Manweekend

HIGHGATE SPRINGS – Man Weekend, a physical and psychological experiment that annually tests the limits of Man’s endurance for alcohol posioning, sleep deprivation, and sunburn; was another incredible success in 2003 with 23 Men representing six cottages.

Many of you will be familiar with the term “schedule creep”. Man Weekend is experiencing a unique form of schedule creep in that eager Men are showing up earler and earlier with some Men arriving Wednesday this year! At this rate it’ll only take some 360 years before Man Weekend transforms into Wife and Kids Weekend when we all go home to see them for a few days.

All the classic elements were well represented this year: boats, beer, fishing, beer, manly food, beer, golf, beer, pipes and cigars, beer, fire, and some more beer. More time was spent this year in front of the TV watching, er, hockey! Gosh weren’t those Stanley Cup prelims exciting?

Last year’s sacrifice to the Boat Gods seemed to have worked because there were no major problems with boats this year. A small armada went forth Friday morning into fine weather that lasted all day. Not much was caught on Friday. Gilbert’s prize-winning 1.6 pound bass was the best catch that day. There were some pike and other bass. Richard’s mudfish was just a warning of the deluge that was to follow.

There were no safari trips this year (please correct me if I’m wrong) but there was some gratuitous fun with speedboats. We’ve come a long way from 5HP outboards baby!

The fishing on Saturday was better with more pike caught including Mike’s prize-winning (photo proof pending) 29″ 5 pounder caught on a Mepps. Is the State of Vermont stocking the bay with mudfish or something? Richard was so sure that he’d won the exotic fish prize on Friday but then on Saturday so many mudfish were brought up that the exotic prize was canceled.

Future fistfights over fish pool rules have been averted by an emergency executive committee meeting (of whoever happened to be around) that decided that the pool will be forever abandoned and instead Frank Martin’s (a handyman that took care of Camp Randolph’s infrastructure for about 100 years) tackle box will be cleaned up and mounted on a board to be given as a trophy to the Man who catches the biggest fish each year. All men are charged to bring something to stock it with.

Instead of his ATV this year Richard brought an 18′ diameter dome tent (Shelter Systems) to house the overflow of Men he was certain would be pouring out of Edgewood. He was wrong, wrong, wrong about Edgewood but the tent (named “The Tit”) was fun anyway. (Dennis, who got stung by a wasp twice in the tent, might say otherwise.) It was furnished with cots, tables, chairs, rugs, a huge cooler, and fine literature and proved to be comfortable if a bit hot in the sun.

The coolest thing at Man Weekend this year was Patrick’s remote control four wheeler. You’re going to have to wait for Patrick to write about about it because I don’t know a thing. The nicest thing was Ned’s beautiful hand made wood kayak.

Instead of tee shirts this year all Men in attendance were presented with cheap baseball caps adorned with Man Weekend pins. One was designed by Charles and is of the “Drink up, boys!” guy from the Man Weekend web site. The others were designed by Richard and are attendance stars as follows: copper = 1 year, silver = 5 years, gold = 10 years. Additional stars will be awarded for subsequent years of attendance. The Man Weekend cap is the perfect fashion accessory for a long drive to Highgate.

Except for the Man Dinner meals are not very organized. Richard makes coffee in the Man Urn every morning he’s there. (Sorry you guys who arrived before Thursday.) Fred grilled up some sausage Friday night. Glenn was frying stuff all weekend long. Patrick took charge of the Man Dinner and worked magic on 40 pounds of steak and some shrimp and mushrooms. That’s one hell of a meal to try to top! If the evening fires get any hotter we may have the material to try lava baked chicken.

And speaking of the evening fire, Arthur outdid himself collecting (with some help from some other guys) driftwood and bucking it up and splitting it. He was caught sawing up wood at midnight on Saturday to keep the fire going. Ned brought more fine dry hardwood carpentry scraps. There was some discussion about What To Burn but eventually another boat was brought out to appease the Boat Gods. Despite the appearance of pyromania the Men prepared a garden hose and brought out a fire extinguisher in case things got out of hand.

Some Men went out fishing Sunday morning but didn’t catch much. Most of the Men have a long drive home and are eager to make an early start so they can start the wife appeasing process and get some sleep.