(Sorry for the length but it wanted to give you as clear an idea about how much thought was put into trying to make it as anti-hospital like and normal as possible.)
Last month, I wrote about the history of The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp (Camp). This month I am going to talk about what a normal session was like when I was I camper. I won’t be mentioning much of specifically what I did while a camper. That will be for a later diary, I am more going to describe the flow of a session while I was there from arrival to departure.
Let’s again dive down the orange swimming hole and read about the magic of Camp.
But First, A Word From Our Sponsor:
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top™ to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top™ to pop up in diaries posts around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist poster reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the doodle...
|
My days as a camper span the years of 1993-1997. Back then session lengths varied depending on the type of session you attended. As I stated previously, there are 3 distinct sessions: a general session; a session for immunology diseases and a Sickle Cell session. There is one additional session. The very last session every summer was for siblings of campers. Paul Newman always felt too often the siblings were ignored as if they themselves were not affected by their sick siblings. He felt it was important to acknowledge them as well. General sessions, the ones I attended, ran either 10 or 11 days long. Basically an eternity looking back now. The other sessions were a long weekend, either 3 or 4 days. As for why the disparity back then, I am not sure. I do know some of higher-ups felt the Sickle Cell kids would likely tired out over a longer session. They probably didn’t realize at the time that most kids with illnesses know how to pace themselves to ensure they stay healthy ands able to function. Today, however, all sessions last a week.
The first day of camp always begins with arrivals of course. My first year arrival time was in the morning; later on it was in the afternoon. As you enter the camp, you are greeted by clowns at the entrance. You get a balloon, hear a joke or if you are me, get a sarcastic comment such as “They’re letting you come back.” You then drive past the lake and to the parking lot at the top of the hill. Then you meet with one of the counselors from your cabin, get a nametag and get driven down to where you are staying. You pick bed before heading off the infirmary so the medical staff can get a full picture of any medical needs you have. Typically you then head back to the cabin where you would say good-bye to your family.
Once most of the campers in your unit arrive (usually around 3 or 4), you begin introductions. Oftentimes there is some sort of name game you play and someone will be challenged to name every person after the game finishes. Then you learn the cheers for your unit. Every unit has cheers and you usually chant them on the way to activities or while waiting to go into the dining hall for meals.
You then head up to the theatre for a show introducing all the campers to camp and the different activity programs the camp has. Each program area’s staff puts on a skit. This is followed by dinner and then a chance to change for the evening activity. The first night is always the bonfire which takes place at the ampitheatre I talked about last month unless it rains.
At the bonfire, the story of camp is told along with the rules of camp. When I was a camper the three main rules were No Killer Statements; No Physical Violence and No Unsupervised Activity. The rules are presented in a fun way, and the reason behind each is told. After that there are usually skits and singing and of course making s’mores. Also theme of the session was introduced. Themes could range from the Olympics to space to rodeo to almost anything. Once when I was a volunteer, the theme was CHEESE. Yes, the whole session was built around cheese. Foam cheeseheads were flown in from Wisconsin for everyone and used regularly throughout the session. When I first heard that was theme, I was majorly disappointed. It turned out to be one of the greatest themes ever at camp. As it gets darker, unit start being sent back according to age.
The rest of the session follows a pretty standard daily plan. Every morning there is what is called a polar bear activity. This was for campers who liked to get up early before breakfast and doing something. Most days it was boating and fishing or the pool. Later in the session you could go to arts & crafts or woodshop to finish projects you had started.
Following breakfast was cabin clean up and morning activity. The way morning activity worked was each unit would be assigned to attend a program area for the entire morning and you would rotate program area over the session. One morning you might go to the pool, the next the theatre, another day Arts & Crafts/Woodshop, etc. Because at the time I attended there were so many days and so few program areas, you would end up at a couple of them twice over the session.
After morning activity, you would head right to the dining hall for lunch. At lunch, you would be told of the different afternoon activities that would be available. The same ones you might visit during morning activity would be available along with special activities that would change daily. In addition, some program area would offer specific activities in the afternoon rather than just the general things in the morning. The theatre for instance might be filming a movie; the woodshop might be building race cars; the pool might be offering SCUBA lessons. Which unit went first was decided differently each day. You always wanted your unit to go first because certain activities may have limited spots. When your unit color was called, you brought up a card with your name on it and handed it to the person running the activity you liked.
After every unit went, all the campers went back to their cabins for a rest hour. At least once a session during rest hour, a water fight would break out in the cabin circle. Counselors always stick Super Soakers, balloons and pretty much anything else you think of good for a water fight just in case one broke out. This was always eagerly anticipated by everyone.
After rest hour, you went to your afternoon activity. This was usually one of the few times you met and talk with kids from other units. Smaller, quieter activities lent more time to mingle than something like the pool or boating and fishing when people would more often just keep to the people they knew. This was also one of the few times during the session you were away from most of the people in your unit. If you were like me, you might be the only person in your cabin and sometimes unit doing an activity. Rarely did I choose an activity any of the other boys in my cabin wanted to attend.
Following the afternoon program, you went back to the dining hall for dinner. Here you re-united with your unit and discussed the things you did. After dinner, there was a brief rest period where you could change for the evening activity. Evening activities were different every day and sometimes even from session to session and year to year. Some activities I remember include carnivals, cook-outs, fireworks, circus performances, scavenger hunts and usually the clowns would put on a show. I should mention the Big Apple Circus has been partnering with the camp since the very early days. There are always a couple of summer clowns as well as some rotating ones. They would typically help out in the theatre (shocking, right) and usually offer classes during the sessions.
After each meal, we would sing songs out the camp songbook. Breakfast and dinner featured uptempo songs and a lot of dancing. Lunch had more mellow offerings as rest hour followed lunch. Some of the songs were fun made up songs that had accompanying movements but others were well-known popular songs that just went well with camp. I'll talk more about the songs in a later diary. One thing I will say now, much to my chagrin, I have found out they no longer sing much after meals, Not really sure why this has happen, but it saddens me greatly. Singing in the dining hall was one of the best parts of camp and really created an atmosphere of camaraderie and joy.
Also, we also usually had a special guest come up to camp per session and give a performance. One year Amy Grant made an appearance and another Stomp came. During my final year of being a camper, one of the summer clowns, who was a recording artist, performed her own music out of costume. That was a big moment for most of us as she had been a summer clown for a few years at that point after being a volunteer. These activities were always scheduled during the middle days of a session.
Evening activities followed a pattern while I was a camper. Night 2 was always a scavenger hunt followed by Staff Stage Night. The counselors and volunteers would do different acts giving us campers an idea as to what we could for Stage Night later in the session. The third to last night of the session began usually with hot air balloon rides (tethered). This is one of things I don’t think the camp does anymore. Following the hot air balloon rides, the whole camp went to The Dance. Dances were usually held by the pool unless it was raining then it was held in the gym.
The night after the dance was reserved for Stage Night. Campers could do pretty much anything they wanted for Stage Night but there were strict time and number of performances limits. When I camper, time limit was 4-4 ½ minutes and only 2 skits (one large group and one individual or small group). While the theatre staff ran Stage Night, they were usually assisted by campers from the oldest unit. Those campers would do spotlight, emcee, run the curtain and other small jobs.
On the last night of camp, the dining hall held a themed banquet. Usually the banquet theme had something to do with the overall theme of the session. After the banquet, everyone headed over to the theatre for the awards ceremony. Campers would be given awards from the different program areas depending on some formula I won’t reveal here. Each program area would have a gift they would give to the campers. The volunteers for the session were also honored and a slide show was shown covering the events of the session. After the awards ceremony at the theatre, each unit would go off to some place on camp and have unit awards. The counselors would come up with interesting award names depending on what each camper was like or did during the session.
The final day, of course, is pick-up day. We would have breakfast then clean up the cabins and pack before making our way to the theatre where we would wait to be picked up. While waiting the session’s Stage Night (which was recorded) would be shown on the large screen. Of course cell phones were not prevalent back then nor were email addresses, so everyone would exchange regular addresses and home phone numbers to keep in touch. Those of us, like me, who had email would share those as well.
So that is a very lengthy look at a typical session at The Hole in the Wall. I hope you made it through without falling asleep. See you in the comment threads!
Diarist reserves all rights to his original writing only. Community material is not covered by this ©
TOP COMMENTS
April 29, 2015
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
when you find that proficient comment.
From first time nominator hulibow:
[ed's note: will be out of rec' time at posting] glb3 calls out Erin Burnett for the double standard with this comment.
Two from Angie in WA State:
Such words! They spoke to me, I hope they speak to you, too:
"Freedom to choose. That's the very essence of life and the pursuit of happiness.
And I've never met somebody who was comfortable in their own skin who was fast to judge or condemn anybody else."
comment from ImpeachKingBushII in Meteor Blades' Night Owl open thread
Sometimes, a comment is just so full of truth one can't help but see the top comments connection plain as day.
comment is by slouchingdragon in diary by Shaun King
From Mopshell:
In Vyan's, "Carl Stokes to CNN's Erin Burnett: Thugs? Just call them N#ggers then", the wise and wonderful grover fashions this comment into easy and timely advice for us all.
From Steven Payne:
In FogCityJohn's excellent essay Riots: From Stonewall to Baltimore, Chrislove gets the nomination for his comment and the brilliant quote it contains.
From Ashes of Roses:
"We are butterflies that can sneeze neutron bombs" is a simple but brilliant way to explain the remote impacts that humans have upon the environment. Comment from Words in Action in Pakalolo's diary.
From expatjourno:
Happy to see that someone finally figured out how to make sure that elections are never stolen due to people hacking electronic voting machines.
comment from wblynch
From your humble diarist:
2 excellent pieces of snark in the same diary about paranoia in Texas. The first is from Mother Mags and the second is from nu2u.
|
TOP PHOTOS
April 28, 2015
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
|