The Great Race

I went camping this past weekend with my church youth group and we played many games while outdoors for three days, but one game stuck out, it was called The Great Race. This game probably sticks out the most for a simple reason, it was the last game we played and so more evident in my memory. This game consists of seven different stations. All of the kids there were on a team of seven or eight, but only seven people from each team participated in this game. At each station a task was performed and then every had to run to the end of the entire race to the last station, where everyone was needed to complete it all.

The first two stations involved a lot of food and running. The first one was an eating contest. One member from each team had to eat a peanut butter and jelly, not sandwich, but hot dog. We were out of regular bread. Then they ran and tagged a nearby tree where the next member of the team was waiting to perform station two. Station two was an egg race. Everyone had to balance an egg on a spoon and go about an eight of a mile as fast as they could without dropping it. If the egg was dropped the person had to go back to the beginning at the tree and start again.

At the end of the egg race was another team player waiting at station three. After this next person tagged the egg race completer he then had to hop on one foot for about the same distance as the egg race. This was quite a task so a rule was made to be able to switch your foot every 20 hops and you were able to hold your foot. This made it much easier and the kids got to station four much quicker.

Station four and five were basic tasks. At the fourth one you had to do something I had seen on the television show, Wild and Crazy kids, a number of times growing up. This was placing your forehead on the end of a golf club, holding the club vertically as it touched the ground and spinning around ten times as quickly as possible. This person then had to run, dizzy and all, to the other team member at station five. Station five was crab walking, something everyone did in elementary school, getting on all fours and walking backwards. This person had to do this until station six was reached.

The person at station six had to be really hungry, because they were made to a lot of food. This person consumed an entire large pixie stick and a can of Vienna sausage. Many of the kids who did this felt nauseated afterwards. They were very glad when that station was over with and the team could move on to number seven, the frisbee throw. This was where the sixth team member kept throwing freebies until one reached a hill off in the distance.

This hill was where the last and final station was located. Every team member met up there and formed a five person pyramid with speed and balance. The largest and strongest people were placed on the bottom, the smallest on the top and everyone else in the middle. After this everyone cheered, because the great race was over and everyone could rest easy. The winning team was the most excited of all, but everyone had a lot of fun and I don't doubt they would all do it again.

My Birthday Article

On February 15, 1986, I, Heather Sue Jae, was born. So what, right? Well there is much more significance to this date than just me coming into the world. This was the day Americans began to fear the Spanish. This day is another day, similar, but much smaller, than the attack of Pearl Harbor. This is the day that lead to the beginning of the Spanish-American War. This is the day, in 1897; the USS Maine sank to the ocean floor, destroying lives and the security of the American people.

The USS Maine's sinking did not happen in the middle of battle as many other ships before and after it. Instead, it was an unknown and random explosion that destroyed this battle ship in a harbor in Havana, Cuba. This catastrophic explosion killed over half of the 354 men aboard the USS Maine. Since this "attack" occurred in Cuba, it caused Americans to become very hostile towards the all Spanish countries in the south. As a result, the United States and Spain became enemies and signed a declaration of war. This event is best known as the start of the Spanish-American War.

The United States felt threatened by Cuba from this date on and so set up troops and weapons along the Southern border of the United States for protection. The is no real evidence of anyone in Cuba causing the destruction of the USS Maine, but people talked, as they still do, and as a result, such rumors of Cuba planting the mine aboard the Maine began to be seen as reality all over the United States. There were already a few Americans troops in Cuba at the time, which is why the USS Maine was there in the first place, to protect the soldiers, and after the potential "sabotage" of Cuba on the United States, US troops began forming riots and causing more trouble. If all of this had been resolved before hand, the Spanish-American War may have never started, but never the less, it did.

The Spanish-American War is known for all of this conflict and distrust, but also for a few technical facts as well. This was the first war to ever be video-taped. The "Edison Manufacturing company" sent many different camera men to record the fights. The fights could then be played back after people got the hang of this technology and you later generations were able to see visual evidence of what occurred. This was a break way for the soldiers and generals, as well, who could now look back and see what mistakes were made and what could be done in the future to correct them. One of the camera-men, William Playley, made a film of the war titled, "Burial of the Maine Victims," on March 17, 1898, later to be my sister's birthday in 1988.

This is a day people will always remember and always have remembered as the day the USS Maine was sabotaged. It changed the lives of hundreds of men and their families back home in the United States. This one event eventually caused a war that would kill even hundreds more.
Before knowing this, February 15th was just birthday, the day I was born, but now I know it is that and so much more.

Location of Article: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb15.html