Having a great time on the Stanislaus River

Old style basket boats needed to be bailed – and those containers were great for water fighting, too, as these two kids surely found out!  Ty Childress recalls:  “This was an interesting trip. After I refused to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War, a lawyer forced the selective service board to reopen my case. I was prepared to spend two years behind bars, but, although they usually only granted Conscientious Objector status to religious groups (such as the Quakers), after getting ten people to write letters attesting to my sincerity, they finally gave me a CO status. Because I had an elementary teaching degree, I was able to get a job at a private school for emotionally disturbed children in Sacramento. My students ranged in age from five to nine. The best thing we did in the two years I worked there was take the entire school on a two-day trip down the Stan (using John Vail’s rafts; the other guide was Don Burns). The boy on the left was Bruce; on the right, Ricky, who was so shy he wouldn’t even tell me his name. By the end of the trip, he was swinging off the rope swing into the icy river.”