Humps

Both growing up and in my adult years, my favorite arcade game was always Skee Ball. I used a bank shot. Its all about using the same motion and duplicating the speed and positioning of my arm and the ball. My bowling expertise came in handy. I could get high scores and thus collect lots of reward tickets. I would turn these in for some dandy prizes.

My best ever Skee Ball prize was a giant stuffed camel. He stood about four feet tall at the hump; he was a valuable position for years. We named him Humps. I won Humps by playing lots of Skee Ball on a Joy Bus outing to Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. We lived in Shreveport and I was a bus driver for several years in the Joy Bus ministry of the church. I drove one of our buses on the three-hour trip to the amusement park that Saturday. After enjoying the park all day, we headed back to Shreveport after dark. We had barely driven a mile on the  Interstate when my bus pulled up lame on the shoulder. We were going nowhere that evening.

A quick phone call to our bus mechanic back home gave us a game plane. He would contact a wrecker service that would tow the bus to a nearby church parking lot to await his checking it out the next day. We jammed the 90+ kids and chaperones into the other 54 passenger bus, and they all headed back to Shreveport. The preacher and I were the ones who stayed behind with the broken down bus until the wrecker came. We then caught a cab to the DFW Airport to await our early Sunday morning flight home. There literally was no room for a large stuffed camel on that other bus, so I kept Humps with me for the flight to his new abode.

I remember our playing cards for several hours in an airport waiting area. During the wee hours of the morning we decided we were hungry. We were going to take the airport shuttle to an all-night restaurant at one of the hotels onsite. I didn't want to take Humps on that journey, so we ask at the Delta ticket counter if they could keep him for us while we ate. They graciously agreed and Humps disappeared into a back room.

An hour or so later we returned to reclaim the camel. The ticket workers had changed shifts. It took some doing to  describe Humps to the new staff. Fortunately one of them remembered seeing him relaxing in a back room. With Humps safely in tow, we boarded our flight. I think the flight attendant stuffed him in a space reserved for large garment bags. All arrived home safely.

Humps at home in Shreveport

My kids enjoyed the new, if rather lifeless, addition to the family. After his newness wore off, he was stored in the attic. Humps was left too close to a hot electric wire. Sometime later he singed his hair. I don't recall a smoke alarm going off, but somehow we were alerted to the burning smell. Perhaps Humps brayed a warning as he began burning. All was safe, but we did have to discard Humps with the trash. He was the best pet camel our family ever had. 💔