A downpour left the parking lots and roadways a lake Thursday when the rally committee arrived (and Bucky and Thelma and Bruce and Anne, too) to set up for our Swamp Bats weekend. Except for a brief and light shower during the early innings of the baseball game, the weather was cool, but fine.

   Because of the continuing arrivals, the Friday evening social hour turned out to be an informal one at a couple of picnic tables pulled up at the campground entrance. Finally, just as darkness was falling, Pres. Dave and his family, and a friend, arrived, and, with a pull-by and one swift backing maneuver, his Greyhound was in place. Now we know why he is the teacher! Later, a campfire was enjoyed by all.

   6:00 Saturday morning found Ed and Mary, Marty and Linda in the pavilion with coffee already brewing. Doughnuts arrived, and instead of 8-10 for the morning breakfast it was more like 7-10:30. Some biked the eight-mile round trip path into Keene and back, others hiked it. Many stayed back and visited campsite to campsite in the rustic pinewood setting that is the Wheelock Park camping area.

   Because of the schedule at the ball field, we experimented with a new afternoon social hour format, a LUPPER. The home run derby was set for 5:00, so we combined LUnch and suPPER with the appetizers beginning at 3:00. At 4:00 Marty and Linda went over to the ballpark and set aside three rows of seats down the third base line. Linda left Marty defending the territory and returned to the camping area to get reinforcements. The game was an old-fashioned all-star baseball game, peanuts and popcorn, hotdogs and drinks, wood bats and hustle, and 5147 fans watched Pudge Fisk throw out the first ball. The East won, 3-2 with a bottom of the ninth winning run with two outs. A great fireworks display capped off a thoroughly enjoyable and nostalgic evening.

   Marty and Ed beat me again to the pavillion Sunday morning. The coffee was brewing at 5:45 when I arrived. Two crises were quickly remedied and the morning breakfast went on as scheduled. When I plugged in the hot water pot, it set off the circuit breaker, not noticed immediately (both coffee pots were still brewing). Rick, the camping area manager, found a maintenance worker for the circiut breaker and we waited for the coffee to finish before starting the hot water. When the doughnut order arrived, we found 6 (six) doughnuts, not 6 dz (six dozen) doughnuts. A quick trip and brief discussion at Dunkin Donuts corrected that problem. Breakfast lasted that morning until after 11:00.

   The coach count for the rally was 22. I left the camping area at 1:45, the last to leave, passing Bob and Louise who were hooking up in the parking area.

   Very special thanks go to committe members Marty and Linda Katz and Ed and Mary Carpenter. When I was first asked to plan the rally last fall at Salisbury Beach, Linda volunteered to make the arrangements with the Swamp Bats management. How well she did! At the same time, Mary volunteered to receive the reservations and later made the site assignments. That only one coach was unable to negotiate the back-in into its assigned site (they were tight) is evidence of how well she did.

Bob Burnham

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