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.

challenge night blogged

From the Frost Valley summer camp blog (this entry composed, I think, by Hird Director Kam Kobiessi):

Last night, Sacky/Hemlock (13 year-old girls and boys, respectively) got together in the new theatre to participate in Al’s Challenge Night for their evening activity. Who is Al? Alformer Frost Valley camper, director, a camper and staff parent, trustee, as well as a summer volunteer. While here, one of his program offerings is Challenge Night, where cabins split into teams and are challenged to come up with the best celebrity impersonation, song, skit, counselor impression, counselor tug-o-war (on milk crates!) and other things. It was a rousing night, with counselors and campers alike cheering on their teams to victory.

Here is a link to the blogpost and here is a link to the blog.

on change and not-change

After hearing the recording of the conversation Dave King and I had on Olympic Day last month, Rick Cobb sent us his thoughts:

I just listened to your recording at the Big Tree Field; what a masterpiece! While I'm sitting here on the porch looking at our mountains early Sunday morning and listening to your podcast on my version of the Crackberry (which is my Dell laptop), I'm really right there with you. Or, I'm going back in time as you mention folks: Mike Ketcham, Dick Haney (who was my first counselor on the Adirondack Explorers [along with Bud Cox, Hoby Spitz, and Mark Fisher]), Peter Boyd, etc.

I then flashed back to a story about Jane that I told at Halbe and Jane's retirement event (2001?), where Peter Boyd walked into the Ad Office one summer with his wife and young daughter (who may be Ellen Boyd that you mentioned in your recording). Peter and his wife, who had worked at a different summer camp growing up, had argued about which camp to send their daughter. Apparently Peter had "won"; as they entered the Ad Office, Jane, who had not seen Peter for ~20 years, said: "Peter Boyd, from Summit, NJ". Peter turns to his wife and says: "See! I TOLD you this was the right camp!" And the tradition continues with Elizabeth....

As far as changing and not-changing goes, to me Frost Valley represents core values and principles that hopefully will never change; it's their internalized existence that allows us to deal with the ever-increasing rate of change of everything else around us. I agree that FV is a very special oasis that, while its physical appearance changes, the real core value and principles have remained constant through the years. While the manifestations of those values and principles change as programs and initiatives change, the values and principles underlying them do not.

Thanks for reminding me of that today. Keep the podcasts coming!

Andy in both

Last night Andy Szymczak came up to me to say that he'd looked at the blog (busy camp director but time enough for the blog!) and saw the great Woodwise "Mudwise" photo - and noted with pleasure that he as a camper was in that picture. And then he went on to say that he was always a Sequoia camper and a Woodwise guy and eventually came to run Woodwise - earthy, communalist, woodsy all the way.

Then this morning Karin Turer emailed me to say the same thing - that Andy is in that picture. She herself had seen the photo of Andy as the painted director, and put two and two together.

Long live the internet for helping us re-tie the ties that connect us.

fighting homesickness and other tips

I'm the parent of a camper, and so I received a nice email from the directors today, telling me of--among other things--the new summer camp blog. You should have a visit to this new e-offering from FV. The first entry is about "how to fight homesickness," and as you can see the goal of the blog is to give parents and camper tips about preparing for camp.