The Mailgabber features writing by members of the Camp Family. This month, we present an essay from Trip Staff Isaac Schiff-Lewin (’13-’18, ’21-’22) on the little things that make him think of camp in the offseason. Interested in writing for the Mailgabber? Send submissions to Louis.
Like many of you, Camp Nebagamon has had an outsized impact on my life. Since my first summer at camp nearly a decade ago the memories that I made at camp have been my most formative, with almost all of my happiest childhood memories occurring at camp. Whether it was playing box hockey on the hill with Zack Stern, spending time out on the lake in a sailboat with John Bellaire, or hiking Isle Royale National Park with my Annex cabinmates, I have so many fond memories from camp. Most of us spend our offseason either in school or doing a “real-world job,” and spend our days staring at a screen, often not getting the opportunity to relive our camp memories. Sometimes though, getting just a few minutes to listen to a song, or go on a run gives me the opportunity to think back to camp, and realize how lucky I was to have made those memories at camp, whether it was last summer, or a decade ago.
Listening to wake-up music is one of the best ways to jog old camp memories, not because you can vividly remember each and every one, I certainly can’t, but because they were a constant of the summer that all memories can stem from. My Axeman year, “Once in a Lifetime” by the talking heads was our cabin’s wakeup song, and A-7 wakeups were one of my favorite parts of my favorite summer at camp. Whenever I hear that song I smile, thinking not just of Matt Myer running into the cabin in the morning, but also thinking about the memories that I had made that summer, like the first time that I got to skipper the C-Scow, when my cabin sang a parody of “Antidote” at the GTC, and going on Sleeping Giant. Other wake-up songs also have the same effect on me, and other people. “The Sweet Escape,” by Gwen Stefani is another one of those songs. When it comes on, I’m brought back to waking up my campers in LJ-1, running and jumping around with Andrew Guest to get our campers out of bed, and sometimes singing way out of key. Some of my campers from that summer also feel the same way, sending me a text when they hear it, and telling me how that song was a part of their summer that they will always remember.
Music seems to be a big part of most camper’s summers at Nebagamon. Certain songs seem to be what reminds my friends and I the most of camp, and I think that is because many camp memories have a song that was playing when they happened. “Dreams and Nightmares” by Meek Mill is one of those songs for me. My camp memory associated with this song is a bittersweet one. Many times, when Quetico Big Trips return, each van has a song picked out to listen to as they run into the lake, and “Dreams and Nightmares” was ours. Any time that I hear that song, whether it be in my headphones while working out, or at an event, I am reminded of the time when I ran into the lake after spending my first two weeks in the Quetico Provincial Park.
It’s not just songs that bring me back to camp. From time to time, places in the “real world” remind me of places at camp. Two or three times each week, I wake up at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning to run. My runs frequently take me through Audubon Park, a 350-acre park on the shore of the Mississippi River. Around the running path are hundreds of oak trees, almost all of them over 100 years old. On one of my first runs through the park, I saw an oak tree that gave me déjà vu back to camp. It reminded me of the tree at the top of the sand dune on the upper diamond, and all of the memories that I have made up there. From going there my first morning ever at camp before the wake-up bell, to screaming the Weyerhaeuser chants during the sand dune relay on PBD my ninth-grade summer. Everyone who has spent time at camp has that special place up in the Northwoods that they go to by themselves. Being able to find a place in the real world that reminds me of that place at camp is one of my favorite things, since it gives me the chance to slow down, and take in the moment, just like at camp.
In my life, camp memories seem to be the fondest, and to be able to associate moments places and songs from my life in the “real world” always tend to make me look fondly on camp, especially when I’m busy with “real world” work. It allows me to take a part of camp home during the off-season and remember my best camp memories.