The photo here was taken just moments before the start of the beginning-of-summer staff banquet, held on the last evening of staff training week. I have to guess at the year: I'd say '79 or '80. The shot was taken just below Pocohontas (cabins 1-5 or 31-35) a few feet away from the entrance to the girls' dining hall. From left to right: Floyd Hird, Halbe Brown, Carolyn Shelburne (who was either girls' camp director or program director that summer), Marie Hess, and Jane Brown. Floyd Hird always drove up from his home in Ho-ho-kus, NJ, to join us for some part of training, usually on the last night--and made the same speech every time. I can still hear his unusual slow, folksy, drawled, gravelly voice in my head. The key line in his annual 5-minute speech to the summer staff was this: "You have a responsibility so immense you can hardly imagine it. For a parent there is nothing more precious, more important, more life-affirming that one's own child, and you, my friends, are being given charge of this child. What you do can change a child's life. What you have is the most valued thing adults have. There can be no greater thing. For these parents who have trusted us, you can either ruin or save the world." In later years, while Floyd made this speech, I would silently mouth the words, word by word (and get it right). The people sitting near me would quietly laugh at my perfect imitation of Floyd. And I suppose I was satirizing his predictability. And yet now, as a parent myself, I know that that is the message I want today's counselors to hear, and if given the chance I would make the same speech every time myself.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Floyd Hird's annual speech at staff training
The photo here was taken just moments before the start of the beginning-of-summer staff banquet, held on the last evening of staff training week. I have to guess at the year: I'd say '79 or '80. The shot was taken just below Pocohontas (cabins 1-5 or 31-35) a few feet away from the entrance to the girls' dining hall. From left to right: Floyd Hird, Halbe Brown, Carolyn Shelburne (who was either girls' camp director or program director that summer), Marie Hess, and Jane Brown. Floyd Hird always drove up from his home in Ho-ho-kus, NJ, to join us for some part of training, usually on the last night--and made the same speech every time. I can still hear his unusual slow, folksy, drawled, gravelly voice in my head. The key line in his annual 5-minute speech to the summer staff was this: "You have a responsibility so immense you can hardly imagine it. For a parent there is nothing more precious, more important, more life-affirming that one's own child, and you, my friends, are being given charge of this child. What you do can change a child's life. What you have is the most valued thing adults have. There can be no greater thing. For these parents who have trusted us, you can either ruin or save the world." In later years, while Floyd made this speech, I would silently mouth the words, word by word (and get it right). The people sitting near me would quietly laugh at my perfect imitation of Floyd. And I suppose I was satirizing his predictability. And yet now, as a parent myself, I know that that is the message I want today's counselors to hear, and if given the chance I would make the same speech every time myself.
