Simpler Times

There has not been a Camp related story on here for a bit. This one is less of a story and more of a reflection ...

My understanding is that there is now wireless internet available pretty much across Camp. This is probably a good thing, but like an old geezer I have to lament the news and harken back to the "good old days"

Part of the appeal of those summers was that it was somewhat of an escape. You really didn't need to ever leave, all your meals were taken care of, almost all the jobs (at least the ones I did) were very low stress. I think that if you were a camp director there is more stress because you are managing people, but my summers as a guide were very relaxing. You went the whole summer with comparatively little communication. There were two payphones and only a couple of other phones that could dial outside of the camp. I think I would call home a couple of times over the summer but that was it.

I think that is why I became such close friends with certain people. Although the camp season was only a couple months, you saw these people everyday and socialized with them frequently. There was no TV, there was one computer that had internet access, but it was for official use only. I never felt the need to check the news or the internet. For those summer months, Camp was my world. I was almost never bored either. I am sure it was tougher for some of the Dads that came up with the Troops and had to stay in contact with their work, but I think they probably enjoyed it too.

One Saturday, after all the campers had left, there were a few of us sitting around the Summit Base office on the porch. It was a lovely summer day, lots of sun but cool enough that you did not bake on the porch. The office is in a very appealing area, there are tall pine trees that shake with the wind. There is a lovely old wall that runs alongside the office with day lillies flowering in the gap between the wall and the office. We were swapping stories, and there was a radio on in the background. I don't know why this sticks out so clearly, but I remember the song "Too Old to Rock and Roll" by Jethro Tull came on. I had never heard it before, but thought it was a great tune. Luckily the Load was familiar with it and passed on the info. For whatever reason, when that song comes on it always brings me back to that moment on the porch. The funny thing is that it was no different from 100s of other times I had hung out on that porch swapping stories, but that moment has always stuck with me.