Entries this day: ConCon

ConCon

(transcribed 2:22am CST Monday 27 January 2003)

23 August 1988

I got back from ConCon 2 days ago. It was so incredible. There is simply no way of fully describing ConCon - so I won't do it. But I will of course tell about some of the stuff I did.

On August 15 my flight was at 12:20PM and I got there with 45 minutes to spare. I changed planes in Dallas Love Field after a 50 minute flight. My next flight was from 1:45 to 2:35. I met up with a bunch of SW District peoples at Dallas. Joe K, Gayle K, Rockin' Robin D, Deborah D, Paul K, and a couple other people. We got to Tulsa and ConCon people identified us easily. Tie dye shirts, Mr. Happy Condom ("Dress well for every occasion") shirts, juggling balls, riped up pants... So they took us to the baggage claim. I had no baggage so I continued to where our shuttles (cars of nice UU adults) were to pick us up.

I got on the next shuttle with 3 other youth. We were driven to the YMCA where we waited until the bus to take us to the camp. At the Y, I saw Kelly H again. Actually she saw me first and waded through people to give me a huge hug. She sat on my lap and we talked about old times.

Eventually there were calls of, "the bus is here!!" echoing through the building. We piled out of the room to get to the elevator. By the time I got my bags it was almost full but I said, "well, just take my bags" and I slowly put them in the elevator. Just as the door was closing, I jumped in myself. There was a big guy in there who was quite impressed. I would later know him as "Donny" (spelled Donne I think) from Michigan.

We got on the bus which was very hot, like no air condition, and drove for about 1 hour to the camp. We were the first bus there and we got off in a happy daze. We were directed to the Beacon House to register & choose our workshop. Then we went to the Jet to get our Secret Buddies & make buttons and our mailbag. My button looked like this:

         CON^2 88
         MR. COOL
          yellow
            Rob
              N

except it was yellow and the words were handwritten.

The workshop that I signed up for was the ropes course. It was really super incredible. I'll tell about that first.

Ok- the first day we did different trust things - Trust Falls, Wind in the Willow. That was neat. Then we had to group together to solve a problem. The problem was set in California during an earthquake. We all had to get on a big wooden spool (halfway stable ground) and get to another spool (completely stable ground) by using a tire, 1/2 a cinder block, and two 10 foot boards. The spools were 15 feet apart. We did not have to use all the equipment. We figured out how to do it in about 10 minutes and we did it.

The next thing involved a huge spider web (ropes). It was set in The Dark Forest (or something like that) of JRR Tolkein's The Hobbit. We had to get everybody through the web without anyone touching the web and without using and of the holes twice. This was quite a challenge, but we did it in about 30 minutes. Oh- there were 15 people in our ropes course group.

The next problem involved a giant toothpick (10 foot tall, 10 inch wide steel pipe) sticking straight up out of the ground with 3 lifesavers (car tires) on it. Our job was to get the lifesavers off the toothpick and put them back on in a different order. rules: No one can touch the toothpick and only 3 people can touch on tire, 3 different people can touch another tire, and 3 different people can touch the last tire. We did it. Chuck and I were bases to get people up high enough to get the tires off and on.

The last low ground thing we did was the trust walk. This consisted of 2 X 6 boards bolted to posts in the ground. We were blindfolded and walked on the 2 inch edge of the 2 X 6s with people holding our hands and telling us where to put our feet. That was interesting. Especially since we had people going the opposite direction at the same time.

This is kinda what the course looked like from above:

        |----|
        |    |1
        |    |___
        |       / 
        |      /_____
        |        ____
        |    ___/ 
        |___/ 
          2 

Also, there were different levels where the boards met - like you would have to step up or down to get to the next board. After we did all of the low stuff, we were ready for the high ropes course!

I was the third person to go through it, not including the instructor, Mike, who showed us how. The course started about 30 feet high in a tree. We had to use a ladder to get up. First you walk up a really steep log about 15 feet long. It was at about a 40 degree angle. Then we walked along a 3 wire bridge about 60 feet long. Then along a 50 foot long 2 wire bridge. The next thing was called the cat walk. It consisted of 2 wires side by side about 1 1/2 feet apart. It was 12 feet long and 30 feet in the air. (The 3 line bridge started at 35 feet and went down to 30 feet. The two line stayed at 30) To cross the cat walk, we had to get down on our hands and knees and crawl across. In the middle, we had to meow - (it was the cat walk). Nagel got confused and barked, but that's okay. Once we crossed that, we had to walk along a level log about 25 feet long - using no hands - just walk across. I did that easily. Tina, the girl who belayed me was mildly impressed and commented like, "oooooh - look at him go." I was pleased. The next thing was a set of three logs all bolted together. We had to walk or run or trot down them- any which way. the last two were unsupported in the middle and kind of bounced as you walked across them. I didn't quite trot, but I definitely went faster than walking across them. The next thing was a pulley that you rolled down the wire with. That was neat. It was about 50 feet long, and we got to go zipping down that. The last thing was "The Screamer." A big swing that started about 40 feet in the air. The wire that it was attached to was about 60 feet high. We were all tied in and leaned forward... - a bit more, more... and WHoooooosh!!! we went flying down and up to where we could hit a tree with our foot and then back to give Mike a "high five." Then we just swung until we were almost stopped. Then some guys slowed us down and unhooked us. That was so neat.

The last part of the ropes course was at the two towers. Each tower consisted of 3 telephone poles like this: (top view)

        *                0                *
     *  |---------------------------------|  *
        *                                 *

The pole (0) was about 30 feet tall and about 8 feet from the wire (----).

The two towers were about 60 feet apart. We climbed on of the towers and rappeled back down. Normally we would used the zip cord but it was past its warranty date. That would have been excellent - but oh well. I climbed and rappelled 3 times. The last time I got all the way down in one push away from the wall. The towers were about 35 feet high.

After I climbed the tower once, I did the last and most amazing thing there. I had psyched myself up for about 5 minutes before I did it. I was completely strapped in and then I was ready.

I climbed the 30 foot pole and stood on the top of it, about 9 inches in diameter. Hanging from the wire about 8 feet in front of me was a trapeze. It hung about 1 foot below the wire. I simply had to jump out and catch it. I focused on the wire and everything else disappeared. I was mentally standing on ground & I could just as easily walk out to the wire as I could pick my nose. I just decided to jump out and catch it. I said, "it's like gymnastics" and jumped. I felt the trapeze hit my hands and clamped on. I made it. People below were clapping and cheering. I was happy. I did a penny drop off of the trapeze and was lowered to the ground.

To shorten the story, I'll just say only 2 other people caught the trapeze out of 12 who tried. The three of us who did it wanted to do it again. So we came back later in the afternoon. Graham jumped first but didn't make it. Then Nagel went and didn't make it. I went and made it. I was definitely Mr Cool.

Ok- um - the first night I went to supper and then to my cabin - Cabin 9

                                                 Chapel
   beacon         Jet                            on the
   house                                          hill.
                                                    ||
  \                                                 ||
   \ \______________________________________________||________
    \____________g_r_a_v_e_l___r_o_a_d________________________

                                   .
    Dining     swimming        *------*      *  *         Cabin
     room       pool             ropes course  *  *         9
                                            * *trees*
                                              * *  *


     field that
     we played
     Ultimate
     frisbee in
     & had spirit
     circle

We listened to Beastie Boys and Donne and I acted dump and danced to it. We went outside and saw shooting stars which was kind of neat.

A typical day:
Wake up, take a shower, eat, go to workshop (ropes course), go to spirit circle, lunch, free time, touch groups, supper, worship, sleep.

(3 November 1988)
(It's been over 2 months so my memory is going...)
I spent 3 nights up on Chapel on the Hill. The view from there was fantastic. You could see out over a valley & part of the lake.

Chapel on the Hill was interesting in itself. It was just a metal grate floor, a podium, benches and a roof. The floor was made of like the grate things you see in front of doors to get mud off. Like this:

************************************************************



************************************************************



************************************************************

the *s are metal and the rest was open air. So it kind of hurt to walk barefoot on and was funky to sleep on, but the view in the morning was worth it.

There was a lot of cool people at ConCon

• Michelle B with a soft voice and nice brown eyes and sweet personality
• Chuck G - who was in the ropes course with me and reminded me all the heck of my cousin Peter. He was a big guy.
• Jessica B who can dance and smile and climb trees and play frisbee...
• Delayna D with her cute as anything nose that would make her giggle when we pressed it.
• Adam L, the most peaceful guy.. he made an announcement at spirt circle, "If something pleases you, instead of clapping, rub your hands together like this." (fingers pointing foward rub back and forth not up and down)
• Brian M - who was always late to touchgroup was darn peaceful too. He did a meditation too.
• Lisa N, who ate honey while Dustin, Jack and I did our rap at 4AM on the last night.
• Parisa P, who was my touch group leader. She was quiet and dignified and peaceful
• Tex - he was a short guy who was quite a riot. He rode the plane home with me. We met lots of people, and tried unsuccessfully to steal the display oxygen mask. We got caught by some lady passenger who told on us.