Every Saturday, there is an event planned by a volunteer dish crew, and the whole school has to attend. Don’t worry, it’s never not fun. It can be as simple as watching a movie in the Flintstones or a coffee house, where people sign up to play music or do some sort of performance. It can also be a thoroughly planned event, if you and your dish crew are up for the task.
Most recently, dish crew number five held a carnival night, full of games and prizes. There were classic carnival games like throwing a roll of tape onto Chewonki milk bottles, tossing a tennis ball into compost buckets, guessing how many mentos were in a jar, a trivia wheel, telling the funniest joke you know to Molly, and black jack. In each game you could acquire tickets (equally as valuable as gold), which would let you purchase baked goods or a tarot card reading. After all the games ended there was an auction in which custom rings, a picnic with 2 of the crew’s members, a personal mug no one else could use (very important), and other items were sold to the highest bidder. If you saved all of your tickets by holding back your hunger for delectable dishes and mediocre tarot readings, along with the adrenaline of a bidding war, your dish crew could be the winning crew of the night. This lucky group received the ultimate privilege of calling on dish crew five to cover for two shifts of their choice in the dish room.
Students could also partake in a costume contest. There were three categories: most accurate, most comedic, and most creative. First, second, and third of each category won tickets. Examples of costumes include: a tooth fairy, Dipper from Gravity Falls, a ballerina, other semester students, and the list goes on. I chose to dress as Andrew Hunter, the history teacher here. All I needed was hiking boots, a plaid shirt, a pair of brown pants, a hat, and of course the APUSH (AP US History) textbook. After a tense wait, the winners were decided by the hosts of the night. I was able to squeak out a win in accuracy.
While all of this was happening, an intense battle was commencing in the Flintstones. A table was set up, but not just any table, a ping pong table. In a crazy sequence of preliminary rounds, a final set of sixteen uber-skilled players set out to win first place and twenty five tickets. A spicy sweet sixteen, an exciting round of eight, and then the final four battles all went quick. Leaving the two finalists in the battle of the century, no, the millennium. Those two being Jaden Thompson (the tournament favorite) of Massachusetts and Jackson Martine (yours truly) of Pennsylvania. The crowd was ecstatic, a “Jackson” chant began, as I was the dark horse of the competition. One cabin, Gillies, even put all their sleep on the line if I didn’t win. After an incredibly intense (maybe four minute) battle, Jaden prevailed and took his spoils.
Though not everyone was a winner, everyone who was there can agree the night was a highlight of our month here so far. I can’t wait for more gnarly nights in the coming weeks and to see what we will do once it warms up outside. So far, this semester looks like it’ll be one extremely tubular time.
Jackson Martine, Lewisburg Area High School, Lewisburg, PA
