I was at camp all last week, and I didn’t touch the computer once. The camp is called Danebod, and I posted on it exactly a year ago, in the same situation – having returned midday saturday and slept on and off until sunday morning.
There’s just something about camp. I can’t put my finger on it, but the people just keep coming back, year after year. My Dad has been there most every year since he was a kid.
Its a family camp, not your typical summer camp. Families come together. The camp is mostly made up of descendants of danish immigrants who have roots in the midwest.
Again, this is family camp, so you go with your family, and it isn’t uncommon to have a large group of distant relatives in attendance. It isn’t that big of a camp, this year there were around 150 people, and almost everyone knows each other somehow. The joke is that almost everyone there is related through some obscure second uncle’s grandmother.
The camp loosely adheres to the idea of a danish folk school, and the grounds were in fact used from 1880 to 1940 as a folkehojskole. The crafts are taught by camp attendees, discussions are led by individuals, and each year someone gets to be the director and facilitate the organization of the camp.
The day is loosely structured, with child oriented singing and dancing in the morning followed by a two hour discussion. Lunch follows discussion, then comes craft time, and free time. After free time is dinner, then another block of singing and dancing. Campfire, which consists of a quick skit prepared by a group of campers then a democratic singing session. The younger kids go to bed after nighttime snack, and there is another folk dancing session for those older then 13.
This year in the absence of the usual rocket craft leader, I took over and taught. I helped ten or twelve kids (and their parents in the case they were too young to glue and cut out parts) build and launch estes model rockets. I had fun, but I missed out on lounging around during the two hours of craft time. On the other hand, I there was no shortage of complements from campers who had experienced the former rocket teacher, who was less then able at managing children, and I earned myself a free ride to camp as long as I feel like teaching the craft.
Hopefully I can get back next year, and don’t have a summer job to keep my from having the time off to go, this year one of my best camp pals couldn’t come because he was bagging groceries. We got a hold of him friday night, and he said he might be able to come visit those of us who live in the cities sometime, but camp was definitely worse for his not being there, and I can’t imagine having to miss next year for something like work.
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