Place of Our Own
By: Mike • Essay • 843 Words • November 12, 2009 • 792 Views
Essay title: Place of Our Own
A Place of Our Own
†‬Many memories of a†‬вЂ?special placeвЂвЂ™вЂ¬ or a physical refuge of the imagination are conceivedвЂ
in a personвЂвЂ™вЂ¬s childhood.†‬We,†‬as children,†‬seek this refuge because we are not given the simplistic freedoms that are overlooked as we age,†‬for example,†‬at my current age of eighteen,†‬I am able to get in my car,†‬call some friends and escape the stress,†‬and burden of†‬reality for a night without a momentвЂвЂ™вЂ¬s pause.†‬However,†‬as children we cannot all do this and therefore many of us find small plots in our local area and claim them as our own.†‬These plots could range from a variety of places,†‬such as a clearing in the woods,†‬or a desolate lotвЂ; ‬regardless,†‬these areas that our childhoodвЂвЂ™вЂ¬s claimed as their†‬вЂ?spotвЂвЂ™вЂ¬ were overlooked by the general population,†‬and held no special meaning to anyone else.†‬Having lived in various locations throughout my life I have attained a number of places that hold a special meaning to me,†‬but the most memorable was in Avella,†‬Pennsylvania.
†‬I was just entering seventh grade at Avella High School,†‬as the†'‬New KidвЂ'‬,†‬all I could hope for was to have a group of people accept me as their friend.†‬Little did I know that those people were:†‬Chris Stokum,†‬Greg Slaney,†‬and Daniel Amaismeir,†‬nor did I know that with these three people would come a sense of stability and the best memories of my life.†‬The four of us all lived within the general vicinity of†‬each other and being without the convenience of a vehicle,†‬or being of legal age to operate one anyways,†‬we reverted to the most renowned form of seventh grade transportation,†‬bicycles.†‬We rode our bikes almost every day the weather permitted,†‬and it was†‬on one of these trips that we found what was to be dubbled,†'‬Camp RamrodвЂ'‬.†‬The odd name was inspired by a quote from the movie†"‬Super TroopersвЂ"‬,†‬in which we had all recently seen together and found rather hysterical.
Camp Ramrod started as just a place for Chris,†‬to stash the helmet his father made him wear,†‬until he could retrieve it before returning home,†‬and the site soon turned into a destination point for all our rides.†‬Camp Ramrod†‬was off of Atlasburg road,†‬closest to ChrisвЂвЂ™вЂ¬ house,†‬and owned by someone whose name is unknown to me to this day.†‬The site was on top of a hill in a clearing of forest with a rather pathetic excuse of a stream winding through the middle of it all.†‬A solitary tree proved as the basis of the†‬вЂ?campвЂвЂ™вЂ¬ and would be the site where many experiences of my life took place.
A year later Greg and I were handed a pack of cigarettes from another kid attending our school in exchange for proclaiming