camp

I was really lucky as a kid to get to go to summer camp. I went to a girl’s camp in northern Wisconsin – one that has been there since the 1950’s – for two months each summer for three years. I was in my early teens. I still dream about those years, those girls, that place.

I learned, among other things, how to set up a tent, build a camp fire and cook on it, sling bows and arrows, run rapids in a canoe, tye-dye and make really good friends.

The camp is getting ready for it’s 50th reunion and has dug out of various basements, drawers and closets thousands of old photos of campers over the years. I’ve been going through them online. I want to share two of my favorites.


If you have ever been swimming with me, you know that I do this awful imitation of synchronized swimmers doing a maneuver I think is called “ballet leg.” I learned it at camp. I am most certainly not in this photo, but this is the move. Well, I could possibly be the girl second from left in the water, because that’s pretty close to what my “ballet leg” looks like. At any rate, I love the photo.

The next one sent chills down my spine when I saw it. Yes, I learned how to print in the darkroom at summer camp! And here is the very darkroom. Again, not me in the photo, but to see a picture of the place where I first dipped my fingers in the developer – well, that was a thrill!