00:00.00 kinkella Hello and welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 119 I am your host Dr Andrew King Kella and tonight we remember my friend cameron griffith. 00:17.70 kinkella Okay, so what's going on for today. This seems decidedly non pseudo archeological and it kind of is I got some really bad news about. Two weeks ago or so that a good friend of mine cam had taken his own life. He was a close friend of mine in archeology and even though we didn't live close by. We. Sort of grew up together in archeology I had known the guy at this point for 29 years and he's one of those people who and I I hope that the rest of you have people like this in your life who you've gone through certain. Things with where only they can understand or you and them and a handful of people can understand these life moments or these times or these experiences that you may have had so It's just been on my mind a lot and I thought I would just kind of dedicate the podcast to him and he would love having a podcast called the pseudo archeology podcast dedicated to him so ah cam I think you'd be into this. 01:51.96 kinkella I think what I'll do is I'll just go through how we first met and then just tell a bunch of stories about working with cam he and I worked in Belize all those times so we'd see each other almost every summer we never worked on the same project. But or at least ah the same project at the same time but we were close friends and we would always see each other on the weekends and just sort of talk and be as and plan and you know just kind of hang and let life go by so i. In order to do this I I wrote a bunch of notes to myself and I don't know you might hear me flipping. You know, flipping papers or this kind of thing but it's just this jumbly mass and notes and memories that I thought I would vaguely try and stick to and ah we'll ah. See how it goes so I first met cam in 1994 it was probably the spring of 1994 and I met him in Dr Annabelle Ford's office at you see Santa Barbara the reason why I met him there is. Dr. Ford is who I had worked with in Belize in the early days 1993 was my first year so in 94 the new recruits were coming right and me as now an old timer having been. 03:27.40 kinkella Down for a whole field season now and like knowing things I came by to see the new crop. You know, give him a couple words of wisdom and I remember a handful of them sitting there in Annabelle's office and there was this one guy right? Big guy. Right? Camp's tall. He's like six four robust dude. Um I'm tall to I'm 6 one but he's I'm kind of skinny right? He's he's like a full figured macho man with long straight blonde hair right? and. 04:04.51 kinkella Who I first met was serious cam now there's serious cam and there's more playful cam but of course as we all do we're more serious at first and I remember just talking with him a bit or just watching him talk and I was just kind of like who's this guy right. This guy's story over here and he understood really fast that I was somebody worth talking to right? He kind of squared in on the fact like okay, this guy's been here before. Okay, this guy's going to tell me what's really up I'm going to talk with him. So I remember talking with cam a bit as we just barely got to know each other and he would ask really pointed questions right? He'd be like so ah so what's up with this. You know how's it really go. Um, so like what's a day like right and he. Kind of did this thing with his voice like like cam had sort of a a happier higher pitch voice like all right dude so look with you. You need to listen to me right? he had that. But then if he was going to be serious. It would go down a little bit so look andrew man anyway, so. I met serious cam first I I told them what was up and then they went for the 1994 season and I didn't go to Belize for ninety four or ninety five so in those first two years cam went in and really made a mark for himself cam is the type of person that everyone knows. 05:35.98 kinkella Everyone remembers oh yeah, the big blonde guy who's loud. You know, um, very friendly and what I will say in those 2 years that I was gone from belie I come back in 96 cam just got to know everybody. He was one of those kinds of people he knew everybody I know a lot of people in Belize but he knew more than me I mean he knew just everyone very excellent people person right? so. I kept tasks with him a little bit in those 2 years I would just hear about him him or hear from him a little bit. We weren't really that close of friends yet. But then in ninety six I came back and by that point he was working for another project and we would hang out on you know Saturday nights. Usually at a bar called the snooty Fox and the snooty Fox is my favorite bar of all time. It was located on the banks of the Belize river actually the mccall if you must know and it actually had a little swimming platform you could jump off the platform into the ah. River like fifteen feet below super fun um and we would just hang out drink remen cokes you know and talk cam knew Michael the bartender really? Well he I think they put together like a pool tournament. 07:06.76 kinkella There was a pool table there and cam was really into pool which I think camman won there was a photo of him at the bar for years hit him like at the pool table I think with the with the trophy so it was in those times that we really got to know each other. You know, just sort of seeing each other in weekends in kayo and to make this make more sense. It wasn't like we were just students I'm there for my second time cam is there for a second or a third time at that point and then. From 96 those later years 97 Ninety Eight Ninety nine into the early 2000 we were there every year right? We're the equivalent of field directors or second in Command and so me and cam and there's a handful of other people and you know. If I'm talking about you. Those who were with us through those years we were a close knit group of people. We worked on different archeology projects now these are in Belize and it's mostly the Belize Valley projects like Bevar. Or like the guys at mananha or lp are or valley of peace I had moved from Annabelle's project to the valley of peace with Lisa Lucero and cam had been working with Jaime away um through Beavar so we would just meet and joke. And yeah, talk about. 08:33.86 kinkella Are are Weak. You know, um I think as our friendship got closer cam could be this really? um, overbearing personality and I mean that in the best possible sense right? We are big personality but ah. I felt good that I think as time went by I was one of the people who could basically tell him now telling cam no had its own had its own ups and downs. It was a difficult thing This is in a person who's excited about life who who will have plans. Every time I talked to him he had like a new plan or a new adventure. He was going to do or a new thing Andrew No No guess what? so look look. You are going to go with me because I have already done a Jedi mind fucked on you and you're going to do what I say because it's awesome. Right? He would say something like that always using Star Wars ah terminology and ideas He was a huge Star Wars fan and his energy was so exciting that sometimes you you had to say like cam did I'm telling you man. Camp man. What do you say? No. Yes, you can't no it is too late because this is what we're doing but more on that later I remember joking with him I remember um we were driving 2 different trucks and. 10:00.58 kinkella We were both going opposite directions on a single land road and we stopped with the trucks like nose to nose and he's like I get that piece of shit out of the way and I'm like after you you move first and we did the the world's stupidest game of chicken on a one lane road. On the outskirts of san ignascio I of course lost ultimately, a lot of my stories with cam also take place in the town of San Ignacio which is where all the archeology projects stay ah and we sort of know that town. Well, it's also called Cayo um, and. That's where we would go out drinking if not the snooty fox another bar bar called the blue angels we would just hang out on a Saturday night and and you know drink and dance. But whatever I think of those times in terms of talking with cam where he and I would just sort of sit at one of the tables and just kind of. Again, talk about our our plans of world domination. Um, in terms of him being a a forceful personality sometimes the crew we'd stay out late. We'd stay out until like 2 in the morning. Yeah, just kind of. Drinking and hanging out and at 2 in the morning he would turn to me and he'd go hey so you know what time it is. It's time for soup soup soup super dome. Do. 11:35.42 kinkella Um, super dumb and I'd be like no no I am not doing super numb. The superdome was like the world's worst bar. It was an after hours bar in Belize where you could go there at 2 in the morning they would like secretly open it up. Let a bunch of you in and unlock the doors and you're just in there in this. Dimly lit hellhole having a drink of whatever they had and then they would open the doors at like 6 in the morning and you'd stumble out so I would always say now right? because a huge portion of me didn't want to go I'd be like cam no man soup come? Ah oh Andrew. Oh because you're going. You're going. You know why because these aren't the droids you're looking for That's why right? and I'm like look and I'd look around and see and maybe 1 or 2 the other crew members were like all right? We'll go I'm like okay so we'd walk over to the super. And go in there be locked it and then cam would often even be behind the bar. The super dumb was like a small little room like serving whatever and we and we'd talk you know later with the other crew members the other crews and we would just hang out I think those of you who were part of this world. Remember the. The hot humid tired nights at the Superdome. So in terms of working in Belize another thing that is a big part of it is just the drive down. 13:13.48 kinkella And cam being an inveterate star wars fan had some tapes now realize this is like the late 90 s this isn't like this isn't it's just on your Itunes did this is like you have to have a tape of something this isn't even Cds if you're in the jungle. It's like a tape player. Um, he had his most coveted tapes. Of the star wars radio drama this is a thing that was made I think right after the star wars movie. It was made by npr in the late 70 s it's like this 13 episode thing that the episodes are half an hour apiece it had some of the original cast like Mark hamils in it but some are not and they actually. Banned on the star wars original star wars moving. They tell a bit more of like it's like extra added scenes. It's actually really cool and cam. Loved this thing and kept it like so carefully to himself. He allowed me 1 year let's say it's 97 I don't know. Think it was one of the years when I was driving down with Lisa he sent them to me before the trip so I could listen to the tapes on the way down because the drive is from in my case from Los Angeles to Belize so that's a whole thing so many of us made that kind of drive whether it be from l a or. New Orleans or wherever drive down through Mexico and then to Belize and at the end of the season drive back so cam had allowed me the um honor which it was and it showed that he'd really trusted me to take these tapes down and so. 14:47.63 kinkella I listened to these tapes and I was super careful with them. You guys I did treat them like you know the queens jewels I remember being in the truck mill and nowhere in Mexico driving and I'm listening to the star wars radio drama which does kickass and the tape is like. And thus Luke sky wo warm room roll and I'm like oh my god oh my god oh my god and I look and aficioninaos of the tape player. You know what I saw i. Pushed eject and the tape player came out with just a shit ton of tape all over the place I was like oh no and to add insult to injury. The tape was broken and I'm like oh my god so that year as soon as we got to Belize. The first thing I did in the archeology lab is you guys I did like the world's most careful operation where I opened the tape rewound it glued the tape itself back together and put it all back together. When I next saw cam with this The first thing he was like where's my tapes and I was like cam I was honest I'm like dude I got to tell you as I was listening to one of these one of the tapes broke and I could see he was like crestfallen and so I was like no, no, no, no, no, but but dude. 16:16.95 kinkella I Know how important these are to I fixed it. Okay and I did a real fix I took it apart I glued it I tried it out. It works just be gentle with it I think it's fine and he took him he tried them out and he realized I was right and I think he was really um. 16:36.65 kinkella Thankful that I that I took it Seriously you know I understand so it's some Star Wars tapes but they're important to him you know and and it was super cool because I'm a I'm a big Star Wars nerd too. You know so that that I could enjoy those tapes on the drive down. When we come back a story that cam tells in his own words.