Last evening both boys had the opportunity to attend the
“Wild Night” boy scouts campout event at the Sanford Zoo. Both dens attended
and the turnout was pretty good considering this would be a fairly short event.
Scouts and their families were to arrive at 4:00 on Saturday
night, setup tents and the campground, then be prepared to meet our Zoo tour-guides
at 7pm. Since the daylight savings time clock change happened a few weeks ago,
it was fairly dark by 6:00, but that did not deter the 7 footballs that were
flying between the trees and bouncing off the tents. These boys were non-stop
and all roaring to go, especially since none of them has to return to school
for at least another week……at this point, I was beginning to prepare for a long
night!
Our guides arrived at 6:45 and gave instructions on what to
do, and what NOT to do. We would be split up into 5 individual groups, and
would be getting a 90-minute tour of the actual zoo. Everyone that carried a
flashlight had to have a red colored gel affixed to their lights, as to not
disturb or blind the wildlife. These gels were doled out and tested by our
guides….then we were off in search of wild beasts and hissing insects.
Each group stopped at predetermined check points and saw
such critters as scorpions, owls, Madagascar hissing roaches, alligators,
porcupines, cougars and a fully loaded bat house. The time passed fairly
quickly, and then it was back to camp.
We met up under the fan covered meeting spot which featured
at least a dozen picnic tables, a few of which were strewn with old and
tattered US flags. Tonights
lesson/activity would be to teach the boys (and a few visiting girls), how to
properly retire a worn or tattered US flag.
The process begins with cutting out the blue patch with the stars, and
then meticulously cutting the red and white stripes into individual ribbons or
strips.
Fireside, a few small words were spoken by the parents and
scouts, and the flag segments were placed into the fire, in order. At this point, the flames grew taller than
most of the kids that were surrounding it, and the heat radiated at least 30
feet from its popping and cracking center.
In a matter of minutes, the fire was back down to its normal size with
no trace of the flags, and the group was off for banana pudding.
The clouds slowly moved in and at 11pm and there were still
youngsters running through camp, screaming and giggling as little boys do…..!
Blaze, my 10 year old, decided that we should shoot some
long exposure images before the clouds totally blocked out the stars that we
could still see. We filmed for about 30 minutes and he lightpainted the bottom
of both palm and oak trees…..nothing too spectacular came to us, but just being
out there with him made the entire trip worthwhile!
View more of my work at www.AlexMenendez.com
Twitter: @instinctfilms
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