I remarked at the last campfire that this was my final year at camp – and rather than going out with a ‘bang,’ I went out with a ‘nice quiet week.’ I’m not sure why this was, but I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that I had aged – so to speak – several years once I became a father, and was facing the future of ‘adulthood’ head on. Also, I recall that there were only two groups at camp and smaller somtimes meant less. This was my tenth and final year at Camp Woodland Altars, having consecutively attended every year since the Summer before fourth grade.
If I were to be totally honest, one of the factors that always made camp such a blast was the girls. So now that I was in a committed relationship and a Dad, there wasn’t really any opportunities for fraternizing or flirting. My camp counselors were Kevin Dall and Judy Yoder. They had both been my counselors two years prior, and we got along fairly well. In my group were John Moyer, Chris Runck, Lee McAdams, Cherie Hennie, Joel Gish, Jolie Weaver, Ben Kraus (at right), Cammie Hull, Tammi Smith, and Angee Miller. These names I know because at the end of the week, we all wrote a message on a piece of paper to each other and weren’t supposed to read them until after we left camp. These I still have.
For the third year in a row, I maintained my ‘mystique’ of almost constantly wearing my black Blues Brothers-style sunglasses…although I think I was a little less resistant to taking them off for photos and at nighttime. Camp was the only place that I ever practiced this, but I know that many to this day still remember me for that.
Since I had been hanging out a lot with Matt Bohlander during this Summer, we had had many lively discussions about the Bible. I distinctly remember that I wanted to have a good understanding of scripture so that I could speak intelligently during Bible study. Unfortunately, I still hadn’t yet obtained the grasp that I later would, and had talked myself into the theory that the Old Testament was bogus. While my knowledge of the Old Testament would later become quite refined, my questioning of the validity of the scriptures did manage to bring forth some very lively discussion during Bible Study. I remember sitting out on the lake pier and convincing some of the campers of my beliefs, much to the chagrin of Kevin. Truth be told, my desire to speak with authority greatly outweighed my actual knowledge of and commitment to what I was saying.
I think I mostly behaved well this year at camp even though Lee was in my group and probably was encouraging me to sneak out at night and smoke. In fact, he and Chris did sneak out one night and met up with the lifeguard Erika Cruser and some friends for a beer or three. Why I didn’t join them is one of the big mysteries of my life to this day. I had known Lee (pictured in silhouette at top) for a couple of years at this point. We would even visit each other occasionally outside of camp and often talk on the phone. Chris Runck was another good friend who I had met at RYC earlier in the year. He and I connected on the ‘humor’ level. I did not know John Moyer before this year, but I think our minds really met on the ‘sarcasm’ level better than any others. He was responsible for the classic line “Cloves will turn your salivary glands into water fountains,” which I still repeat to this day.
We all had a rather difficult time with Joel (left) this week, though. He was unimpressed by our level of immaturity and at one point when he thought we were kicking rocks at him while walking down the camp’s drive, he picked up a batch of pebbles and threw them at us. He even let me know on one of those pieces of paper that I mentioned above that he though I was ‘childish and immature.’ He did acknowledge, however, that he respected my views on the Old Testament. What a character!
My Mom came to pick me up Saturday morning and brough Christi and Ashleigh along. Naturally, all of my friends gushed over my beautiful baby.
Although I thought that I didn’t have any photos from this year at camp, some recently turned up. I had never even seen them before. In fact, they were not even developed until more than a year after my week at camp as indicated by the date of printing. Unfortunately, these aren’t very good – and most likely all taken within a five-minute time span inside our hogan – and there are none of me.
I seem to recall that my friend and local celebrity Virginia Patterson passed away while I was at camp, so that would place the date of this week at camp as June 17-23.
I got ahold of some more pictures that can be seen here…
1990 will continue the day I get home…
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