....and another Eufemia (well, Italiano)

Lauren Eufemia was a camper and staff here through at least the mid-1980s. (Her sister Nancy Eufemia rose to the rank of VC of Sacky.) Lauren is now Lauren Italiano and her and her husband Joe have a daughter Ali, who is in camp now this session for the first time. Welcome another generation of Eufemias! The photo above (shot into the sunlight of the dining hall) is of Lauren and me at the end of check-in, after Ali was safely set up in her cabin. Don't worry, mom - we will take good, good care of your beloved daughter just as we took care of you once upon a time.

Sacky sings Winehouse on a cloudy afternoon

Although it was one of those wash-out days - plenty of time spent waiting for thunderstorms to pass - it was also somehow one of those days when beautiful things just kept happening. I needed only to walk around the fields to find happiness, creativity and friendship. I walked along in front of Margetts Lodge and got instantly serenaded by a cabin of sisterhoodish Sacky girls singing a version of Amy Winehouse's version of "Valerie."

in pajamas at campfire

Sacky staff, led by Maddy Geftec (at far left), wears pajamas to opening campfire (session 1).

old cabins on "the hill"

Cabins 41 through 45 seen at dusk recently. Many reading this will remember them as Girls 11-15 (Sacky for many decades). In the 21st century this village has been the home of Lakota, a girls' village in Wawayanda between Susky and Sacky by age. You can see four of the five in the row--possibly, if you look closely, you can see all five. I was one of those who used to complain about how jammed-together the cabins on "The Hill" are. I've even been known to call them tenements. But their location has grown on me over the years. The cabins themselves are pretty worn (having not really been renovated since they were built in 1965 or '66). But the campers and counselors who live in them swear by the scene: they love it. The walk from cabin 46 (formerly 16 in Tacoma, now Susky) is the longest walk to the dining hall from a place of campers' residence. So 45, which you see in the foreground, is the second-longest walk. If you have stories about these two "hill" villages, send them to me at afilreis [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

Tom Cometa writes: "Cabin 45 was our family camp cabin for 6 years. Dylan, 7 years old, has been practically raised there. True, the cabins in old Sacky are "worn" at best. From year one, Andria has asked Carmel for an upgrade. The walk to the dining hall is long. Nevertheless, the villages up there have a certain inexplicable charm. Two years ago we got our upgrade. We now have a very fancy, upscale cabin 15 in the old Lenape ring. The boys were heartbroken. Andria is digging the carpet, the space, double sinks and two bathrooms. I know she misses the old hood, though. It's peaceful up there among the trees above Lake Cole. When I showed the picture of cabin 45 to Dylan he said, 'Let's go back there, Daddy. I miss that cabin.'"

2 former staff visit

Anna Armstrong and Rebecca Reilly visit for the day, happy to be back. Anna is seriously considering attending the Labor Day reunion, having not until realized that the reunion will include many recently former staff--people she'll know. Then when I told her we would have an inter-decade Challenge Night, she said, "Wow! I'm getting chills just thinking about it."

Sacky girl, mid 80s

Mary Beth Sullivan remembers her Frost Valley years. She sent me a photo of one of her visits as an "Indian Princess" in the late 70s or maybe 1980. She and her dad and friends are at the BB Range. The staff member, in the sweater, is Paul Nelson - who was a VC in the summertime (of Outpost in around 1978). Here's Mary Beth recalling her Frost Valley summers, along with my editorial insertions:

I was in Sacky for ’83 and ’84. I used to remember my counselor’s name immediately, but now I think having a kid has drained my memory a bit. I think her name might have been Mara. She was a village leader and she was from Texas. The last time I mentioned her name to you (when I completely remembered her first and last name), you recognized it and also mentioned that she married another FV lifer? [Mary Beth is writing about Mari Angers.]

I remember my first lunch and winning a TV theme contest you personally MC’d and sang (one-man show). I also remembered the touching story you told of your friend with the arrow you found in Lake Cole. You mentioned it during Hirdstock. [Here she is probably remembering a Challenge Night that I led, and also the story I used to tell about Charlie Shelton.]

I also remember Kangaroo Court with people teasing the guy named “Flash.” [She's remembering Gordon Fair, whom we called "Flash Gordon."]

You know, I’ve been dying to visit the camp for the longest time. I live in Florida, and my parents went there about a year ago to visit during a trip to my uncle’s. As a matter of fact, this weekend, I’m flying up north for my cousin’s wedding. They live in Middletown. I almost decided to take a side trip up there, but my mom assigned me limo duties for my grandparents.

You know I’m planning to send my kid up the coast for summer camp at FV once she’s old enough. It never leaves your blood!

after a Sacky devotion

another chip off the block

Yes, another daughter of a former camper and staffer is here this summer. Rachel Eisenhauer, a counselor in Sacky and before that longtime camper here, is the daughter of Steve Eisenhauer and 1960s/early 70s lifer (and alumna activist from the late 80s to the present) Sue Ettelman Eisenhauer. Everyone from the 1971-73 era or so will remember Sue for her intense involvement in what I'd very positively call "Girls' Camp culture," something that might sound--as a phrase--trivial but was definitely a deep thing. One of those moments when you just "had to be there" to understand its effect. Here's a photo of Rachel I took yesterday along with her brother-village buddy, Remy Bernstein. Below is a photo of the Ettelman/Eisenhauer clan taken a few years ago at the Geyer Hall dedication. Sue is at bottom left.

Hessie's back!

Rafik has left (maybe he'll be back for the September 13 formal opening of the new Wellness Center), but before he and Kathy departed I got a shot of them with daughter Katey, a JC in Sacky.

Literally on the way out the door we met Marie Hess coming in. Here for her usual 4-week stint of volunteering. She looks fabulously and I hope she won't mind me saying
here in this public forum that in the spring she turned 80 years old. Not possible to believe. She's strong and active as ever, and will help out at laundry, in the store, in the kitchen, in the Castle, wherever needed.

the day Harry Potter arrived

There was a buzz around camp the day the new Harry Potter came out, late July '07. A good many parents had pre-ordered the book from Amazon; Potter-styled Amazon boxes, nearly a truck full, were delivered to the Ad Office in the morning. Several enterprising staff members got into the pile and pulled out their own copies and hustled off to periods off and rest hour to get started on the reading. Mail is delivered to campers at dinnertime and so for most of the Potterites there was a whole long glorious day of anticipation. At dinner VCs came with bags and armloads of books.

Two Sacky counselors - Emily and Nikki, above - were dressed for the occasion.

Then the reading began. Somehow, campers who had, shall we say, a lot of activities to do, including an evening program, somehow got the time to read. Laiya A. was one of them. Laiya was already famous for, two summers earlier, having finished the then-new Potter book within 24 hours of its arrival. She did the same, somehow, in 2007. On this night I was walking around, CQ fire to CQ fire, "on call" (a sort of director-level night watch, a CQ of CQ's). Laiya was in cabin 36. At nearly 1 am, my "on call" evening nearly done, I walked slowly through Sacky (cabins 36-40, old 6-10--it used to be Susky). There was one little light shining out of a bunk window in 36. Surely this was Laiya, pulling an all-nighter for her cherished Harry. I walked quietly into the cabin...all asleep except indeed Laiya, who saw me and got a big smile on her face as she peered at me from under the flashlight which she held up with one hand while the other held the huge tome. And she said: "Al. It's really really good." I said goodnight and walked down the hill past the mists gathering across the surface of Lake Cole. Our own old magic, but for just that night not the only magic in the area.

Back in '05, Laiya finished volume 6 at sunrise. She was sobbing, sad at the death that concludes that book, but also, as she explained to me later, feeling lonely that she as a reader had experienced this all alone. The others in the cabin, her dear friends, awoke to the sound of Laiya's sobs and knew exactly what was going on. They all climbed into her bunk and all of them starting crying in sympathy. Through Laiya's tears: a smile. These were her friends and whatever it was that happened in this novel, they would feel what she feels.

Even the reading experience, typically a solitary thing, is an instigation to communal sympathy and emotional sharing. We're all in this together.

Annie Old School

Annie Galligan is a rigorous Frost Valley traditionalist. But she's only 17. How is this possible? Well, she just finished her eleventh summer in the valley and loves it completely. She spent much of the summer in Sacky, although she did an unusual 2-week stint in Forest (yes, with the 10- and 11-year-old boys). One evening during session 3 I told a late-night story to Forest ("The Doubletop Plane Crash Mystery," featuring appearances by Ed Monda, Bud Cox, Dave King, Tom Ashbaugh, Bill Abbott, Jeff Daly, and Floyd Hird--quite a cast), and at one point looked around at the faces in the firelight and saw Annie standing there. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "I know Annie is Old School and seeks out every opportunity to hear about the old days, but this is really a stretch--that she'd come from her village to hear Forest's story." Then I learned that she was in fact a Forest counselor! My daughter (13 years old and a Sacky girl) thinks Annie Galligan is about the coolest thing going. "She knows exactly who she is," she says. How would I know her if I saw her? I asked. "Well, probably she'll be wearing clothes you wear at Hirdstock--except it won't be Hirdstock that day." Annie and her Sacky pals ran a village "Throwback Day" and it was once again the 1970s in camp. They sang an interminable version of the Announcements song, for one thing.

I recently caught up Annie while Sacky and Hemlock were having a lunchtime barbecue under the big tent. They were playing serious old Rock, grilling, and chilling. Old School backrubs were being dispensed. Someone was braiding someone else's hair. Several girls and boys were lazily throwing frisbees and chatting. It seemed the perfect moment to find out what makes Annie Old School so utterly grok the past. Here's the recording of our conversation.

Photo: from left to right, Dave O'Brien, Woody Kass, Harry McCormack, Lauri Bourette, and Annie Galligan.

there for you

These three long-time camp friends, Chrissy Mohle, Chris Harper, and Lexi Cariello--all three were first-time VCs this summer, of Sacky, Windsong, and Mac Girls respectively--worked up assorted songs in 3-part harmony and sang them here and there throughout the summer. They saved Bon Jovi's "I'll Be There for You" for the last--for the final closing campfire. I guess this time you're really leaving. I heard your suitcase say goodbye.... Here's my recording of their song.

The song was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and released in 1988 on Bon Jovi's album New Jersey and released as a single in '89.

how does it feel to be so loved?

Chris Harper's summer was her first as a village chief. 2007 is her 12th year at camp; she's come up from Pokey. In the past few years she's done something that was unheard-of in my day but seems to be a pattern now among the staff. Chris was a Sacky counselor when her current Windsong campers were in Sacky, then in '06 she was a counselor in Tacoma with many of the same girls, and now, as I say, she's their VC in Windsong. She will probably apply to be a CIT Coordinator next summer and work with the same kids. Some counselors "move up" with their campers. Several of my daughter's Sacky counselors have been with her since Susky (Susky-->Lakota-->Sacky) and are contemplating Tacoma for '08. Remarkable. What continuity this creates. It makes for actual generations...cohorts. I caught up with Windsong recently out in front of Arts & Crafts on a sunny day. They were untying their recently dyed tie-dye shirts, and as you can see from the photo, they turned out well. I asked them about the shirts and then conversation inevitably turned to their VC who blushed upon hearing such kudos. Listen to the audio recording of that fun encounter.

(For old-timers reading this: in the early 70s we created Cherokee to be an oldest girls' village, beyond Tacoma. For a year or two later this was Sunburst, and then in the early 80s we created Windsong - same age, 15 year olds, the sister village of Quinnipiac, "Pac" for short. Pac's first summer was '85. Windsong's was either '83 or '84.)

staff list for "The Hird" 1985

Here (click on the image for a larger version) is the beginning-of-summer staff list for "The Hird" in July of 1985. The roster changed a bit as the summer went on, but only a bit. It was a superb staff--the best group of VCs I ever directed. I believe this was the first summer of PAC, possibly the second--only called "Quinnipiac" at the start of the summer. Notice that there were just two staff there--Dave Gold and "Flash" Gordon--for all those boys in Hird Lodge. What's odd-seeming is that Hemlock's sister village, Sacajewea ("Sacky"), is not here. It's not that Sacky was in Wawayanda that summer; Sacky was in The Hird, run by Wendy Brady, but not until session 2. (Session 1 that summer had low enrollments. Sacky's staff was spread throughout other villages.) Lenape matched with Tacoma and Pac with Windsong (also new--it has been "Sunburst" before that and "Cherokee" before that). Note too that in 1983 Lenape lived in what had been for many years the home of that village--cabins 16-20 (currently numbered 13-17 and currently the home of Hemlock), but in this year, '85, we moved Lenape over to where Tacoma had always been, cabins 46-50, atop "the Hill," so that all of the Hird could be together on that side of camp. Tacoma now moved into 31-35 where Pokey had been and Sacky was where Susky had always been (36-40), while Hemlock was with Lenape on the Hill, in 41-45. All this moving around was made necessary, or made possible at least, by the destruction of the main "boys" dining hall by fire on New Year's Eve 1982. I'll save that story for another post, but gosh, my memory of all this detail scares me; looking at this mimeographed staff list of a group of good young people 23 years ago, it all seems ridiculously clear. I note finally this was also the first summer of "The Hird" as such, after "Camp Henry Hird" or "Camp Hird." We were a herd...for sure.