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1995. That was the earliest year from which I could find my name. |
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I was seven years old the first time I went away to camp. It was in Palmer, MA. It was mostly for Polish kids, run by several moms. My sister and I grew up at this place.
I remember how we couldn't wait for the second week of August to come. We lived for Camp. The same kids came back, year after year. It was here that we all learned to swim, and dive, and canoe. It was here where we dared ourselves to jump from "heavenly high", into the river in the woods. And if you were to scared to do that, you could always swing from the rope we tied to one of the branches.
It was here where I remember roasting my first marshmellow; seeing the stars at night; catching crickets behind the big house; staying up late making shadow puppets on the wall; sneaking into the "big girls cabin"; running and hiding from the boys. It was here were we learned what it was like to not have parents around, where we were each other's teachers. Your cabin was your family. We never wore shoes. We ran around all day in our bathing suits, traveling between the lake and river, stopping only to eat. And if it rained, we jumped in the puddles, and then to clean ourselves off, we'd jump into the lake. I remember those days so vividly...
This past weekend I was able to go back there. I was a lifeguard for a rental group, The John Pope II Polish Saturday Day School of Boston. Some of the people I used to go there with when I was a kid were there, as well as many of their parents. It was much different, however. I was certainly the oldest "kid" and the only one from my peer group present. The other "adults" had a hard time believing I was 22. The best part was seeing the litte kids do all the stuff we used to do, many of them experiencing it for the very first time.
It was a memorable weekend.... |
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To the right is the house in which I slept my first three years that I was there... the "little kids" weren't old enough to live in the cabins. The swing set is still there, just a little less sturdy and a bit more shaky than I remember. |
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That's a view of the lake. The ladder from the raft is missing, but the raft is still the same one...I still remember how scared I was to dive for my first time from that raft. The house across the lake, which we swore was haunted, has been torn down. |
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The view (from "my" cabin) of some of the other cabins and the fire pit. The big cabin in the middle is a new addition. |
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Lifeguarding on the lake where I first learned to swim... |
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Lunch. Same place, same time (some things don't change). |
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Hanging out with the little kids, drawing. |
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We used to have "discos" each night. But all we had was a boombox and CD's. That's been replaced with high quality speakers, laptops, and ipods. |
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Hanging out but the campfire at night, roasting marshmellows and kielbasi. |
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That's the door to house, from the inside. They added new screen doors on the outside, but the doorknob hasn't been replaced, and it still sticks like it used to. |
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So many phone calls home took place over this phone... Seeing that it was now out of order was really sad. |
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And even now, wearing shoes was just too weird, so barefoot it was, even through the puddles. |
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