Episode 31: Passive resistance

The next morning, none of the campers stuck their nose out of their cabins until the cowbell rang, calling everyone to breakfast. At that moment, from several cabins, both on the girls' side and on the boys' side of the invisible line that Ethel Baker and Jonas Small had drawn to segregate the sexes, one could here a rallying cry. Then, one by one, first the more daring, then the more faint hearted, all the kids trouped out of their cabins. Not one single camper, from the oldest like Robert and Alice, to the youngest, eight year old Beverly Hawkins, who had been 'hanging' with the twins, Jake and Susan Ames, was wearing a single stitch of clothing.

The counselors who had been in charge of the other cabins, especially those who had had the 'luck' of being responsible for the younger, less rebellious campers where completely stunned and overwhelmed. Pete, Lisa and Consuela Ortega, who had been counselor for Alice' cabin 10 prior to the big camper shuffle the day before, were smiling and laughing. Lisa, when she thought no one was looking, even gave a discreet 'Black Panther' salute to Robert and Sam.

By common accord, all the campers joined up in the center of the quad between the cabins before continuing onward toward the dining hall. A few of the older campers started singing the '60s protest song 'We shall overcome..." to the beat of the march.

Once at the dining hall, while Robert and Sam held the doors open, all the campers walked in quietly and made their way to their usual tables here the sat down. At the head table, Baker and Small were first flabbergasted by the sight of all the naked campers, then angry.

Baker stood up and walked around the table to face the group.

"This is an outrage! Who is responsible for this unseemly behavior?"

"..." No one spoke or made a sound, whatsoever.

"Speak up! Who organized this ... this ... display?"

"..."

Finally, Sam rose from her seat and, speaking for the entire camp, said "No one organized it, Ma'am. It was spontaneous."

"Well, I won't stand for it ... You'll all just march out again and get dressed!"

... No one moved.

"What are you waiting for? I gave you an order!"

"We're waiting for breakfast, Ma'am. We distinctly heard the bell calling us to breakfast, so we did as we were told; we came here for breakfast ... Ma'am."

"Well, I'm not serving a bunch of naked savages. If you want breakfast, you'll have to be decently dressed, first."

Several of the younger campers started to rise but with a quick gesture, Samantha waved them back down to their seats.

"I'm sorry; Ma'am, but I can't accept that. The fact that I may or may not be wearing any clothes has nothing to do with my inherent decency. I consider myself to be a decent person and you have no call to treat me otherwise. I have been here from the beginning of the season and I have yet to see any ONE camper act in any way other than decently. The only indecent act I've seen so far is someone arbitrarily depriving a group of children of a meal for no reason. I insist that you apologize, Ma'am."