Greetings from camp! Brad Herzog here again, still stepping in for Adam.
We like to be well-prepared here. Before the campers arrive each summer, we insist that our staff undergo an intensive week of training. Before we send campers and counselors into the wilderness, we make sure they’ve passed the appropriate ranks in swimming or canoeing or campcraft, not to mention a pre-trip physical. We have a buddy system before campers hit the lake for general swim. We schedule safety drills. We have daily meetings among administrators, specialists, cabin staff.
You get the point. We like to feel like we’re out in front of things. So we celebrated Fourth of July yesterday… on July 2nd.
Okay, to be honest, Sunday was simply when the village of Lake Nebagamon scheduled its parade and fireworks. I mean, c’mon, haven’t you ever celebrated your birthday a couple of days early so you could take advantage of a weekend?
But our trip driver John Fawcett offered another explanation. John is from the U.K… and currently lives in Australia… and has only resided in the U.S. during his 12 summers at Nebagamon. So a while back, when Adam Kaplan asked him to speak at the morning’s flag-raising ceremony, John “thought he was joking.”
Of course, John represents our proud history of employing international staff members who contribute so much to our cultural stew (this year’s roster includes Mexico, the U.K., France, Greece, Hungary, Denmark, even Kashmir). But he also did his research. John Fawcett quoted John Adams, who believed July 2nd – the date on which the Continental Congress actually declared its freedom from Great Britain in 1776 – would be “celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival… solemnized with Pomp and Parade… from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
So that launched our Second of July celebration.
That afternoon, for the first time in four summers, we were finally able to join the Village of Lake Nebagamon’s Independence Day parade. Trust me when I say this hiccup of a hamlet puts the small in small-town-parade. I’m talking a handful of fire engines, some trucks, a few golf carts, an antique car… and one truly unusual Camp Nebagamon float.
The staff at the art shop and several dozen campers of all ages worked hard on conceiving and crafting our parade contribution. They’re theme: the North Woods. Their creation: a Hodag, which happens to be a creature from the PBU (that would be the Paul Bunyan Universe), a massive goat-lizard-monster with bulging eyes, sharp claws, horns on its head, and spikes running down its spine. In the folklore, it was said to have haunted the swamps of Wisconsin. Our Hodag was a trip van decorated with green “skin” and featuring spikes and horns made from plaster-wrapped chicken wire. Alongside it, campers paraded while dressed as adorable(ish) mini-Hodags.
Sure, it was a slightly psychedelic scene. But certainly a highlight.
Of course, if we’re talking memorable, it’s hard to beat the evening’s annual softball game pitting the senior counselors against the junior counselors. A crowd of campers cheered along the third-base line while our head of the music project played classic organ tunes and a couple of veteran announcers offered irreverent takes on the proceedings. This year, we even added a popcorn machine. And the between-innings entertainment included water balloons, toilet paper mummies, and (this is true) a sour-cream-and-onion-dip-relay. Just use your imagination. At Nebagamon, we know how to turn an event into a whimsical experience.
But the game! It had been a long time since the JCs had won, but they had the contest well in hand – until the SCs staged a dramatic comeback to pull within a run. The JCs led 14-13. Final inning. Final batter. A hit by a senior counselor would win it… and the batter CRUSHED the ball. A frozen rope, as they say in the big leagues. But a junior counselor named Sam More (we call him s’more) stuck out his glove and snagged it, almost nonchalantly. Game over. Pandemonium. While the announcers channeled Vin Scully (“I don’t believe what I just saw!”), dozens of JCs (and then scores of campers) stormed the field. Total jubilation. Unbridled summer happiness.
Does it get any better than that? Well, maybe.
No Independence Day celebration is complete without us lining our campers along the docks at the Waterfront and watching the village’s fireworks display. Sure, as much as anyone, I enjoy watching as the spirals and shimmers and sprays of color light up the night sky. But I gotta say, my favorite part is watching the faces of the campers as they’re illuminated by the fireworks – the occasional ooh and aah and jaw-drop and neighbor-nudge.
It is in those moments that I’m reminded about what an opportunity we have here at Camp Nebagamon. We get to play a powerful role in creating lifetime memories.
For a handful of glorious weeks each summer, we get to take responsibility for children – from all over this nation and the globe –and offer them an array of new experiences that have a very real chance of being unforgettable. Whether we’re imparting lessons beneath an American flag… or teaching them how to rig a sail… or walking alongside a Bunyanesque monstrosity… or rushing the field on the Upper Diamond… or watching colors explode and dance above Lake Nebagamon, we frequently have the chance to feed their souls.
I’ve seen patriotism defined as a sense of devotion and attachment. To a country, yes. But also, to a place. Every day during the summer, we get to watch campers feel that way about the place they’re calling their summer home. And we have a staff as devoted and attached in return.
All is well in the North Woods…
