13

At ages 13 and 14 (I believe), my best friends, Jackie and Jessa, and I went to our first sleep away camp not too far from where we lived, at Camp Guggenheim in Saranac Lake. It was a Catholic camp, which was interesting because, although Jackie and Jessa were Catholic and went to Sunday school, it was my first exposure to some of those traditions. It wasn’t a big focus of the camp, anyways, more of a consistent backdrop. It was a good time. It was all 12-15 years olds and we stayed in a big dorm. During the day there were all kinds of activities – swimming, kayaking, hiking, crafts, ultimate frisbee, even rappelling and a talent show. The counselors were amazingly enthusiastic and funny. One guy (Bill) had THE funniest laugh, another broke her toe in the sliding door, and yet another (Jeff) was the first person I met who had the same birthday as me. Everyone would gather around the campfire at night for ghost stories and songs. I can still sing the main tune:

G-U-G-G-E-N (huh) H-E-I-M, Guggenmheim, Guggenheim

That’s the only place for your vacation (huh)

Lots of fun and recreation (huh)

G-U-G-G-E-N (huh) H-E-I-M, yeah!

First you hike, then you swim

Then you give your praise to God

Guggenheim’s for me

Rah rah rah

Huh huh huh

Hey!

Of course, at this age we were admiring the boys at the camp, too. There were only probably two good-looking ones and one, in particular, who seemed to be the most admired (Chris Murphy), kind of ended up being into me towards the end of the week. He wrote me a letter later saying that he actually had a girlfriend at the time which was why we had a summer friendship and not a summer romance.

I have pictures from camp, but searching for and sorting through old pictures is another 30 year project in itself. I’ll keep adding as I find them.