I'D WALK A MILE...

My fascination with owls is more than my camel infatuation. Probably the wrong word for the old wordsmith here, but I really like them.


I rode one in Israel once. I cannot imagine having to ride one very far. Uneven terrain, well I'd be mighty sore.

Maybe it all started when our son had this big stuffed camel that we bought for him when he was a tyke. There's another misnomer, but I don't recall at what age "The Camel" was gifted to him.

He had a variety of uses. In his young years, I remember he was a big cushion prop for our son's tv watching on the floor of the family room. When he was in front of the tube, he sat on the couch striding an afghan throw that I won in an auction. Or another prettier throw made by Scott's grandma. Whatever throw didn't matter to the camel just as long as he was reclining somewhere and not in the aridity of the desert. (aridity? )

But where he made his name was in the movies. Scott and friends took over our camcorder. So much that I never once used it myself. Weekends were made for the movies. Our basement at another house served as the studio. All types of movies were made there by Scott, Brad, Chris, Wil, Todd, Paul, and others including "The Camel".

The recipient of more wrestling moves, it was the WWF back then, than Hulk Hogan or Bret "The Hit Man" Hart, the camel was a prop in every movie ever made. Even the ones for school projects. One even made at another studio. I'm glad he got all that rest in his early years, because he was lovingly abused in his later years.

When he was used as part of a skit in a school- wide assembly, I was made aware of his popularity, when probably one hundred students said "The Camel," in unison when he appeared.

I'm sorry to say, I don't know here he resides today. He may still be in the basement of the house on Olive. I haven't seen him in years.

I even named my rotisserie or fantasy teams after him--The Blazin' Camels, The Camel Jockeys, and The Camelotters. Unfortunately I changed all the names due to the cigarette connection. Though I never smoked Camels, I knew that I didn't want to be associated by name with the nicotine. So now, along with co-owners I'm The Flying Chaucers and The Burrowing Owls.

But I still have that draw to the camels. Second only to owls.