Anita Returns

We discovered this morning that our camp host Anita had not com back from Iron Mountain as she said she would. She had left Labor Day with plans to celebrate her birthday with her children. We were the only people at the Lake Ottawa campground. That would change as the day went on with four other campsites filled though with older people with no children or dogs.

We are a quiet bunch at this time of year. We watch the leaves begin to change and listen to the geese overhead as they form their flocks for the journey south. New England asters, brown eyed Susan, tansy, and goldenrod are still in bloom but the nights turn ever colder. Tonight the temperatures will be in the thirties.

Gary and I continued to fret about Anita. She should have been tearing around sweeping out the toilets and inserting toilet paper rolls in the holders. She hadn't collected the slips from the sites that had been filled by the Labor Day revelers. We knew her routine so well after all these years.

Gary decided someone should take care of things. He went around and collected the slips from the posts, marking each one with the campsite number for her records. He swept out the toilets and filled the holders with rolls from Anita's stores. We knew where she kept them. We answered questions the other campers had. As the afternoon progressed, he looked up her phone number in Iron Mountain and we called but only got the answering machine.

It was in late afternoon that the familiar black pickup truck showed up at our campsite. Anita climbed out with a Styrofoam cup. “I need tea.” She had her own tea bag, she is no sponger. All we had to do was boil water.

So we talked for over an hour about her birthday parties. (There were two, one with friends, one with family.) The festivities went on so long, she decided to sleep in her Iron Mountain home and slept late at that. So we had nothing to worry about, Anita was only out partying.

At 82, I guess she can do what she wants.