Cherokee

Below is a photo of Cherokee Village in 1975 or '74. When the number of girls enrolled as campers boomed in the early 1970s, Halbe Brown asked the seasonal director team how they could accommodate the increased numbers. The response was to create a new village for the oldest girls. Tacoma had been the oldest village since the beginning of girls' camp. Now "Cherokee" would be the oldest. But where to house them? The boys CITs were now in Hayden, since its renovation in 1968 or '69; the girls CITs were traditionally in Turrell Lodge. Pigeon Lodge was used for staff housing upstairs and the Staff Lounge downstairs. That left Biscuit Lodge, so the oldest girls moved in there. The then-new Tokyo YMCA partnership in a few years (early 1980s) moved into Pigeon and Biscuit, so eventually the oldest girls village had to move again. I created "Windsong" village in 1983 (and two years later, "Quinnipiac" in 1985 in Hird Lodge). "Windsong" moved into Turrell and was there for some years until Kresge was built in the '90s. In between "Cherokee" and the making of "Windsong" there were a few summers of "Sunburst" village, living in odd spots around camp; one summer "Sunburst" even lived in a few platform tents set up at the edge of the woods behind the Ad Office! They used the Ad office bathroom for showering!

But Cherokee was not a success. The camps were still divided by boys and girls. The oldest girls couldn't be expected to walk all the way across campus for meals in the girls' dining hall (now Geyer Hall). And there wasn't room there for more than the four original villages: Pokey, Susky, Sacky and Tacoma. So Cherokee ate in the boys' dining hall, in the back room ("Hemlock Lounge"). It means, let's just say, that they received a great deal of attention from the boys in the oldest villages, creating some rivalries with Tacoma and even Sacky. In Hemlock Lounge they ate with the program staff and administrative staff, and that wasn't a good fit either. Still, it was a few years of interesting experiment, and I'm sure that those who came through Cherokee on their way to CIT remember the experience fondly.

put your mother on the ceiling

Windsong and PAC villages this afternoon, during third period, getting super-relaxed during my activity called "Put Your Mother on the Ceiling." I must say it's no mean trick getting these teenagers this relaxed. But I love how game they were.

Windsong out

Here's a shot of session 2 Windsong, a few days ago, a few minutes before they headed out on their 2-night overnight to Merrill Pavilion (aka "Pete's").

Figgy's got the spirit

Start of session 3 - second half of the summer. Today we noticed that one of the parents of a 7th-summer camper wrote a long blog entry from the p.o.v. of a mom wrestling with her daughter's absence and bittersweetly admiring the girl's complete love of Frost Valley. Here is the full blog entry. It's worth reading. And here is an excerpt:

Figgy would get into a funk when she had to come home. She'd cry and sniffle in the back seat of the car, or sulk. She wouldn't talk to us.

It would take a while, and then all the stories would spill out. The tales about the castle, the opening campfire, the closing campfire, the waterfront, the pita pizzas, the ghost stories, the overnight [where they all sleep outside], the hash browns, how much water the counselors make them drink, how Figgy ate five apples one day, spaghetti night, the dance, and a game she loves called ultimate sicko ball, which she says is like capture the flag.

You don't understand, she'd say in a pitiful little voice from the back seat of our car. I will probably never see some of these people again in my life. [True. Her counselors have come from all over, including Holland, Ireland, Cape Cod and California. And I gather that the bonds that are forged, the secrets shared, the fears confronted during those two weeks can be life-changing.]

This is Figgy's seventh year in a row, and her last year as a camper. This is not a pretty picture. She will apply to be a Counselor in Training [CIT] next year, but we hear the competition is thick.

I'm warning you now, she said yesterday, That I might sulk for twenty-four hours, because I'm going to be so sad.

last-day-of-session blues

I don't want to leave

On the last day of session 2, I spoke with a group of long-time campers. They reflected on what their FV experience means to them and talked about what's next. Here's an audio recording of our conversation.

my friends are everyone

At breakfast on the last day of the session the campers fill out evaluation forms. I asked one of the Windsong campers--a 15-year-old--if I could snap a pic of her eval. She said, "Absolutely!"

My friends are: "everyone"
I wish I could have: "more time here"
I will remember: "everything"

And on it goes. (The only suggested improvement was: the food.)

if you want to leave I can guarantee / you won't find nobody else like me

The just-mentioned (in the previous entry) closing campfire staged another return of the appropriately beautiful and sentimental song to FV's traditional farewell event. (I credit Kam Kobeissi and Emma Conniff for urging this restoration of quiet feeling to the campfire--a really important way, for some young people, of pondering an actual turning-point.)

Windsong is one village, for sure, that has never flagged in its tradition of bringing good songs to the campfire. Last night the Windsong campers sang a song they'd practiced that afternoon, dedicating it to their counselors - who, in the audio, can be heard legitimately sighing upon hearing the dedication.

The lyrics to the song are below and here is the recording - in mp3 format, and downloadable, and import-able into your iTunes. What self-respecting former camper or staffer - out there in the midst of their non-camp summers - won't want to drag it into iTunes and put it on his or her mp3 player/iPod. Why? Because: Don't know how you met me, you don't know why / You can't turn around and say good-bye / All you know is when I'm with you, I make you free. Couldn't have said it better than that.

- - -

You don't know how you met me, you don't know why
You can't turn around and say good-bye
All you know is when I'm with you, I make you free
And swim through your veins like a fish in the sea

Chorus:
I'm singin' follow me everything is all right
I'll be the one to tuck you in at night
And if you want to leave I can guarantee
You won't find nobody else like me

I'm not worried 'bout the ring you wear
Cuz' as long as no one knows than nobody can care
You're feeling guilty and I'm well aware
But you don't look ashamed and baby, I'm not scared

Chorus

Wont give you money, I can't give you the sky
You're better off if you don't ask why
I'm not the reason that you go astray and
We'll be all right if you don't ask me to stay

I'll be the one to tuck you in at night
And if you want to leave I can guarantee
You wont find nobody else like me

Don't know how you met me, you don't know why
You can't turn around and say good-bye
All you know is when I'm with you, I make you free
And swim through your veins like a fish in the sea

- - -

The photo above was taken last night at this campfire, but is not Windsong; it's Mac Boys staff singing "Wee-ma-way" by The Weavers, with lyrics specially adapted to say farewell to their remarkably venturesome campers.

alum kids come of age

Yesterday, Hird flag raising, run by Windsong with Pac looking closely on. There are three alumni kids in Windsong/Pac and you can glimpse all three here: Amanda Tilles (speaking at the moment I took the shot, in white top), Sam Nathanson (bearded, dark shirt, center of the pic), and my daughter Hannah (yellow top, backpack).

Challenge Night redux

Windsong-Pac Challenge Night last night. A distinguished panel of judges: Kam Kobeissi, Jeff Daly, Dan Goldman, Megan Lawrence, and Kelly Hupp. Since there were five teams, the judges sent up a rep--Kam--to fill out the bracket in the Hunker Hawser competition. The proud winner of the FV History Quiz won a cherished prize: a mint-condition staff shirt from the 1960s. (Can anyone tell me the exact date of the shirt?)

comes a time: camper to staff

CIT Point, Thursday night. Sky had partly cleared, Kam Kobeissi, Hird's director, kept adding big logs to fire. It roared and the campers and staff started into it, looking out over the quiet lake at dusk. They were asked to come in quietly, and did. Amazing. Session 1's CC isn't always the most sentimental. But this one had its many moments. Kam paid attention to a few key solemn details and it worked. Yes, it's true that the Hemlock staff did a skit-like song, in which, at each chorus, which was something about how we were going to do something "once again," two of them ran to the lake and jumped in (cold!). But even in this antic contribution, they finally all stood in the water, arm in arm, singing the chorus. Even the craziest non-CC-style stunt had its sentiment. The girls of Windsong, all of them in their final year as campers, sang a song by Youth Group called "Forever Young" (not, to be sure, the Dylan lyric of that title--also apt for CC). If you click here you can hear a recording of this good moment. Afterwards, the Windsong and Pac campers and staff went up to the old Wawayanda chapel for a vespers during which many of them spoke individually about the big transition ahead. Good stuff. It makes you want to be forever young.

Forever young I want to be forever young,
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, forever
Forever young, I want to be forever young,
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, forever
Forever young, I want to be forever young,
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, forever
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, forever...

Windsong, session 1, 2009

two-nighter

Windsong (the oldest girls) are leaving this afternoon for a two-nighter, starting at Pete's Pavilion. Here are some of them at lunch. They got their sunglasses, their hiking boots, their braided hair and t-shirts...and seem ready to go.

thank you, grandma, for sending me to camp

Our old friend Afua Preston (she was a camper in my last years as director) currently works at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies in the Foreign Languages, Translations and Interpreting Program, where she is the Assistant Director for Academic Operations.

Recently Afua and I had a good email exchange, and, after a bit, this wonderful story came out. Here's Afua to tell it:

I wanted to mention that Frost Valley has been on mind over the past month after the death of my Grandmother Dina La Barre in April. She worked at the YMCA in Montclair, NJ and because she worked there, she was able to get a discount for me and my older brother Matthew Starensier to go Frost Valley for over 10 years. During her Memorial through the tears I was able to get out how much her sending me to Frost Valley meant to me. How I was such a NYC girl but for 2 -8 weeks every summer I was in a place of fun, good people and productive physical and mental challenges. It was at Frost Valley that I overcame my fear of heights, learned to ride a horse, learned to swim (well may I add) and lose my fear of unrecognizable noises in the night. FV is also why I have a collection of sounds of rain CDs. I always loved the sound of rain falling on the trees while in my cabin. It was also my Grandmother and her late husband Kenneth La Barre who wrote me the the most wonderful letters keeping my homesickness at bay. I guess I took it for granted because I had no idea that she was the reason why I was able to afford to go to Frost Valley. I didn't know what a privilege it was to go to a sleep away camp until I would talk about my summers to college friends and co workers. I am grateful to her and to Frost Valley. Every now and then here in New York City I'll see someone with Frost Valley T-shirt or Sweatshirt and I swear I want to run over to them and ask "What village were you in?"

The photo atop the entry is of Afua as a Windsong camper in (I think) '84. And here at right is Afua today.

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.