Thursday, February 16, 2006

Where I grew strong...

Driving home from class tonight, I was listening to a mix tape that is left over from the days before I had iTunes and a CD burner. This particular tape is a mix of the Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, 10,000 Maniacs, and a more local singing duo named Kate and CJ. I have many, many mix tapes that incorporate the Indigo Girls, and many of them include a variety of other female artists. This particular tape includes 10,000 Maniacs because I had just met Bill when I made this tape, and he is a big fan of theirs. However, I digress...

Listening to this tape made me a little nostalgic for days gone by. Specifically, as I sang along to Kate and CJ singing Harry Chapin's "Circle," I thought back to my college summers at Camp Mosey Wood, where I worked as a Girl Scout camp counselor. Within the first few lines of that song, I was back in time...and thinking of how my time at camp shaped me into who I am today.

I went to camp for a week after my seventh grade year and for a week after my eighth grade year, and I was hooked the instant I stepped foot onto the Green in front of the dining hall at Mosey Wood. I loved the huge variety of people I saw milling about. I loved the excitement of sleeping in a tent. I loved the look of the lake, peeking through the trees. And I loved, loved, LOVED my couselors. These were cool college girls, spending their summer making a difference in young girls' lives. They were from all over...certainly many of them came from the greater Lehigh Valley, but many of them also came from England and Ireland and Scotland. As a collective group, we campers worshiped our counselors.

Fast forward to the summer after my freshman year of college. I needed a job for the summer, and my best friend from high school, Sarah, suggested I try Mosey Wood. Because I had never really let go of the magic of my summers there, I jumped at the chance. After a phone interview with the camp director, I was hired, mostly on Sarah's recommendation. I was going to become one of those counselors that I had worshiped. I was going to get the chance to make that same difference in young girls' lives.

Without going into detail, I will tell you that Mosey Wood gave me another magical summer that year, and she continued to welcome me for many years after that. It was at camp that I made many of my great memories of that time in my life. Although I loved college and look back with just as much fondness on those school years, part of me was always waiting for the summer to come so I could go back to camp. Camp was like my summer home. It was one of the best things to ever happen to me.

It was at camp that I learned the power of a hug. I didn't come from a family of touchy-feely people, and I was not 100% comfortable with open affection. However, camp was a place where hugs were given freely and welcomed in return. Before long, I learned what it was to be totally open with affection and support and feeling. And that is one of the great lessons that Mosey Wood gave me.

It was at camp that I learned to cook...albeit over a campfire. In fact, there were several years in there that I actually cooked better over an open fire than I did in my parents' kitchen. With a Dutch oven, we could make such delicacies as upside-down pizza, Dutch oven lasagne, gingerbread applesauce, and peach and blueberry cobbler. I learned to cook an egg in an orange peel and bacon in a paper bag. I learned the wonder of foil dinners. I learned how to make the perfect s'more. We picked blueberries directly off the bushes that grew all over the camp property and turned them into delicacies. They also made for a good midday snack, fresh-picked and warm from the sun.

It was at camp that I continually amazed myself. I packed up all my belongings for the summer in a big footlocker, grabbed a backpack and sleeping bag, packed up my teddy bear and a pillow, and moved into a platform tent for eight weeks. I used a latrine and swam in a lake and sometimes chose a nap over a shower during my time off. I learned to live without electricity in my sleeping quarters. I saw a fair number of bears, deer, skunks, squirrels, and raccoons. I became a lifeguard. I headed home on the weekend to a world that now seemed unfamiliar, anxiously awaiting my trip back to camp for the next week.

It was at camp that I learned the words to hundreds of songs that were full of poignant meaning during those long summer days. We sang of being "on the loose to climb a mountain" and of how "hope warms a heart that is cold." We sang to Mosey Wood these words: "Of no place are we fonder than sailing o'er your waters blue." And in the "Pennsylvania Song," we sang out, "all God's children are happy when they roam; I don't wanna go home." I still sing these songs from time to time, often in the shower, and my old song book holds a place of honor in my home.

My days at camp are far behind me, although I do continue to visit there every summer. Mosey Wood always calls me back. The current camp director is a fellow counselor from my days at camp, and she gives the best hugs of almost anyone I know. And when I move to Bill's house this summer, I will be a mere 20 minutes from my former summer retreat. I look forward to the days when I hear that familiar whisper of the wind in the trees and make the short trek to Mosey Wood's gate. While I am there, I know I can count on good hugs, good food, good friends, and good songs. Mosey Wood is my sacred place...and she continues to be there for me, even as all these changes happen in my life. Like my parents' house, camp is a place that always welcomes me home.

18 comments:

amandamonkey said...

Very nicely said, Mary.

the paddler said...

as a long time camper and camp staff member....i totally get it

the paddler said...

okie dokie...my last comment wasn't complete for some reason.....


I have tons of mix tapes and cds from my camp staff days. not a day goes by when I don't hear of the indigo girls and think of camp.

NME said...

Awww. That is super sweet. I am sure all your old counselors and camp organizers would be really touched to read that. You should mail it to the camp.

PreppyGirl said...

I really enjoyed reading that! I also have fond memories of camp. I had a great mix tape that my friend "princess" made me with the Indigo Girls, the Maniacs and Bob Marley. I loved it.

Incidentally, the Maniacs are from my town. I know a couple of them and their families and they are really great nice people!

Guinness_Girl said...

I am a SUCKER for camp. My freshman year of college, the girls on my hall in the dorm and I got into a contest to see who knew the most camp songs. We drank vodka and took turns singing songs. When everyone finished, I kept going. And going. And going. And going. I'm the freakin' energizer bunny of camp songs. Seriously.

Defragging said...

i'm a nursing student to
except i'm 35 going on 14

Gunngirl said...

Loved this post, I could really feel your love and memories in you prose. I can tell you miss it and it was a wonderful time in your life. It's nice to have those memories.

I would have liked to have tried camp. Oh well. Actually, it should have been fat camp. LOL

hazel said...

so sweet. I agree with nicole - you should send that to the camp.

I was a camper too, as a kid up till about 14. I loved sleeping outside and roughing it. I still love camping with my family when we can. we own a tent and I am excellent at making a fire and making some tin foil dinners. when bella's old enough, we'll get out there again. but camping is one thing - going TO CAMP is another. and I guess I'll never get that again...but hopefully my kids will. trent has already gone to my old campground 3 years running.

deb said...

Found your blog when googling for a link to Mosey Wood (to provide a link for a meme).

A camper (and then counselor - i was known as 'coop') there for YEARS, I can relate to your love and affection for that place. A couple of years ago my sister (they called her 'suzzer') and I went back to work as a 'counselor' at one of their "Mom and Me" weekends and I was amazed to find that she and I were not alone in the masses of mom's and former campers/counselors who were profoundly moved by their times at this wonderful camp.

Nothing like the dew on the green and the fog rising up off the lake in the morning, huh?

Anonymous said...

Okay, well I do not know you in any way, but I'm a fourteen year old girl and I'm going to camp for the first time. I googled Camp Mosey Woods, since thats where my Mom decided to send me, and this popped up. After reading that whole post, I feel SO much more relieved. I was kinda scared that it would suck and be a "sissy camp" (my words to my mom a while ago), since I guess I'm the steryotypical badass girl and I've never been a girl scout, and my mom just wants to get rid of me for a few weeks. Now I'm super excited. Thanks. :)

Anonymous said...

I went to Mosey Wood for a few summers back in the early 80s. We used to gather in front of the dining hall after meals and play a game. I cannot remember the song that went with the game, but I am hoping someone will know it. We would all get in a big circle with a partner, except one person would be alone. While we sang a song the lone person would grab someone else's partner and the new lone person would have to get someone. Somehow when the song was over the partnerless person would be "out" and we would do this until there was a very small circle. Does anyone remember this?

MC said...

Anon#2 -

I wish I had a way to contact you, but since I don't, I will comment here. It's called "Blue Aardvark," and the song is just counting from 1 to 100 in a sing-song way. Part of it goes like this: "One and twenty; two and twenty; three, four, five, and six and twenty; twenty-seven; twenty-eight; twenty-nine; thirty!" Hope this helps you recall it!

Rebecca said...

MC...yes that is it! Thank you! I knew it was an aardvark or armadillo or something like that...it made me laugh to try to remember and come up with all these strange ideas, but aardvark was right.

Susan said...

I love reading all of these posts about camp. I was so blessed to be able to attend camp at Mosey Wood. Thanks to my parents. We attended for 2 weeks and loved it. I stayed in bunny hollow, deerwood and trails end. These were in the late 69-71. The memories are priceless to me. Love the pictures on line, so much has not changed. Would love to go back just to visit.

Anonymous said...

it has been 51 years since I was troop camping at this wonderful camp. I started at Bunny Hollow and ended at Nawakwa.
Here is asong I remember.

Each campfire lights anew
The flames of friendship true
The joy we had in knowing you
Will last our whole life through

Each campfire light at Mosey Wood
will strengthen Girl Scout sisterhood
And though we go our separate ways
We'll meet again some other day.

Thank you so much for all the years of unforgettable
joy.

A scout for more than 10 years

MoKate said...

And I was Murr and u was there at the same time as Coop. Good memories.

Anonymous said...

It is called blue aardvark
The song you sing goes 1234567891011121314151617181920 1 in 20 2 in 20 and on like that right?