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Dallas Rally

1997 Dallas rally review by Rob

Monday 10 February 1997

Dallas Rally was this past weekend.
I brought Jon Whitten-Lege, Andrew L, Daniel Kamas, Cathy Saur, and Mike Noyse.

The first night after opening circle, I mostly just walked around and met and introduced a lot of youth. I talked for a while in the sanctuary with Debe Barnes, Julie, Michelle, and Maia Cudhea about their youth group.
I slept from 4am to 6am

I attended the AM workshop on Dreams and Consciousness. The dude focused a lot on physical scientific classical explanations, but we got to listen to Abby B's dream and analyze it.

I had a big peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich for lunch and attended the clay modeling workshop in the afternoon. I made Wende W an elephant salt shaker, which I hope she'll like. I haven't given it to her as it's not dry yet.

I helped Abby organize a game of Captain Video, where Mick (?) started us with a contortion of wrapping his hands around and over his head, which turned into a gyrating dance, pulling off a sweater ad tossing it at the viewer. Cra Zee!

I organized a game of wink, which was painful but fun on the hard linoleum of Channing Hall. My left hip is pretty tender.

Ultimate frisbee was great fun in the YMCA field, just like 7 years ago except we had no earthball.

We played two games about 9 on 9 and then 5 on 6. A great time was had by all, I believe. I totally enjoyed being able to just run and run and run!

Muddy and tired, we drug our asses back inside where I chilled, listening to "painful convictions" nin CD with Tia Lawler.

Somewhere in all the Saturday activities, several of us slam danced to several obnoxious songs including "Hey Man Nice Shot" by Filter and "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" by Marilyn Manson. We threw 3 kooshes and a cloth frisbee around in Channing until it got too rowdy and Stacey H and Liz and Debe B organized a round of what we now call "The Animal Game."

In the game (in no particular order), I was kangaroo, Keith Lawler was Giraffe, Grayson was Duck, Debe Barnes was Flamingo, Meagan Holt (?) was Chicken, Liz was Baboon, Stacey Hendren was Dog, Suzanne Kelly was Scorpion, Kitty Rankin was Cat, Aaron B was 3 Toed Sloth, Caroline B was Bunny, Erin B(?) was Fish, Bryan W was Newt, and Tiffany Schneider was Pig.

The two funniest patterns that occurred repeatedly:

1. Someone doing Pig, then Tiffany, in one desperate motion pressed her nose up and then made the comb of Chicken above her head. Meagan would shriek "stoppit!" and make the comb and run and punch in place Kangaroo to me.
2. Keith would delightfully announce "Giraffe! Giraffe!" with his hand up high and wait for the person to nearly catch him before quickly grabbing his chin, "Monkeeeeeey."
   One time I was It and the motions went to Keith so I ran over to Liz to wait for him to say Monkeeey and I tagged her an instant later.

Talent Show consisted mostly of jokes and me being the model for James Meine and Ben to put makeup on. Nutty.

At the end of worship, we sang "Good Friends" and spiral hugged around Abby B.

Stacey Hendren was Madame Dictator in Silent Football until 1am. Then Zach Rutlege was dictator until he was practically falling asleep at 2am.

Slept, woke, cleaned, hugged, closing circle, donuts and more hugs.

Then Mike Noyse asked if I had seen Gabe Rendon and I sent Mike to the advisor room, and I went to the van where I found Gabe!
"Gabe! Follow me!" and I ran and he ran after me and we practically crashed into Mike as he was coming down the stairs.
In slow motion, they tumble-fought, hugged, wrestled, punched crashing down the stairs at their last Dallas Rally.

I remember my last Dallas Rally hugs with Aaron Maxwell way back from 1990. Aww yeah.

2:45am Monday 10 February 1997

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Dallas Rally by Anna Magwood

1997 Dallas rally review by Anna Magwood

My first rally was Dallas 1997.
I didn't know quite what to expect, but I had heard from others that they were a lot of fun. This was an understatement.

We met at our church at about 6:15 and were on the road by 6:30. Originally we were taking 6 to 8 people. But in the end, there was only me, Meagan Holt, Ben Hatfield, a friend of mine from school Brandy Winans, and our advisor Mark Holt. We slept for most of the trip, except Mark, and arrived at the church around 10:30. In the main hall there was loud music, a game of keep away with a stuffed frog, and dancing. This, paired with the fact that it was freezing cold outside, woke us up pretty quickly.

Opening circle included the reading of the rules and general introductions. About half-way through opening circle Little Rock showed up and joined us.

After that we separated into touch groups where we introduced ourselves, talked about what workshops there were, and what kind of underwear we had on. I was sick that night so I decided to go to sleep early, around 3:00 am.

Saturday morning I felt much better. Breakfast included: a couple different kinds of fruit, multiple cereal choices, and juice. After breakfast, the workshops began. I went to the symbols workshop and we talked about ancient and modern symbols. Then we had lunch which was make-it-yourself sandwiches. After lunch I went to the clay workshop where we were given a big hunk of clay and told to let our imagination run wild. I began to work on something abstract, but in the end I had a plate, a cup, and something coming out of a pot. Someone gave me a rose they had made. It was beautiful. I was going to keep it forever, but it got squished in my bag on the way home.

My touch group had dinner prep so I headed for the kitchen. Dinner was Mexican food. My job was to shred lettuce. Shredding done, I was just standing around in the kitchen with some other people when a youth walked up to me and said that he did not know me, but just saying, "Hi, my name is Dane Dormio", made him uncomfortable because it was so 'normal.' So, he introduced himself in Spanish and I responded in French. After we talked a bit he offered me a stick of Carefree gum, bubblegum flavor, which I happily accepted. I had made a friend.

By the time everything was ready to eat, a monster line had formed. But before the masses could charge the kitchen, the advisors made them all sit down in one big circle and they had a dicussion, about rocks I think. I was in the kitchen at the time with about 5 other youths because we didn't want to sit in the group. We soon got very hungry, so we just made a couple of tacos for ourselves and had a jolly good time.

When dinner was over I wandered into the movie room. Everyone in there wanted to watch some Mr. Bean. This was when the feeling of belonging first hit me. These people were my age and like me. After a couple Mr. Bean episodes we decided to switch to some Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back was put in and I watched about 30 minutes of it before I started to get sleepy. I didn't want to go to sleep just yet so I left and just wandered around the church until someone snagged me and hauled me to another building for the No Talent-Talent Show. That was when I learned The Nun Joke, which I have since told to all my friends. Overall, the talent show was pretty good with Keith Lawlor winning with "Giraffe".

Immedately following the show was worship. I felt so happy and secure then. I didn't quite know what I was feeling. I only knew that I was in shock. A sort of happy, excited, wonderful state of shock. These teens were like me, we had the same kind of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. All these years I had been thinking that I was alone with no one to really understand me. My parents understood me, but your parents aren't your peers. Being accepted and loved by your peers is very different than being accepted and loved by your parents.

The next morning we cleaned up the church and had breakfast. Closing circle had interesting readings about Zion. Then we sang some songs I didn't know and Bish-Bish which I had heard before. It was great. Bish-Bish always gives me a rush. Then suddenly everyone was saying good-bye. Dane picked me up from behind and gave me a hug.

The ride home was quiet except for the ever present Beatles music, which rocked. I drifted between sleep and deep thoughts about what had happened that weekend. I was so incredibly happy that I smiled nearly the whole way home and for days after that. I have never done that before and it made me feel so good that I smiled even more. The change that happened in me was not just something inside my mind. My friends noticed it too. I am hardly ever shy anymore. I have become more active in my classes and I voice my opinion much more.

I love you all and I don't know what I'll do next year when I have to graduate. I hope I will be prepared for it because right now a month apart seems just too damn long to be away from your family.

Anna Magwood

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