May 21 - LA Games, continued**

Sunday, May 21, 1972 - Page 142
LOCATION: Los Angeles & Newport Beach, California

(2:00 PM 5/22/1972)
[Continued from previous page]
The Girlscouts told off-color jokes and laughed a lot. I learned that Sherry and Kathy were Turtles like me. A Turtle is an exceptional person who has correctly answered the following riddles:

[The official answers can be found at the end of this post. Remember that "Turtles" are always presumed to be impeccably clean-minded virtuous folks. (haha) ]
1] What is it a man can do standing up, a woman sitting down, and a dog on three legs?
2] What is a four letter word ending in K that means the same as intercourse?
3] What is it a woman has two of, and a cow has four of?
4] What is it on a man that is hard and sticks so far out of his pajamas you can hang a hat on it?

Those are the four riddles. I became a Turtle last year in Math class when Thom Granger initiated me, and I got the official Turtle Card (more about the Turtle Club on page 140 [Friday, May 19, 1972] ).

Our gang remained awake and raucous until about 11:30, long after everyone in the surrounding camps had retired. Kathy, her friend, and Wayne wandered off, Peggy slipped into her transparent tube tent, and everyone else got into their sleeping bags. Chunk had his sleeping bag, two blankets and the foam rubber pad -- I just had two blankets. I slept across the path of Amalia, what's her name, and Cheryl, so I got kicked all nite (I kicked back, of course). It didn't rain as everyone expected (Peggy was still hoping it would -- "Nobody can get into my tent unless they pay five dollars cover charge" she told everybody. "And if it rains, boys first." Later, she could be heard saying: "Rain, darn it!" I expressed the same sentiments). With just two blankets, the only way I could keep warm was to pull the blanket over my head and warm the inside with my breath. I lived through it okay, despite one good kick in the head by Amalia.

(1:30 PM 5/24/1972)

The idiot Boy Scouts played reveille at 7:00, though by that time just about everyone was up -- except our group, of course... Last to go to sleep, last to get up. We all were slow to rise, even after we woke up, which was fine because the races weren't going to start until 10:00 (despite the time given on the schedule attached here-with).

We all were fairly active by 8:30, including Chunk. I had a bowl of Rice Krispies, just to have something to do. I wasn't hungry. I've gotten into the habit of eating just one meal a day, and when I'm out camping I wouldn't bother eating even that much if I could get away with it. This has quite a few advantages: It's very economical, you don't have to bother with dirty dishes, you don't get fat, and you don't have to go to the bathroom too often. So I don't eat -- It's easy. And I don't sleep -- That's annoying. Any way, I perfunctorily ate breakfast, and let the G.S. have cold milk and sugar. Peggy and whats-her-name left (Peggy said she had to go to church... Ha) so they weren't around the rest of the day. I don't know what transportation they used.

Chunk and I had our race fairly early on the agenda. We had competition -- Two life guards who also were in the high kneel position. We started too close to them, in fact we rammed them (Chunk said he did it deliberately to slow them down). So we got hung up on their wake and had to paddle hard to get out of it, but when we did we shot ahead, and when we shot ahead my knee slipped, and when my knee slipped we lost our advantages. Everyone else was behind us -- It was just our two canoes sprinting to the finish. When I was stable, we took the lead, but I was stable too seldom (I slipped around too much -- If I had been sitting down, I could have done something). It was a photo finish -- I couldn't tell which of us had won. The time was 3:05.5, us -- 3:04 for them. They beat us by a second and a half. I was exhausted after that. Chunk & I were definitely better than them -- even when I was slipping from one end of the canoe to the other, we almost beat them. RATS!

I drank copious amounts of water and tried to recover. Then Kathy appeared, and we went to sign up for C-2 Mixed Intermediate (Int. because she was eighteen). Immediately after signing up, we were told to go out to the starting line. Her canoe was being paddled, so we took the red one Chunk & I had lost in. Once at the starting line, we had about five minutes to wait, but it was still too soon after the last race -- I was tired. Chunk had always paddled on the left, ergo I was used to the right. But Kathy paddled to the right, so I had to paddle left, which was fine because my right was worn out.

All the canoes around us contained gals and guys who were over thirty -- the guys were in the stern, gals in the bow, and that was dumb -- the guy should be up front with the power, the girl steers. Kathy and I were the only ones who were right. I decided I might as well sit in front of the damn thwart, I'd already lost one race kneeling behind it, and I was too tired for the high kneel position.

A Hard-Fought Victory with a Formidable Partner
So the race started, and we immediately ran up against the canoe next to us. But we broke free and got past them. It wasn't long B-4 we were ahead. Chunk and Sherry were paddling the opposite direction, getting ready to start the next race (they were in C-2 Mixed Senior), so they were shouting encouragement -- Sherry was yelling at Kathy, and Chunk was screaming complicated instructions at me. I couldn't hear a thing he said, I was making too much noise. Kathy was paddling and steering okay, but I still had to draw some to compensate for our veering off to the right. We were 3/4 of our way to the finish line, and Kathy was getting tired (I was always yelling at her to paddle faster, cause I could see boats nearby) so we switched sides, and came in paddling opposite. But we won by at least one boat-length. Kathy collapsed when we passed the finish, and I paddled into shore. Jackie was there to take our picture for the famed Aquatil scrap-book.

Those were the medals I got: 1st Place C-2 Mix Int and 2nd Place C-2 M Senior. But I was in other races that day. Chunk did the Slalom in the Musky Mongoose (he said he could hardly fit into it because his hips were swollen from football).

But I forgot to mention -- How did Chunk and Sherry do in the C-2 Mix Senior open? I din't see it because I was chatting with the bow paddler who had beaten us in the C-2 M, and one old guy who came in second or third in the race Kathy and I won. But, as it happened, Chunk and Sherry crashed (which is fine because they weren't quite ahead -- but Chunk didn't plan it). After that, Chunk made a habit of flipping over -- he did it a total of ten (10) times, by himself, however. He tried the Gunnel Hopping Race, and fell over as often before it started, as after. Eventually he had water in the canoe up to his chest, and he paddled in that way. I went out in the Mongoose to help, wary that the canoe might sink, but the floats in each end prevented it.

I was in another race, this time against Chunk, Riley, and the two kids. It was the C-4 Hand Paddling Race. I was with Ron (an official of the races) and 2 other old guys. Chunk's group came in first, and ours came in third -- so I got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in races that day.

Chunk, Me, Wayne, and Riley were in another 4 man canoe race (Riley is a guy who was at Kern April 15, and he had helped fish me out when I flipped in the whitewater). We raced against Hews (the guy who beat Chunk and I), and three others, Bert (an old guy I knew from Kern 4 or 5 years ago), and three others, the guy I talked to during Chunk and Sherry's spill, the guy who lost to Kathy and me -- he was paddling with three kids and a dog. There were a few other contestants in that unofficial race -- in fact it was downright crowded.

The race started -- Hews' group tipped over immediately, Bert's gang took the lead right away, but their steering was off, so they went further than they had to go -- our canoe went straight and true, though we splashed in 5 or 6 gallons of water. We slid into the shore, and people pulled a kayak that was in our path out of the way just before we rammed it. "Well, the Lyda brothers won that one" the announcer said -- they were used to Chunk and me by that time.

Chunk and I were also in the C-2 Back Paddling Race -- we rammed into Riley, and got hung up with him too long. Hews came in first on that race. It was frustrating, him beating us so often -- he honestly wasn't as good as us. Fate. That's what it was.

Photos of Chuck paddling C2 with a partner on the Kern River, early 1970s

Mom arrived after the races were just about over. Chunk was still participating in some stuff, but I was through. I drove the car up to our camp, packed everything and chatted with Kathy (she was born 7-15-53) and the Aquatils again. Maybe we'll get together at the next races at Leg Lake on July 7. We left. It was 65 miles from there to here, through L.A. ---

It is now 3:00. More happened today (or rather Sunday) and I might attempt to mention it all, if I could remember, but -- as you can see -- I have run out of [the page ends here]
___________________________
Answers to Turtle Club riddles:
1] Shake hands

2] Talk
Though "intercourse" currently has a more common connotation (this word carried a double-meaning in 1972), the term originally meant communication/interaction: 1) A connection or dealings between persons or groups, 2) Exchange, especially of thoughts or feelings: communion, 3) Physical sexual contact.

3] Legs

4] His head

NOTE: To learn more than you ever wanted to know from the actual words of the incredibly magnificent Supreme Imperial Turtle of the Ancient & Honorable Order of Turtles, just go over here: January 14, 2014