Panorama (28 page)

To the call of “Wake up!” the day begins, the head of camp being the one who should announce it, though he had always been happy to turn this duty over to Willi, who saves everyone the trouble of having to bring along an alarm, for he has the ability to wake up whenever he wants to. After the sound of the call to wake up, everyone must get up, but it always takes a while before that actually happens, one tent opening after another, Willi standing outside momentarily, Josef and Pony also quick to rise, as Alfred stands like a pillar, lifting his elbows and then his long arms upward, as he makes such a contorted face that FHF says, “Alfred reminds one of Saint Sebastian. He should be named the patron saint of the Wanderers.” Meanwhile, it’s sometimes difficult to rouse FHF from his tent, as it doesn’t disturb him if you drag him out by his feet or by his head and shoulders, for the guy is unfazed and says, “Serenity in the face of any kind of medieval torture is the most admirable trait any Wanderer can have.” FHF is not really all that strong, he reminds you of a badger who at any moment might crawl into his den or disappear into a hole. If anyone disturbs him and asks him to do something he doesn’t want to do, he yells at his opponent, in the middle of a battle that doesn’t look as if it’s going too well for him, “Will you surrender? Will you surrender?” Watching this, hardly anyone can keep from laughing, everyone lets his guard down and backs off, which FHF immediately takes advantage of, pulling himself together and running off like a bolt of lightning to hide so that he can’t be found, even though he never goes that far. This is why FHF is so good at playing hide-and-seek, which involves his being sent off to hide, though it needs to be an area that’s well suited to this, he getting ten minutes to hide where he wants, be it on the ground, in a cavern, in some bushes, or in a tree, after which the others head out to look for him, though they have to be quiet and take care not to be discovered by him, since the moment they are he whistles and the player is out, the rest of the players having to stand still if they are near enough to have heard the whistle, after which FHF gets another five minutes to hide again. If someone discovers him during this who in all honesty did not hear him
whistle, then FHF is called out and loses, but if FHF sees the searcher first, then FHF calls him out. After the five minutes pass, the others begin to search for him again, and often it’s the case that ten or more boys are out before FHF is ever found.

The hardest thing to do is get Fabi up early in the morning, for even if you scream “Wake up!” at him, he only opens his eyes a little bit and says, “I need to sleep, it’s only midnight!” Then he just turns over and begins to snore. You can try five times and still have no success, until someone finally decides to go looking for a bucket of water, though only the strongest dare do this, for then Fabi jumps up and yells, “Who ever woke a sleeping lion so suddenly? Can’t one be awakened more appropriately to the sound of harps? Do you have to dump Sichelbach Creek on me?” Then a vehement struggle begins, which Fabi usually wins. Once Fabi is finally up, the scouts do ten minutes of exercise, after which they have to spread out their sleeping bags in the open air and then go wash up in the creek, which everyone enjoys, followed by the raising of the flag, but not on the first morning, since it’s not until the second morning that the pole is ready, it being Alfred’s job to look for a thin, straight branch, which he then saws off, cleans up, and sets up without anyone’s help. After the flag is raised, daily chores are assigned, two boys being put in charge of guarding the camp, one of them having to remain there throughout the day, while the other can go no farther than a hundred yards outside of it, another two assigned the shopping, one of them needing to be a camp head, as they carry knapsacks and food bags through Sichelbach to the grocer and the baker in Adamsfreiheit, Fabi and Bambus telling them what needs to be bought, Hans giving them money to pay for it. Then the head cook of the day is chosen, his two helpers, as well as two wood gatherers who are in charge of collecting firewood, everyone who is able helping to do the same for the campfire. In addition, two dish washers are assigned, they in charge of cleaning the cooking pots, but not the Wanderers’ own plates, while two Wanderers are also assigned to go to Sichelbach one day and Markl the next in order to bring back twenty liters of milk, last but not least two boys also being assigned to haul water from Sichelbach Creek. Thus each day seventeen boys are kept busy with assignments, particularly in the morning, the others pitching in,
because there is so much to do, such as peeling potatoes and gathering mushrooms, for which several expeditions are arranged, most of them led by Alfred or FHF.

Alfred is crazy about mushroom gathering, because when looking for them he almost always finds good ones, starting pinecone battles along the way as well, while FHF goes about things completely differently, hardly ever discovering a useful mushroom, although he knows the various species better and always has his mushroom-classification book at hand, his knapsack always stuffed with books, for whether it be in camp or on a hike, he has Plato, Schopenhauer, and Goethe, plus a volume of world history, always ready to pull one out during a rest stop as he reads with his nearsighted eyes, while no matter how much racket surrounds him, nothing disturbs his concentration, nor does he ever completely cut himself off, for even when everyone thinks he’s completely buried in his book and doesn’t hear a thing he suddenly will let loose a remark that shows that he knows exactly what is going on around him. While gathering mushrooms, everyone brings him the strangest ones, which he then names on his own or consults the various types with Latin names in his handbook, and he is especially happy when someone brings him a mushroom that is truly inedible but not poisonous, he demanding that they bring it along as well, for it’s an unfair punishment to say that it is inedible, the main thing being that it is not poisonous, it only being a question of how to prepare it in order to eat it or not, and anyone who doesn’t want to count himself a philistine should at least give it a try. Usually FHF is the worst cook, so he’s only allowed to boil potatoes or noodles or such things that are hard to mess up, while on his cooking days no soup is made, for FHF loves to throw everything into it, saying that the best recipe delights the taste buds the most, though, above all, he’s not allowed to cook anything with mushrooms, for he once cooked chanterelles so long that they ended up tasting like dried leather, even when a lot of fresh butter was used on them. Whenever FHF returns with his mushroom hunters, Alfred, Willi, and Bambus function as a three-member commission checking out the suspect crop, all of them soon laughing about whatever happens to be there on any given day, for well over half of the mushrooms are thrown out despite protests from FHF, even the lovely red fly agaric, which FHF assures them tastes wonderful and is quite digestible as long as you trim off
the colorful skin. Meanwhile, wild berries are also gathered in droves, for there is hardly any fruit in the surrounding countryside, there being loads of blackberries and raspberries, though rarely are there enough strawberries to fill a cup, since they are hard to find, and the gatherers prefer eating them on the spot, the raspberries and blackberries serving as dessert later on, sugar and milk added to them when there is enough.

In the first days leading up to the dedication of the completed camp the pack has a lot to do, all hands required especially in the first days, the crates from the station needing to be unpacked, two Wanderers having to go to Adamsfreiheit to shop, as well as check out the bakery and the post office more closely, the milk run taking two more to Sichelbach and Markl for milk, butter, eggs, and cheese, inquiries also needing to be made about straw for the straw mattresses, the dam needing to be set up as a bathing area in the creek, the fireplace spruced up, and, above all, preparations completed for the opening of the camp. This year the pack is fortunate, for Ranger Brosch has supplied wooden planks, which they only have to pick up and return after they break camp, Alfred having declared that this year a long table would be set up in the woods, with a bench long enough on each side to hold eleven scouts, with single seats at each end, Alfred, the Great Commander, at one, and at the other the court jester, that being FHF, who has no problem playing the portly role of the fool at the
bal paré
and the Festival of the Great Commander, though he avidly tells the others that having such a table and benches is an unheard-of weakening of the manners and customs of the Wanderers, who now need only don top hats and beards in order to parade around like complete philistines. FHF didn’t mean this all that seriously, which is why he couldn’t help laughing when Fabi took it seriously, for he called out in anger, “Down with the scandalous monarchy!” Alfred then got involved and asked, “Don’t you realize that I serve as monarch in my ancestral capacity as the honored head of the knights and servants of Landstein?,” to which FHF added, “The Roundtable of King Artus is founded once again. He will retire to the
atrium silvestre
, the chamber of the German forest, to feast and carouse with his men.” Then it dawns on Fabi how dumb he has been, and so he shuts up, so that nothing more is said about it all, though FHF later allows himself to say to Josef, “He’s wise, but not very smart.”

Once when Willi was head cook, he dug into the canned goods and made a wonderful cocoa for breakfast, though the color was a little off, and the smell that rose from it, while really very nice, was still somewhat strange, Pony immediately spitting it out when, in haste, he was the first to take a taste, his face twisting up with disgust, though Alfred, who had already had a suspicion, asked with feigned sternness, because he was barely able to swallow his laughter, “Hey, Pony, what’s the matter? Are you crazy, why are you spitting out the cocoa?” Pony yells, “You should just try it!” Alfred replies, “I’ll do just that. But, before I do, tell me what’s wrong.” Everyone looks at Pony and giggles, at which Pony says, “Yuck! That’s no cocoa, that’s pure cinnamon!” Indeed he was right, it was cinnamon, everyone hesitant, but nonetheless curious to taste a bit of the cinnamon cocoa, though most are disgusted by the concoction, only Willi knocking some back with morbid caution and maintaining that he was really sorry that all of the cinnamon had been wiped out, but at home he always drank milk and cinnamon, and it was only their own fixed tastes that prevented the Wanderers from trying something new. Apart from Willi, only Josef and FHF tried some of the cinnamon brew, but they didn’t finish their servings, the only thing left to do being to condemn Willi’s screw-up with strong curses and avoid the cocoa for the rest of the morning.

Setting up camp goes so well that by the fourth night they can hold the opening party, after which begins the day-to-day life of the camp, the Wanderers’ custom being to remain together at the same spot and not wander off too far, the nearby countryside thoroughly explored, while now and then they head off to Sichelbach Creek to bathe, during which a guard remains back in camp. But first they have to set up camp, which means gathering what they need, such as branches that will be used for tent posts, followed by the crates from the station, whereby the tools are unpacked. Then for each tent a foundation is built that is half a meter high, four main pegs for the small tents and eight for the big ones hammered into the ground, while as part of the camp’s layout gates are set up, and in the middle of the space between the tents the flagpole is raised, near it the spot for the campfire being laid, stones carried from the creek below and arranged in a circle in which the huge fire will blaze. Between the main pegs for the tents are smaller pegs, and when the foundation is strong enough, cut and stripped
branches are nailed to the post as slats, they having been planed down a bit so that they are all good and flat, after which the foundation is finished. Then comes the main job, which requires a great deal of patience, as the framework is interlaced with bushy sticks to make the structure waterproof, bricks of sod stacked up in order to cover the outside of the foundation, turning it into a simple wall, around which one digs a trench for the rain to run off into. Then the beds are built, two single beds erected in the smaller tents, two doubles in the larger ones, stakes pounded into the ground for each of these, small stakes also laid across one another and held together by a crosspiece, it being good to make sure that everything is built up to the same height before the planks borrowed from the ranger are laid on top, each tent then getting its door. Before the tent canvases are stretched over the frames, poles are placed inside the tents, the larger ones requiring two, all of which must be done carefully, which is why Alfred and Willi always come around to make sure that everything is done right, as they measure the height of each precisely. Then the tent is stretched over, the canvases draped over the frames, the tent poles forming points, or gables in the double tents, the tents then carefully set on the foundations, one Wanderer holding the double loop as another pounds two nails through it into the foundation so that the loops don’t pull out, the tent finally complete. Now all that’s needed is the load of straw that was ordered from Sichelbach, everyone filling his straw mattress and pillow, and once each has been sewn shut with thick cords and laid on the frames, then everyone is finished making his own heavenly bed in the Landstein camp.

During all of this the permanent kitchen is also set up, an actual stove constructed out of stones, a camp stove, a stovepipe, and a couple of hot plates big enough to hold some kettles and pots that have been brought from the city. Alfred and Bambus then attempt to light the oven, lighting a well-laid fire in order that the same thing doesn’t happen that did at Bärenloch, where the oven collapsed and the entire midday meal was buried under it, while, even worse, the stovepipe fell over and burned Hans a bit, though luckily nothing else happened to him, Alfred proud of the fact that hardly anyone ever gets sick at camp, there being very few colds, even when it’s soaking wet, the worst being a bit of a sore throat, which only means staying inside your tent for a day when the weather is bad, though stomachaches
also hardly ever happen, because the scouts eat well and don’t snack much, the occasional serious wound being inevitable, Alfred making sure to wash it and dress it well so that by the next day it’s almost healed. Meanwhile, this year the kitchen does well when tested, a canopy added so that even when it rains hard you can still cook, though the rain can’t fall aslant too much, for otherwise the cooking staff won’t remain dry without wind breakers. Everything else has been completed as well, a wonderful bathing area having been set up, the table and benches now standing in the woods, as everything is hauled out of the tent and crates that hold the provisions and is placed where it belongs, all that is left being the mounting excitement over the opening party.