The Importance of Camels in Everyday Life

If you have never experienced Frankfurt, Germany's train station post-global-warming, you may not have seen the camels, elephants, water buffalo, and palm trees. Frankfurt is much more exotic than you may think. Watch for falling coconuts when you board the train.

I have been carrying this postcard, by collage artist Claudia Katz-Palme, around for years. Originally I probably intended to send it to someone, but then I couldn't part with it.  Is it because of the camels? I don't know.  But this is not the first time I have had trouble letting go of a camel.

Some years ago  I went to an auction in Watsonville, California when a department store was liquidating its store fixtures. I intended to look, but not buy.  That's right, I didn't go there thinking I might buy a camel. But then I saw this face...

Before I knew it, the camel and a number of other things were mine. Paying for them was relatively easy, but there was the unanticipated issue of transporting them. Luckily, a friend offered the use of a pickup truck with a camper shell. We arrived that evening to collect the camel (and other treasures), and packed everything except the camel itself into the truck. With camel tied securely to the top of the camper shell, we proceeded down the coast on Highway 1 towards Carmel - like a Viking ship with a majestic hood ornament.

Actually, I followed in my non-majestic tiny car to keep an eye on the camel. I continued to keep an eye on the camel through the evening fog, even as he launched into the air, momentarily weightless, before bouncing off the front of my car and landing in the middle of Highway 1. He stopped traffic in both directions. One of his ears was in the ditch. His plaster and papier mache face was also severely injured.  He had a red stripe across his side from the paint of my car.

Several home-schooled surgeries later, and he was looking much better. In the meantime, the camel has moved with me a number of times, always taking up a disproportionate share of the moving van. He has also been in a couple of parades after we attached wheels to the base. Most of the time, though, he was just taking up space and preventing a car from being parked in the garage. Over the years there arose a certain amount of resentment between the architect who steals my covers and the camel who takes up the garage.

My dear dromedary now has a new home with the Northwest Children's Theater.

For an adventurous ride, saddle up your camel and join the herd at Sepia Saturday.

The Camel by Ogden Nash

The camel has a single hump;
The dromedary , two;
Or else the other way around.
I'm never sure. Are you?