sightings: kids of alum on staff

Ladd Fly Connell (always amazed by that middle name) brought his son Ben back to camp for staff training. Ben’s a counselor now, a chip off the old dad block. Not as shy as Ladd but every bit as diligent. Ben heads off to VCU for his first year of college in August, and will thus leave before the end of the summer.

Cathy Hogan (Australian counselor from the mid and late 80s) has two nieces whom she’s kindly sent to us. I’ve met just one of them – and briefly. But I can tell instantly two things: (a) my, these nieces look like their aunt did 20 years ago, and (b) there’s the same confident spunk. I predict this will be a fabulous summer for these new Hogans and for us having them on the staff. Ruth Krotchko and Cathy are still in touch after these years (they were in Tacoma together back in – what was it? – ’85 and/or 85?). Cathy will be visiting here herself sometime in August.

Rafik Melek Ghobrial’s daughter Katie is here as a junior counselor, all the way from L.A. Rafik threatens to visit himself. He was once “The Geek of the Week,” but in my book he’s the Geek of the Century.

John Wellington’s daughter Kelsey is also a J.C. – at the Farm Camp. We drove by there yesterday and saw the Farm Camp staff in the middle of their training. As we walked toward the barn (to say hello to the adorable ponies and new kids [not campers – baby goats]) we met the staff coming back from there. “How’d it go?” “Well,” one of them said, “we weren’t able to get the sheep to do what we told them to.” Another said: "Yeah, we'll try again tomorrow." Hmmm. I suppose that’s what staff training is for . . . at the farm!

Day off for the sheep, I guess.

There are two Glickers (children of Robin Helfand) on the staff now – Allye (a VC) and Jessie (a JC).

And then there's Brad Swain. Is it possible that Peter and Claudia Swain's son is old enough to be on the Frost Valley staff? Yup indeed. The Swains have been at Camp Fuller for some years now, and Brad hasn't been back much to Frost Valley, where he spent his early years, but now he's back and FV partisans (with all due respect to Fuller) are hoping he has the summer of his life and decides to stay on....