The Grand And Glorious Eighth And Tenth Corps Mudfight

[J0nny Ling0]

This is a true story. It happened at the end of the Tenth Corps' first year in residence. It was a neat time that we all had together with our Brothers and Sisters in the Tenth and Eighth Corps. It happened as I wrote it, but no doubt, others who were involved have their own personal perspectives. Here is mine...

“The Mud Fight”

Hey. Speaking of Richard T, I just have to share this experience-again.. This time though, I will copy and paste it to an MS Word document.

Remember when we had the huge mud fight our first year in residence? It was perhaps an even greater mud fight than the one filmed in John Wayne's "McClintock", because, it wasn't "scripted", it was inspired!.

It was a nice day, and it was decided that on that day, the entire Way Corps was going to clean out the pond where Aquila and Priscilla (the two white swans), lived. The staffers had been using a trash pump and had sucked out most of the water, and there was nothing left in the bottom but swan &$*# and mud and crawdads and stunted catfish and bluegills and bass. (pardon the polysyndeton there). And on this fine morning, Richard and Linda told us that we were really going to see the Mystery in Motion. We all were going to work together scooping out the mud and crawdads and swan &$*# by forming a line of people with five gallon drywall mud buckets, while some scooped, and others others handed the full buckets to the next person as the buckets made their way to some garden we had on the back forty. Then the empty buckets would return by way of a chain of people who were fortunate enough to be in that enviable position of "empty buckets".

And so it came to pass. We worked all morning, and as the hot Kansas sun came on, people began to put mud on each others backs to keep the sun from burning themselves, and I remember that Bob Kriebel had mud on his back and that someone had written with their finger in the mud on his back, “I Love God". Later, when he washed off, he had a bright pink burn on his back that said; "I Love God", which was awesomely cool!

And, this is what we did all that morning and well into the afternoon. And then, at about three o’clock p.m. when I was on the “scooping line”, Britt Lynn and Phil Bonadies (eighth Corps) decided to get rowdy! First, then second in succession, Britt and Phil went off the rope swing, and instead of landing in the water which had usually been there, they did belly flops in the mud, crawfish, baby bass, swan

s h it and stunted catfish! And when this happened, Linda MacDuffy went down into the mud pit and said; “Just what do you guys think you are doing?! And Britt, to his credit, responded by getting as much mud in his hands as he could gather, and dumped it down Reverend Linda’s haltertop! Yeah baby, yeah!

And then, it was on! The whole Corps went nuts! As soon as this happened, a few more people witnessing the event from the sidelines, decided to join in and ran to the bottom of the pond and started throwing mud and water (and swan &$*# and stunted catfish) all over everyone involved. And this thing then therefore escalated into the biggest mudfight I have ever witnessed to this very day! Yeah! It was awe-some!

I remember seeing Bob Kriebel on the sidelines cheering as certain people were getting thrown in by Richard Thomas, and it was at that point that I decided to make my move. I snuck around behind Kriebel and then rushed him and threw him into the muck! I felt a little guilty, because Bob was kind of an "indoors, clerical " kind of a guy. But then I figured, well, he’s a guy, he can handle it, and well, he had no choice! For he was up to his a s s in crawdads and mud!

Even though I myself had not really joined the fray, it was at about this time that I noticed that Rev. Richard Thomas had been enjoying himself by throwing innocent bystanders into the mud (the crawdads, the catfish and the swan&$*#), and all the while had never even gotten himself even the least bit muddy in that he stayed up in the “dry mud” at the rim of the pond, upon seeing this, I figured that; “if he could dish it out, he’d better be able to take it too!”. So, I went up to Jay Wilson, our resident “very funny guy” and tough guy as well, and said; “Hey Jay, you see Richard over there? You see what he is doin?” and as we watched, it was evident to Jay too, that we had to do something.

And so, we formed a plan. Since Richard was there in the “dry mud” at the upper edge of the pond on the Wierwille Library side throwing people in and cheering as he did so, Jay and I decided that we would simply “blind side him” and hit him from behind. And that’s exactly what we did. We gave each other a last fearful look and one of us said to the other (for I can’t remember who); “Well, if he can do it to “us”, why can’t we do it to him?” And so we commenced. We ran at him full bore from behind and Jay hit him low, grappling his legs together, and I hit him high in a classic tackle that rendered him totally helpless. We hit him with such concentrated force that we drove him straight to the bottom of the pond with me riding his head and shoulders and face into the mud, and the crawdads, and the catfish, and the swan&$*#! (polysyndeton once again)…

Oh man! It was glorious! We had nailed that sucker! After all of that time from the previous year of him kicking our butts and challenging us, we were finally on an even keel, “mano y mano!” And surely he knew that we were on the same wave length and that we had bested him but good and that there would be no repercussions whatsoever! Cuz after all, we were all just “guys”, right?

But noo!! We forgot that Richard T had been in the Marine Corps, and that he was a guy who didn’t like to get his a$$ kicked. As soon as he got up out of the mud and wiped the mud from his eyes and saw us grinning at him, he got a malicious glint in his eyes. In fact, he was enraged! Jay and I didn’t know what to do at first, but as soon as Jay saw that he was the first target of Richard’s ire, he began to sprint through the mud as fast as he could. But, he was not fast enough for the fury of Richard-I’m gonna pay ‘em back-Thomas! Richard tackled Jay with a fury and slammed his face in the mud time time and again! And when he was done with Jay, he looked at me who was staring stupidly wondering if I had “tackled God Himself” (because Richard had been ordained), and made a feeble attempt to run away. But Richard was on me like a Texan on a porkchop and was soon ramming my face into the mud, the crawdads, the catfish, and the swan s h i t! And so, that was the “Great Tenth and Eighth Corps Mudfight” from my perspective, AND…it was grand I tell ya, grande!

And, a sweet Corps Sistah of mine actually showed me a picture of me all covered with mud after alla that at the Rock one year. Too bad I didn't ask her for a copy for my Kids to see....

[tonto]

Jonny, I like your sto-ries. I'd like to see that picture.

[doojable]

What a great day that was! It truly was a time when we all felt on an even playing field.

Hey Jonny - do you remember the time we roasted a whole pig? There was a game we played that had everyone riding each other on a line - kinda like a giant mosh pit.

[J0nny Ling0]

Yeah Dooj, I remember all of that too. Great time. And then there was the time when we went and cleared out a section of Delbert Morans' woods. That was early on in the fall, and man did we get a pile of work done! And we guys were swinging from vines in the trees and playing Tarzan, and then finally, we ended up doing a huge bon fire and we had hotdogs and all of that, and then we all walked the five or so mile hike home. Yeah, great times, those...

[doojable]

I also remember clearing out those woods. So many of us were soooooo hungry that we brought back paw-paws and ate them in our rooms!

[Nottawayfer]

Paw-Paws???? GAK!!! You guys must have been hella hungry!

I did experience Britt's Lynn's behavior when I was a WOW. He came to stay with our family and started a shaving cream fight AFTER midnight! I guess it was OK for us to be up since the Reverend was tormenting us.

Edited January 21, 2006 by Wayfer Not

[nellie]

you tell a good story, johnny! i really enjoyed reading that!!

[J0nny Ling0]

Thanks Nellie. Maybe one day I will write the story of "The Great Emporia Campus Mail Room Spilled Paint Can Debacle", starring yours truly... :blink:

[topoftheworld]

Somehow that sounds familar to me, Jonny. I may have been there.

I missed out on the mudfight 'cause I was working kitchen detail. All I heard was about the fun everyone had, a great tension reliever, and I wasn't there. Actually, I was totally P.O.'d to have missed it. I'd given anything to see Thomas face first in the mud.

[nellie]

johnny - you STARRED in the spilled paint can fiasco? uh oh

looking forward to hearing that one!

[Belle]

I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread! Jonny, you DO tell a great story! We never had great times like this when I was involved.

[outandabout]

I remember that mud fight. I jumped in too.

[tomtuttle1]

TJ: "Jonny, is it true you helped throw Rev. Thomas into the mud??

Well Jonny, while you were there playing happy-fun games, I was getting my a-whole ripped by LCM hisself at a corps night at HQ. Quite a contrast in the Love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation, huh??

Good story though. I too learned to "think things through" before dishing out the MOG's own antics back on him. Problen is that, more often than not, I learned too late...

[J0nny Ling0]

Oh Tom Tuttle. We thoroughly thrashed Richard T. I "rode" his back, shoulders, and head all the way to the bottom of the muck filled pond while pushing his head in the muck. That is why he was so pi$ $ed. Later after I was "ordinated" and on somewhat "level ground", I went up to him and asked him about it. I asked him if his lightning like retaliation was because of us disrespecting him as a clergyman, or, was it just a "basic payback" from one guy to two others? And he smiled and so; No, I was just royally pi$ $ed off! You guys nailed me so bad I had to do something!" And so, I respected that. And you know, I liked Richard T. He made laugh a whole lot, and I really didn't resent his tough guy thing. I loved his teaching also. I went into the Corps because I wanted discipline, and the challenges dished out to me under his leadership were what I wanted. Call it weird, but, I really loved my first year in rez.

Ya know, now that I think of it, there was an incident my first year when a bunch of us were playing touch football with LCM. At one point a guy on my team who had played college football blocked Craig and knocked him flat on his a $$. And after our play against Craig's team was successful, and the guy who knocked craig down did some fist pumping and general celebration for having pulled off a good play, Craig "spiritualized" it and reamed that guy out saying that he was disrespectful to God and His Word, and that "You "Joe" couldn't even carry my jock strap, and don't deserve to breathe the air I breath!". And to that guy's credit, later on he told me that it was just plain bull s h it for Craig to have done that. "Thought he'd played college ball" he muttered. And maybe that's why I wondered if we'd "dissed" Richard T "spiritually".

Edited January 25, 2006 by Jonny Lingo

[topoftheworld]

Although I had my differences with Richard, he was, if nothing else, more real in many other ways than some of the so-called MOGS out there. That's what he showed you, Jonny-the part that was human he wasn't afraid to show. After all, it was a mud fight. Craig could have learned a thing or two from that, don't you think?

You did the right thing, for the right reasons-and lifted a lot of spirits (ha) in the process! Bravo! What a great memory to have.

[J0nny Ling0]

Yeah Toppie,

That's one for the books. Or at least for the "threads". Hah!

[dmiller]

And why is this thread for me?? :) :)

To learn how to *sling mud better*??

In case ya missed it JL -- when one banjo-picker tells a joke about another banjo picker ---

It's all in fun.

Kinda like the *Yo Momma* jokes that one hears in the inner-city.

It's more of a contest, to see who can say the most denigrating things,

and get the biggest laugh out of it from all involved. :)

(and believe me --- those involved are hugely entertained by it!!)

And-as-a-matter-of-fact ~~~ when another picker (say -- a mandolinist) starts telling the joke,

Against another picker,

they get turned on with equal *savagery* ~~~ to the amusement of all.

In all honesty ~~~ some of the most fun times I have had at festivals were the joke telling sessions.

We all had a good laugh, and then got down to pickin. ;)

(Ps ~~~ What's the difference between a banjo picker, and a photograph???

The photograph is developed!!)

Edited January 25, 2006 by dmiller