Re: [at-l] I'm bonked by DaRedHead....

["Cora Drake" <cora_drake@hotmail.com>]

It's the "night at a shelter" phenomenon:

Phase 1, pretty much all one's shelter mates are strangers and first 
impressions ain't always purty.

Phase II, no impressions being consciously gathered because the sharing of 
ideas/food/gear/space are in full swing.

Phase III, you head off into the next day's hiking sure you're leaving the 
best people you'll ever know.

Phase IV you correspond or encounter at G/gatherings and choke up with 
impossible nostalgia over fleeting acquaintanceships you mostly slept 
through!

Walking away from the Class of '98 photo shoot at the Gathering was a mega 
morning departure.  I didn't dare look back, just sniveled on to the next 
presentation.

Or maybe it's just that us hikers just look a whole lot better real, real 
dirty!

(Actually, except for Ken and me, both of whom I already knew were homely as 
all git out before I got there, I found the faces pretty darned delightful, 
but I don't see as well as I used to!0

:)s aplenty,
Just Playin' Jane

>From: "Ed Kendall" <kendall@enter.net>
>To: <DaRedhead@aol.com>
>CC: "ATL" <at-l@backcountry.net>
>Subject: [at-l] I'm bonked by DaRedHead....
>Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 12:54:35 -0500
>
>
>DaReadHead......You have bonked me on the head with a rather large
>thought.
>
>I think the Ruck was one of the first times I have made judgments
>and evaluations of people BEFORE seeing them.
>
>I knew that there were people I liked there, but having never seen
>them, I kept saying to myself upon meeting people - you can't look
>like that...you're a lot neater in your e-mail.   AND I felt that
>people, upon meeting me, were saying..."you can't look like
>that"...but you are so neat in email.  Maybe in the future we
>should just do email and let our fantasies fill in the
>realities....
>
>Anyway we all sat down and talked and made friends of people who
>we would not have made friends with,   based just on how they
>looked.....Is any of this making sense...am I getting through?
>
>It was a weird situation...you knew you had friends there at the
>Ruck, but you hadn't met them yet  --- or did the WIFE put catnip
>in my coffee this morning?  It was kinda like the feeling one must
>get when you order a BRIDE from one of those advertisements in the
>back of magazines that say "Beautiful Russian  women want husbands
>(or relationships)"---( or Asian women or Oriental women etc., or
>Beautiful Women with big hairy calves, capable of carrying a
>backpack AND a canoe), and then when they show up....well ....the
>mystery and mystique disappear.  Reality rushes in to replace the
>tall dark handsome/beautiful  ghosts with backpacks.
>
>Anyway....I assure you that there was never a weirder and more fun
>group, regardless of looks....well maybe the Annual Convention of
>Cracker Jack Toys Collectors was a little weirder...but that is a
>superficial judgment, and I don't make those.  I'm just glad that
>the beautiful 'ButterCup" and her dog "Fluffy" did not show up
>....to turn my last best fantasy into vapor.......  Anyway I had a
>wonderful time and I'm pretty sure I have met MY PEOPLE, MY TRIBE.
>
>
>
>
>------------
>Hike On and On
>
>
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