Celebrating Our 50 Years at Camp

I was fortunate to be raised in a family in which my parents loved each other and worked toward common goals.

In the mid-60s as my dad pursued his career as a town manager and my mother began her teaching career they found that they had a little extra disposable income.

For the past few years they had rented a cottage in their hometown of Surry, Me. for a week in the summer. The joy and connections they received from that experience convinced them that they should purchase their own cottage.

In 1968 they found a modest “camp” of 2X4 construction, built in the 1940’s on Crescent lake in Maine. The location allowed us to spend our summers there with my mother, while dad commuted to work in Falmouth.

I don’t know if my parents had the forethought to know what would happen to their children as that simple purchase changed the course of my life and the lives of our neighbors and friends.

Over the last 50 years my sisters, my kids and the families in the camps around us have shared rich experiences and created bonds and personal histories that will last forever.

I met my lifetime mentor and friend Steve through the camp and I really can’t fully explain how he and his family had an amazing impact on my life.

With this in mind, I decided to host “The 50^th Celebration of the Bonsey Camp”. I invited the surrounding camp families and friends who had visited the camp over the years. My one request was that they allow me to videotape their story or stories of how camp impacted them.

Once everyone had arrived we huddled around our picnic table and grill, drinking beer, eating hamburgers and started to share our stories.

After my daughter, Kourtney told her boisterous story if getting caught streaking, at night, by a father in a neighboring camp, everyone seemed to laugh, relax and tell their story.

My sister, Lorna’s stories revolved around the crush she had on Chunky as he sat behind her laughing and enjoying the attention and the acknowledgement that he still has great hair.

By early evening I had recorded dozens of stories full of love and humor. I uploaded them all to YouTube, “unlisted” them to make sure I didn’t embarrass anyone and shared the link with them all.

Years from now we’ll still be able to listen to those stories right from the mouths of those whose experience it was.

Nothing gets better than that.