunch hour rather than sitting on the front steps and talking about dating or whatever else they found to chat about. None of us had started dating which may have been one of the things we had in common. At any rate, we decided walking after lunch was preferable to sitting. All five of us were good students and maintained satisfactory grades, but our interests ran in different directions.

Helen was more athletic, and she was a forward on our girls’ basketball team. Anita was the quietest and the smartest never making below an A or A+ on anything. She lived in town and had a job selling tickets at the local movie theater. Mildred had joined our class in eighth grade having attended one of the smaller outlying schools. She was an only child like me. A couple of older aunts lived in a large house with her and her family. She had a younger cousin or nephew, who she treated more like a brother. Patsy and I went back to when we were both three and attended Sunday school together. She was the most talkative one in the group. She played an instrument in the school band. As for me, I was the one who loved to read and do art work and took private speech lessons and occasionally piano lessons. Mom never gave up hope, so she kept signing me up for them.

Helen, Mildred, Pat and I often had sleep-overs at each other’s houses. When the school term ended and we were out for school vacation, Helen decided we should all go with her to her church camp. She belonged to a Christian congregation. Christian was actually the name of the sect and its beliefs were only slightly different from the Baptist and other main line protestant groups. For some reason, Anita wasn’t able to go but the rest of us signed on.

The camp was in the northeastern part of Mississippi, and my dad agreed to drive the four of us there, with the understanding we would take a bus back home. The camp rooms were in an old antebellum three-story wooden house with many bedrooms. Each room had two double beds. We were required to bring sheets and towels and other supplies.

As I packed for the week, I begged mom to buy me a bathing suit. She said, “No, you don’t need one because you can’t swim. If you had one, you’d be tempted to get in the water, and I don’t want you trying to swim. The brochure says the lake is eighteen feet deep. You can barely dog paddle, so promise me you won’t get in that lake. We had a friend, who could swim well, drown last year. We couldn’t handle losing you.”

We lived in east central Mississippi where the land consisted of gently rolling hills, suitable for farming. I hadn’t realized Mississippi actually had some small mountains and steep gorges, so driving in to this part of the state was an adventure. The house we would be staying in had likely been a hotel at one time. It looked as though it might have been deserted for a while when the church purchased it for a camp. It sat near a large lake. The place was known as Sulfur Springs. The water bubbling up from the spring in the front yard tasted horrible to me. Maybe I was more sensitive to sulfur, than most, but I wasn’t the only one who got sick from drinking the sulfur water. I’m pretty sure by the second day, I was the sickest.

The first night, I did eventually get some rest after the other three of us persuaded Pat to quit talking so we could try to go to sleep. The following morning after breakfast, we had a choice of going to various Bible classes. I chose to be in the one with my friends which Helen’s aunt was teaching. After an hour of that, we went to a craft class. After lunch, we all went down to the lake. Everyone wore a bathing suit except me. I wore shorts.  At the lake, I met one other girl who couldn’t swim, and had been told not to get in the water. She was, however, wearing a sexy bathing suit.

While the other kids were playing in the shallow water lapping onto the sandy beach, Amy, the other non-swimmer, suggested we go sit in the boat tied near the edge of the water and work on a tan. We were in the process of getting acquainted when we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by five boys, with whom we hadn’t actually gotten acquainted. One of them had untied the boat, and all five of them were in the process of pushing it to the middle of the lake. Both of us were pleading with them and telling them we couldn’t swim and to please take us back to the shore.

They paid no attention to our pleas, and began rocking the boat back and forth. It didn’t take long before the boat was filled with water and sinking. I felt sure I was going to drown. I’d never been in water over chest deep in the stagnant cow pond where I sort of managed to dog paddle a few feet. By this time our screams had been heard by some of the adults in charge of watching over us. Both of us had been dumped into the water and were frantically grasping at the guys and trying to cling on to them. By now, they had realized we weren’t joking around when we said we couldn’t swim, and maybe we would be taking them down to the bottom of the lake as well. Someone had gotten an innertube to us, and by holding on like ticks on a dog’s back, we were finally towed to shore. I was soaked from head to toe.

By this time, I was feeling so sick, I was unable to make it to the next activity. I started back alone heading for our room to change into dry clothes. After struggling up two flights of stairs, I could go no further. It was still a way to our room, but my body rebelled. I ducked into the first room I came to and fell across a bare mattress. I didn’t move, until I was discovered by one of the staff. The sulfur water had kicked in, and I had a horrible case of diarrhea. In addition, my monthly period had started. I’ve never been homesick in my life, but if I were inclined in that way, this would have been the perfect opportunity.

The staff lady cleaned me up, and got me into a dry nightgown, which I assume was one of hers. This was only Monday and they wanted to send me home. I was in no shape to take a bus alone, and I begged them not to call my parents. For the rest of the week, I stayed in the staff member’s bed. She brought in a chamber pot for me to use, since I didn’t have the strength to make it to the toilet. She also brought me food, but I was too nauseated to keep anything down. It soon became obvious the tea and water, which she insisted I drink to stay hydrated, was making me worse. The tea was made with sulfur water. Fortunately, they had some fruit flavored sodas, and they gave me those to drink instead. Maybe it kept me alive.

The week went by in a blur. I never left the bed, and I slept off and on. Most of the time, I was alone as the staff member had other duties. My three friends popped in from time to time to make sure I was still alive and to tell me what fun they were having.

Saturday morning, it was time to go home and I was feeling a little better. I got up and went to my room and dressed. I went down to breakfast and ate a small bowl of cereal. It was fortunate my friends had made arrangements for a ride to the bus station, and they knew when to change busses, since the bus didn’t go directly to Newton. I followed them in a daze, like a sick puppy not feeling much more than half alive.

When we arrived at the bus station in Newton, Dad was there to meet us. He took one look at my pale emaciated face, and went a little crazy. “Oh my God! What on earth happened to you?” When I explained I’d been sick all week, he was angry they hadn’t called him so he could have come and taken me home. I had lost over ten pounds in five days. It took me another week, with a lot of bed rest, to start to feel like myself again.

Now if a doctor asks, “Are you allergic to anything?” I say, “Please, don’t give me anything with sulfur in it."