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Baltimore Overnight Camp Memories
By Elinor Spokes
Photography by Justin Tsucalas
What could be better? Weeks away from parents, living nestled in the mountains or on pristine lake shores, among the best friends a girl or boy could ever have; supervision provided by really energetic and enthusiastic teenagers, with endless possibilities for activity, adventure and exploration.
Attending an overnight summer camp is truly the ultimate vacation for many children, presenting them with opportunities to learn, grow and thrive. Many times summer camp solidifies bonds between youngsters and their parents who, as children, attended the same camp.
Camp is all in the family
Timber Ridge Camp in West Virginia is so much a part of their lives that the Greenberg family of Owings Mills can’t stop talking about it. Parents Michele and Larry both attended when it was called White Mountain Camp. Now both children, Jordan, an incoming seventh-grader at Pikesville Middle School and Ethan, an incoming fifth-grader at Fort Garrison Elementary School, will gleefully ship off to this third generation family-owned co-ed camp for their fourth summer there.
Michele and Larry Greenberg first met at a camp mixer in the summer of 1978. Each of them attended for many years and Larry returned as a counselor when he was a teenager. They love to reminisce and compare their experiences with those of their children, everything from the fact that the bathrooms used to be outside the cabins and now are inside to the treasured traditions of panty-raids, the flagpole ceremony and color war.
Michele Greenberg recalls that when she and her husband were campers, there were a lot of kids from Baltimore. Now the kids come from all over, many of them children of former campers. “I love that our kids make new friends from outside of Baltimore,” says Larry Greenberg.
Both Jordan and Ethan enjoy seeking out their parents’ cabin plaques, items that are created every summer and then hung in the gym. “It makes me think about when I have kids having them see the plaques I made with my cabin-mates,” says Jordan.
“The fact that our kids go to Timber Ridge helps us connect better as a family. We all know the songs and it is a connection we can all share and it brings us closer together,” reflects Michele Greenberg.
Across the generations
Julie Hettleman, of Stevenson, and sister Liz Weinberger, of Columbia, attended Camp Timber Tops for Girls, a family-owned camp in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, each for seven summers. Reflecting on her camp experience, Hettleman says her favorite times were rainy days spent in the camp bunk playing card games and jacks and listening to music played on a cassette player.
“Our days were innocent and simple,” she notes.
Weinberger recalls that her favorite activities were tennis, rafting, and arts and crafts. Camp, she remembers, was “hippy-ish and very down-to-earth.”
Hettleman’s daughter, Maya, who will be entering fifth grade at Krieger Schechter Day School, will be attending her mother’s and aunt’s alma mater this year for her second summer. Hettleman says she only wanted to send her daughter to Timber Tops if it seemed like the camp had not changed, had the same essence and could provide the same special feeling that she and her sister had experienced.
“The camp has a great history of working with girls, building their confidence, learning to work things out with their peers and deal with each other and I wanted Maya to have that experience,” Hettleman says. Maya proudly explains that her favorite activity is working in the camp media lab, an opportunity not in existence when her aunt and mother attended the camp. “I like to write articles for the camp newspaper and e-newsletter,” she says.
Another change is the camp Web site and the posting of daily photos of the campers. “I don’t like it but it is impossible not to look at it,” notes Hettleman.
“For me,” she adds, and her sister agrees, “to have Maya at the same place where I have so many wonderful memories and having the same experiences I had is really incredible.”
When Mom works at camp
Kim Friner of Reisterstown didn’t attend overnight camp as a child, so when her daughter Megan was old enough to go to sleep-away camp, Friner decided to go too. Like many camps, Camp Louise for Girls and Camp Airy for Boys in central Maryland offer opportunities for adults to work while their child attends. At the same time, they can receive some tuition remission for their service. Friner, who also has a son who attended Camp Airy, has worked in both camps in a variety of capacities over the years.
“Going to camp is a break from everyday and refreshing and fun,” says Friner, “and I make new friends and get to act like a kid.”
Megan, entering eighth grade at Franklin Middle School, will be attending Camp Louise for her sixth summer and has made many friends from around the region. She maintains her friendships during the school year through Facebook, e-mails and texting, and has attended bar and bat mitzvahs of many of her camp buddies.
One of Megan’s favorite aspects of Camp Louise is the community observance of Shabbat. “At home during the year, we don’t do Shabbat every week. At camp we do,” she says.
She reflects that Shabbat activities are done as a whole camp, with all the girls participating in the same activities.
Other beloved activities include bunk time, pottery and performing in the camp shows.
Camps Airy and Louise also post photos of their campers on its Web site on a daily basis. Friner loves that because when she is working at the boys camp or when she is not working at camp, it allows her to have a window on her daughter’s life.
However, she says, there is a downside to this technological advance in camp life. As an office assistant at Camp Airy, she often answered the phone calls of parents who saw photos of their less-than-happy child on the Web site. They wanted to know why their child did not appear exuberant or joyous at the very moment the photograph was taken.
As for having her mother at camp with her, Megan says that she likes “knowing that my mom is there, especially when she was working at Camp Airy.” Adds her mom, “Camp takes you away from your everyday life; there is something magical about it.”
Camp Reflections
Growing up in the suburbs of Manhattan, I knew a few kids who attended sleep-away camp far from home, but most stayed around town, swimming on club teams, taking tennis lessons or, like me, going to Girl Scout or Boy Scout camps for just a few weeks. Rock Hill Camp, a forty-five minute drive from my home, was about as rustic as could be, replete with platform tents, latrines and cold showers. This “survival of the fittest” philosophy provided me with an opportunity to earn coveted Girl Scout badges and live by the Girl Scout rules. It also gave me a basic foundation in camp life.
Or so I thought. It wasn’t until I was in college that I met young women who spent countless summers attending camps nestled on the shores of picturesque lakes in the outer reaches of New England, hours from their homes. They had cabin-mates with whom they shared years of cherished memories and knew all the same camp songs and storied camp rituals. I realized that my camp experience had been sorely lacking.
What Girl Scout camp had lacked was the social piece that these other overnight camps seemed to provide so well, offering girls an environment conducive to creating formative, seemingly life-altering experiences and memories lasting a lifetime. Also absent in my own camp experience was the sense of tradition, provided by certain customs and camp lore that is passed along, camper to camper, season after season.
My impression of my camp experience was confirmed when I attended my husband’s camp reunion at his beloved Camp Lincoln, a boys camp in the Adirondack Mountains. I felt like an outsider in a cult devoted to mountain living, where grown men shared stories of wilderness adventures and bonded over memories of hiking the peaks of the Adirondacks. Many of the women attending the reunion were former campers at Camp Whippoorwill, the sister camp.
When it was time for our oldest son to attend overnight camp, the choice was simple: Camp Lincoln for boys. My husband was thrilled to be able to regale Joshua with tales of his transformative days at camp and I wanted my son to have experiences he would never forget, meet boys who might become lifelong friends and relish the traditions that my husband had enjoyed twenty-some years ago.
— Elinor Spokes
