Thursday, June 14, 2007

Les Guillams

I have decided to give a description of one of our camp's "Mascots." His name is Les. Short for Leslie. He enjoys introducing himself as nameles and making jokes about "more is Les." He is 45ish and has been living in some form of homelessness for the two years I've known him.

Last summer, he lived out of a Uhaul truck he bought and in a staff tent. There was no telling what was in the Uhaul truck. And he wouldn't let us see it, so putting two and two together (burnt out brain + locked cargo), I deduced either lots of alcohol or some sort of meth lab. This past year since the Uhaul bit the dust on some stretch of 35, he has been living out of a tent in staff site, paying the bills and fixing his Mom's house up with the money he makes as a ranger and off-season climbing instructor.

His ability to ignore things is phenomenal. He teaches BSA's Leave No Trace program to all the scouters and is adamant about it and living it. However, he tends to not care what sort of processed food, shampoo, etc. etc. he uses. His concern for the environment seems to be only for the environment he lives directly in: El Rancho Cima (and anywhere else he might currently be).

Because of his left-leaning opinions and the fact that he doesn't hold it back, he has gained disapproval/hatred/general dirty looks from most of the staffers. He is also insanely terrible at socializing. So being stuck in a truck with him (or worse, a glorified go-cart he is driving around the ruined backtrails), is always an interesting experience filled with learning that you never wanted to do.

Oh, yeah. His hair. Carrot orange, with white streaks throughout and thinning to bald in the front. His beard is the same make-up and up until yesterday, made him look like a male orangutan with the giant orange cheeks on either side. But he's shaved it and he looks less insane than he did (or is, not sure which).

I'm sure I missed something. We'll just have to wait and see what it was.

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