From the Campground

Winner of the Gilligan Award

The “Gilligan Award”

Names in this entry have been changed to Protect the Innocent and Save the children from ridicule. A family from Michigan joined us again this year for a week’s vacation at Deep Valley. We will call Dad “Fred Dumbsworth”

The Dumbworth family has a boat and have become quite enamored with our Lake.

A few days into the vacation they returned with quite the story. Like most boaters, they had pulled into a cove and were all in the water, lazily bobbing around in life jackets, enjoying the clear waters and stunning scenery. Then one son yelled, “hey, the boat is taking on water”. At that moment, the parents noticed that the top of the rear end of the boat was only a couple of inches from the water. Mom’s first thought was “How do we explain this to the insurance company”. Followed quickly by speculating how far would they have to swim to get help. Dad admitted to thinking, “Oh this is not good but hey, we’re on vacation, So what the Heck.” (maybe I embellished that one a bit but not by much). One son (the very quick thinking one-he gets that from his mother) dove down and plugged the hole which should have had a plug in it with his fingers. The second son jumped into the boat, turned on the pump and rummaged through the boat storage areas for the spare plug. Which luckily they had. After the situation was under control, Dad casually commented “ I thought that plug was a little loose when I checked it”. As one son noted, “That’s probably something you don’t want to tell many people”. But now the cat was out of the bag.

I could not let this one go by without Special Treatment. So I created a Medallion with the following inscription :

“1st Annual Gilligan Award. Presented In recognition of the Best Effort to Sink a Boat and Strand a Family on an Island in Dale Hollow Lake” It came on a Bright Purple beaded chain (fashion statement by the DV stars). The presentation was done in an appropriately serious, though sarcastic, tone and followed immediately by howling laughter from all. So pictured here is the Recipient with his award and the Spare Boat Plug.

I was asked why the wording included “1st Annual” and I replied, “Oh they will be back again next year and knowing Fred Dumbsworth…”