[] Out behind the Ad Office (sorry - the "Admin Building") is a beautiful flower garden, maybe 25 feet by 15 feet, full by now of gorgeous tall flowering plants. The top of the top is a stand of very healthy bright red bee balm. This was built and dug back in 2005 by many of our Family Camp families, conceived and led by our own Stu Alexander (here with his family since '85). The Admin folks, Carmel Dorn most happily, lovingly water it every morning and so we actually have a flower garden here, one that the deer can't get to and which survives droughts (not that we've had one this summer). Where I typically work I look out onto it. Under the beeches along Biscuit Creek, it presents a gorgeous prospect along with the sound of the stream.
[] The stream. Biscuit. We've had good rain and the falls is flowing pretty well. Today as I say it will hit 90 and by afternoon kids and their counselors will be lounging around in large black inner tubes. What could be better on a summer's day?[] My daughter Hannah isn't here in camp this session. She's with camp but away...in New Orleans, of all places. Yes she and several of her closest camp friends went on the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity adventure trip for two weeks. She'll be back fourth session. Meantime every morning she and her friends get up from their air conditioned digs at a YMCA in Metairie and go over to the house they're building. Hot and humid but the work is good and Hannah is learning a ton about caring, responsibility and stewardship. I can't wait to hear her stories about this experience.
[] I can distinctly remember when, as a camper, we were not allowed to "cross the bridge." That is, the bridge over Biscuit that leads to Pigeon and Biscuit Lodges, Reflection Pond, and the Castle. It was mainly the Castle, of course, that made us wish we could cross. On the other side, as I recall, staff could have their periods off (in the staff lounge, which was located in Pigeon Lodge). And I remember sometimes sitting on the main-camp side of the bridge, on the low stone wall there, seeing staff taking their break, smoking cigarettes. Not a very positive image, I suppose, but it intrigued me. Would I ever get to cross that bridge? It became a metaphor for growing up--not the smoking (I've never so much as taken a puff on a cigarette) but the period off. Doing work that meant that being "off" meant something. And of course the Castle. What an allure. I went there on holdover weekends when my parents booked a room there and it operated summers somewhat like a country inn. Lunch and dinner served. Quite nice. And we went to Reflection Pond once in a while for programs, but other than that it was terra incognito.
[] The administrative top of the summer camp staff is crackerjack--really, really good. Efficient, on top of every possible crisis, communicating well among themselves (by radio--boy oh boy what I would have given to have had that means of getting word around). Many things they do impress me. Left-behind luggage, for instance. It's identified quickly, and mailed home to mom and dad within a day. The other night, while I sat in the office catching up on work and had the Mets game in the corner of my computer screen, I hear the tell-tale sound of mailing tape being unrolled in the main hallway. There was Bob Eddings, one of our two Directors of Camping, himself packing up a big package: a sleeping bag and a duffel, on its way the next morning back to Morristown or Brooklyn or East Orange.[] Last night at 9 I told a story to Susky after their successful Lip Synch evening program. My story is my new one, "Winky Tandler & the Maltese Bell." Winky was here in the early and mid 60s, eventually as Girls' Camp Director. Winky, where are you? It's a mystery, not so much a "scary" story but the Susky kids dug it. Then up to Outpost where at 10:30 (yes, that's late) they were ready for me, sitting quietly around a roaring fire built in the firering in front of cabin 40, way up the hill (40 is old girls' cabin 10). Nice. Starry night, good fire, kids sitting around hearing a story. Eric Blum joined me. After that, Eric and I walked around under the stars and overhead radio chat about chicken wings at the staff lounge. Ummmmmmm, I realized how hungry I was. Something wrong with this picture? A 52 year old guy, walking around outdoors at 11:45 PM, getting the urge for wings? Unfortunately--or fortunately, depending on your point of view--they were out of wings when we arrived. But the lounge was full of counselors and VCs and directors, chatting and playing games and eating various miscellany that had been brought back from days' out - spicy green beans from New World (a good Chinese restaurant to the east). A number of people were playing Guitar Hero, a JC (Jordan Cole) getting outplayed by a director (Kevin Terrell). Black Sabbath but no spicy wings at midnight, the crowded warm lounge, cool night and stars outside....and out I went into the night and home to a good night's sleep. Camp to a t.
[] Tom Holsapple was our conference programs director for a few years when he was asked by Jerry to move up into the role of overall operations director, where he utterly excels. What a good guy! What he doesn't know how to make happen, he figures out. Last summer he was the guru behind our response to a minor but potentially major episode of bed bugs. I myself, just watching and participating in the response slightly, learned a ton about this problem, which plagues many camps. We were good in response and it's largely owing to Tom's focus. He's liked by everyone, which is good when one minute you're thinking through wellness philosophy with a Brown University-educated LSE-trained political scientist who's doing a stint as camp director and the next you're talking stuffed toilets, bear scat, and trying to get NY State Board of Health approvals for the new dialysis wing. It took me everything I had to get Tom to leave his desk this morning and let me snap this pic of him sitting in front of his office with the gorgeous view of the camp's main entrance. Tom makes things work.
[] I've gotten to know all the VCs. They range from very very good to utterly historically rarely extraordinary. Not a weak VC in the bunch. I find that remarkable, especially when I take time to remember how many summers I had one or two or even three chiefs that need serious hand-holding (or firing, for that matter). Many of this summer's VCs are new to the job but not at all new to FV. I think there's just one (the excellent Dave Sedden in Forest) who's new to VC and to FV. The photo here at right shows you Meg Hoover of Sacky and Jess Hallbrecht of Tacoma--both amazingly good. Jess has been here forever, starting as a Pokey camper in '96 (several of her friends from that summer are still here on staff). Meg came more recently, but is already deemed a superstar; she worked with Jeff Daly at his day camp in Philly and he recruited her here, lucky for us.
[] There's the Olympic stage and lights, waiting to be removed after last week's Olympics. Behind it, across the Olympic Circle, stands Smith Lodge. The Health Center is gone from there...up to the amazing new Wellness Center on the hill near the dining hall. Summer camp offices are upstairs. Downtairs, experimentally, is an extra staff lounge room. Dialysis is still there in the back, as I've commented before. But dialysis moves very soon, so what then for Smith Lodge? Should we renovate it? Would it be worth it? Should be put a new building on the spot - perhaps one that looks just like Smith? One can imagine 1,000 good ideas. Ponder....
