Blum House - our new staff lounge!

look-alikes

Click HERE for a short video of remarkable "look-alikes" doing their thing at Challenge Night on Thursday.

Giannotti's week

John Giannotti leaves today after a week here volunteering. What a joy for me personally it's been to have him here. To see for himself how the FV magic continues - what continuity there is, and, at the same time, so many qualitative improvements. Last night was his last at camp for 2015, so I persuaded him to stay up late and walk around to CQ fires, and have a taste of a CQ-burger which is an utterly unique contextual cuisine. He met me after I'd told a story to Outpost at the fire-ring near Lakeview and the Hird hardcourts. We went together to Lenape where I told a second story, and then we were off: first to Pokey-Totem (pita pizzas, some with pepperoni), then Tacoma (no food but a really good group and lots of good talk, including a few induced stories about FV back in the day), then Outpost (and that's where we dined on CQ-burgers - with cheese and actually lettuce, and chips) where there were perhaps 15 people from various villages enjoying the scene. And finally, at nearly 1 AM, to Leadership Lodge on the other side of camp (where the CITs live). Mike Schneider (also visiting) had marinated some chicken and grilled it up for us. I dropped John off at Lakeview at 1:22 AM. For a couple of old guys, who'd awakened that morning at 6:30 AM, it was a loooong and good day. Another starry sky. Another sense of the community. More conversations about the kids, even in our few hours' of precious time off. John said, "You know. I didn't realize why doing this was a good idea, but I just followed your lead. But now I know why you wanted me to do this. Now I fully realize that Frost Valley is in good hands and it's a place where these young people are exactly as dedicated as we were decades ago." And I said: "John, when you're here, you have to leave it all on the field."

The photo above shows John, earlier in the evening, pretending to feint during the "smelliest shoe" challenge at Challenge Night.

Sandy

 

Sandy Shapiro Bohn. A Pokey camper in 1969. A volunteer "camp mom"/camp driver in many recent summers. She gives up her entire annual vacation to be here and help out. Her kids have come of age here. She's driven long distances to help with many urgent and non-urgent situations, and she's the "longest serving Challenge Night judge in modern Challenge Night history," as I like to say at the start of each Challenge Night. Here she is yesterday - driving one of the new camp buses. Frost Valley's summer camp would be nothing with people this dedicated - folks willing to do what it takes to make the place run well. Thanks, Sandy!

do kids at Frost Valley miss their smartphones? I asked them

Do kids at Frost Valley care that we have no cell phone service and no internet connection here? That they can't use their smartphones - that they need to leave them at home? Do they miss checking the iPhone? I was playing Geronimo with Adventure Village this morning and at one point called for all those who had smartphones at home, left them at home, and don't miss them at all - to switch seats. More than half got up and switched seats. A rough sampling, to be sure, but indeed an indication. I'll add that when I talk with kids here - even the 14 and 15 year olds - about whether they would like us someday to install cell phone service, or whether kids someday at camp should be allowed to use their smartphones, they almost unanimously say no. It means they value being disconnected for a time. It seems to add to the connections they feel here aplenty. With all that, why would you need more?

Lakota girls hanging out after breakfast

walking across the field

eating with a trong

An Adventure Village camper this morning at breakfast: he's eating with a "trong," a three-legged (three-tined) chopstick. I advised him that if he really wants to dine with a trong, he needs to tie the three tines together. He's responding to the story called "Five Trong" that I've been telling this summer. I told that story at Sequoia last night (see earlier entry) and some of the kids seem to have taken the notion of eating with a trong seriously. In Outpost, a counselor (Tyler) has ordered two trong from Amazon. They should arrive today. Maybe we'll start a trend.

Challenge Night goes to the Farm

Photos by Sandy Shapiro Bohn, who kindly came with me to the Farm last week for another raucous Challenge Night with the Farm people. And Sandy also took these photos.

welcome to the Challenge Night hair salon

Bill Primack is back - dialysis doctor whose first summer here was 1975!

Yes, Bill Primack. He was the first pediatric nephrologist who directed the dialysis program when it began in the summer of 1975. That's FORTY years ago. Yes, 40 years of this program - which enables kids with renal disease and chronic illness associated with that disease to come to camp and have a normal experience. Yes, Bill is back this summer, having been recruited to do a one-week stint as doc for the program by Rick Kaskel. Bill visited last summer when we inducted Ira Greifer into the Hall of Fame. He now lives in North Carolina and is retired from regular practice. Here you see Bill with two of the campers this session - in the relatively new unit that is part of the Guenther Family Wellness Center on the top of the hill near the dining hall. Bill has been out and about camp this week. He, with John Giannotti, has been helping me at Challenge Night, and what a pleasure it has been to hang out with an old friend.

old friends

Bud Cox & John Giannotti

Pocohontas Village ("Pokey") in 1977 or '78

Photo provided by Jere Schwait Sirkis. Click on the photo for a larger view.

story for a starry night

Last night I told a late story to Adventure Village. I went out to Sequoia to meet up with some staff, at 10:15 PM, after I'd told an "early" (9:30 PM) story to Forest. The Advill staff who met me - my escorts to a semi-secret location - including Zach, the new Adventure Director. These folks were going to lead me on a 1/3rd-mile walk up into the fern fields and through the woods to the place where Advill has created a fire-ring in the woods. We tramped up, with flashlights, bushwacking a little, crossing a small stream that feeds Pigeon Brook, and there was the whole village waiting for me and the story. The sky had cleared and in that spot, way up there above Pigeon, and we could see tons of stars and the Milky Way! So I told the story dramatically in the middle of the woods, the kids totally focused on it - no interruptions. I realize how rare this is. Really. How often do a group of 50 preteens and teens go somewhere dark, hard to get to, and sit absolutely still and listen for 45 minutes to someone telling a story? Any such story is only as good as the site and situation in which it is being told. What "magic" gets made by such a scene, it is camp.

mid-70s gang

Kenny Nathanson, John Wellington, Cindy Drucker, Jere Schwait, and David Kaiser - mid 1970s (I'm going to guess it's 1976 or '77).

who's that Hunker Hawser spotter? - yes it's John Giannotti!

Last night John Giannotti was a judge at Challenge Night. It was the first-ever Challenge Night for Pokey-Totem and PAC. And it worked out well! You can see John here helping as a spotter during the Hunker Hawser competition at the end. It's great to have John here with us this week.

Honma grandchildren - two big fish in the big FV pond

Keizo and Kazumi Fish. Kazumi is a counselor again in Lakota (and very talented!) and Keizo is now a CIT (and loved by all). Their mom, Kyoko, was a camper here. In 1979, speaking almost no English, she was a camper on a Lake Champlain bike trip I led with June Maier. Her parents, Emiko and Tatsuo Honma, were at the time planning a special partnership camp based on a joint program of Frost Valley and the Tokyo YMCA.

So, yes, Keizo and Kazumi, are the grandchildren of Emiko and Tatsuo Honma, founders of the Tokyo camp here at FV.

Kate's daughter

Kate Westerbeck (now Kate Lewis) was a camper and staffer here. This morning her daughter Olivia was playing Geronimo along with her fellow Susky villagers. I called out: "If your mom was a camper in Iscusfa!" Olivia knew to stand up. The other campers and most of the staff wondered what Iscusfa was, and so we spent a moment explaining. Here's Olivia a little later at lunch. (If you remember Kate, you will know that Olivia is the girl at left.)

Geronimo with Outpost - video sequence

I played a hilarious & intense game of Geronimo with Outpost this morning; we were joined by the CITs, which made things still more hilarious. Here's a sequence in which Luke, a camper, deftly avoided being in the middle by dint of quickness and smarts.

Lakota pyramid

Lakota just fills the time and space with fun. If I'm 5 minutes late to start a game of Geronimo with them under the tent...no matter: they will come up with songs and games and interesting topics. Always entertaining themselves. Never a dull transition from activity to activity. Here's what I found them doing when I got to the tent.

3 MAC big-timers

From left to right: Amani, Gail, and Sarah. All three work for YAI - which is FV's partner in the MAC (mainstreaming at camp) program of long standing - and all three have many years of FV experience.

Jason Sickle's son

Jason Sickle, former staff mainstay, brought Preston here for the session - his 2nd summer. That's Preston at right.

Lauren Eufemia Italiano's daughter is back

The Eufemia sisters - Lauren and Nancy - were campers and staffers back in the day. Lauren's daughter Alee has been coming here the past few summers and now she's in Sacky. Lauren dropped her off on Sunday and was thrilled to be here, even if just for a few hours. (Alee is second from left.)

John Giannotti is here teaching sketching & making a mural

I have already mentioned that John Giannotti and his son Del are here this week as volunteers. Del is working with PAC, and John is creating a mural with a group of campers from Hemlock and Sacky and is also teaching sketching and drawing by arrangement with various villages. Yesterday he stationed himself at the waterfront and was sketching a leaf. Campers came by and chatted with him and he encouraged them to try their own sketches. One camper wanted to write something and ended up creating what might be called an advertisement based on what he saw immediately around him. Here it is.

Sue Ettelman

Sue Ettelman (now Sue Eisenhauer) in the mid-70s.

photo of two Totem cabins (1969)

Kenny Nathanson came to camp in 1969 as a Totem camper with a Kodak camera. Only one photo came out from that roll. He doesn't know what went wrong. But he did get that one photo, which is a nice one. It's taken from the porch of cabin 4, and from this vantage we can see cabins 1 and 2. (For those who don't remember this arrangement: Totem Village consisted of cabins 1 through 5. Currently only cabins 1, 2 and 3 remain (as residences of full-year staff). Cabins 4 and 5 were located where there's now a parking lot servicing Hussey Lodge.

after dinner with Lakota

After dinner last night, the sun came out and "dried up all the rain." So it goes here in the Valley these days. On their way from the dining hall back to the cabins to prep for evening program, Lakota's cabin 43 decided to stop and play on this new-fangled postmodern multi-form see-saw that we've got set up there. Easy joy. I stopped by and couldn't - ahem - be the unintrusive guy behind the camera. Oh well.

mid-1970s

Jere Schwait (now Jere Sirkis) and Cindy Drucker in the mid-70s

"the order of the oar" in the old dining hall

In the old dining hall, circa 1976. Remember the fabulous steel fireplace hood that descended from the high ceiling and covered the round stone fireplace in the middle of the main dining room? All announcements and songs and skits were positioned in front of the hood, facing the two main wings of the large room. This is where we also did our "Order of the Oar" birthday toss-ups. This photo, belonging to Sandra Shapiro Bohn, captures a moment of birthday celebration. Classic.

our former campers are now sending us their own kids

third from left: Katie

I have no precise figures for this, but I'm going to guess that 20% of the campers here this session - perennially the largest session - are children of former campers and staff or nephews and nieces or even grandkids. I get a sense of this as my own former campers & counselors come into the dining hall at check-in with huge smiles on their faces and even nostalgic tears: weeks of telling their own Frost Valley stories now give way, for the children, to the kids' own experiences, first hand. And typically these kids quickly get the FV magic, and can explain it for themselves - no longer needing mom or dad's version. It's a subtle thing to see, but palpable. Yesterday, Melissa Rubin, who had been a counselor in Pokey for three summers back in the 90s, dropped off Anya, who is - you guessed it - in Pokey-Totem. Circle game. Melissa was thrilled and also a little jealous as she left and contemplated the drive home alone. Parents wait years for this and then - pow! - it hits them. They've passed it on.

Anya, at right

Jeff Hamilton was a camper here and remembered me quite well. Had he a flood of memories as we chatted. He and his wife dropped of THREE children: Emma, Katie and James. Katie is in cabin 43 where the counselor (and VC of Lakota) is my daughter Hannah. Jeff was thrilled about this coincidence and Hannah reported that when he brought Katie to the cabin yesterday he couldn't stop telling the stories. The generations!

campers hanging around Pigeon Lodge

Here's a great photo of campers hanging around Pigeon Lodge during a holdover weekend in the late 1960s.

here's what a dad told us as he got ready to leave with his daughter after session 1

shining staff at check-out

After one two-week session the staff looks wonderful at check-out, no?

Jeff Daly visits and hangs with some old friends

With Chris & Danny.

Shawn happened to visiting that day too!

With Dan Weir & Emily Gorman.

Geronimo rhymes

Just one of the many reasons why I like leading games of Geronimo with Pokey-Totem....is that this summer (and last) we have counselors in that village whose names rhyme: Carly & Marlee. I could call those two name all afternoon long. And here they were, the Carly-Marlee pose.