Tags
camp, confidence, girlpower, girls, hiking, North Carolina, transformation, transmogrify, Weekly Photo Challenge
An unexpected glimpse of my childhood arrived in my inbox this past week. The camp I attended as a young girl had revamped their website and sent me a link, so I poked around it for a few minutes until I came to a video. I blithely clicked PLAY and for the next 30 minutes I was transported several decades back in time to a place that started my love affair with the great outdoors and in many ways transformed the arc of my life.
The camp was founded over 70 years ago and most of the cabins and other facilities had seen little updating by my day, or since. (This is a good thing.) Green Cove is a traditional girls’ camp (the brother camp is nearby), a place where old-fashioned activities continue to be practiced in much the same ways they always have, perhaps with slightly better equipment. There are no team sports here, no competitions, no electronics, and no fancy anythings. The cabins and dining hall smell delightfully of mildew, and the furnishings are of the woodsy, rustic variety.
Here we learned (and the girls still learn) to rock climb, build a fire, sail and kayak and canoe, and ride mountain bikes and horses. We handled carabiners, tent pegs, awls, pitons, booms, paddles, and reins. We got filthy almost every day, and we didn’t care if our wet hair stuck to our faces, our t-shirts got permanently stained, and our shoes and bathing suits never dried out over the course of a month or more. We ate hungrily at every family-style meal, and we burned off all of it and more every day in the lake and on the trails.
We launched arrows and fired rifles, cast fishing lines and hoisted backpacks, carved wood, wove textiles, and enameled copper. We were trusted around sharp tools and hot fires, wobbly river rocks and skittish horses. We were given the confidence to lead the way on a steep ledge, the skill to clean a mare’s hoof, the faith to lean back into a rappel, the nerves to flip a kayak.
In our free time, we swept high out over the lake on a giant swing and dropped into the cold, muddy water, played capture the flag until we were winded, lay back in the grass to count wooly white animals in the sky, wrote long letters home from our bunks, and napped, deeply. At night, we gathered around campfires, sang songs, played ping pong, opened mail from home, talked for hours in our cabins, and slept more soundly on a lumpy cot than we ever would again in a five-star bed.
Camp life was idyllic, but for me, the highlights of my months in the mountains were the wilderness trips. Starting at young ages, girls could start spending from 1 to 6 or more days out in nature, learning to live as one with the earth. I loved that Green Cove’s raison d’être was to encourage girls to seek outdoor adventures and to develop the skills needed to continually pursue challenges in the woods and mountains and, ultimately, life. I went into camp a very shy girl, a girl who played it safe. I emerged with the ammunition to get through my teenage and young adult years with some semblance of confidence, and I started down a path of world discovery, ideally on foot out in nature, that I still eagerly pursue today.
I’m sure a few of my fellow campers no longer want to trek for weeks on end, go without showers for days at a time, or sleep on a flimsy mat under a sleeping bag on a buggy night. For me, it’s still heaven, and I still chase those interludes when iPhones and email, work deadlines and house projects fade into gray, and nothing lies before me each morning but a chance to put one foot in front of the other under a green canopy or on a rocky path. Camp changed my whole relationship with the world outside my door; I fell in love with it, and I never fell out.
Submitted as part of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Transmogrify
Photo Note: Not a single one of these photos is from camp! Those days were captured on a tiny, crummy old film camera, and I don’t even know where the prints might be.
Wonderful post Lexi! I always did a week or two away at horseback riding camp and loved it. We got assigned our own horse for a week and took care of it. Swam and hiked and did all sorts of fun stuff.
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It’s a great summer life for a kid, that’s for sure! Of course, it all ended once I had to get summer jobs, but it made for a great few years at an impressionable age.
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Loved reading this! I was transported there, too – what a lovely piece of childhood! I went to camp a couple of times as a kid, but we never had as many activities as you did! What a great idea to teach kids outdoors skills – I would be a more eager hiker if I knew the basics.
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I would say my camp was pretty hardcore on the skills teaching. We really had to learn our stuff because we were truly allowed to test those skills in ways that parents nowadays would freak out about!
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Your camp sounds like something that could send the Health & Safety rep of the plant I’m working at at the moment bananas, and I LOVE IT! I’m glad places like this still exist, more sleeping rough and less skinny lattes I say.
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My husband said a similar thing about liability yesterday when we were hiking and I told him my thoughts for this post. There really was a big focus on safety, but once you learned how to do something, you were entrusted to do it on your own. Now that people are wimpier (and more litigious), it would be tougher, but I’m pretty sure they still set girls up to test themselves even now. I sent my daughter to camp also (and worried the whole time she was gone!) but we both came back in one piece, probably a bit stronger for it!
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Excellent memories!
Even though I was almost always a very happy camper at later years, I had bad experiences from similar camps in the early days. Especially involving: forced middle-of-the-night marches with scares form older boys (we had mixed camps); a previously unknown tent-mate called Sandra who bullied me for the entire week and I was too young to stand for myself; and the fact that one time I forgot to bring my swimwear so I had to watch while the other swam in the river. (The last one still hurts.) 😀
However the best month was spent on the island of Crete with friends, sleeping on beaches and in olive groves with only the sky above and driving my Peugeot from one cove to the other.
I love my doors but prefer when they lead out. 🙂
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I do think some camp experiences can be microcosms of the pre-teen and teenage world of meanness and nastiness, but I was lucky that we were so busy learning new things that we were too tired for bullying or angst-filled moments. We also started young enough to not care yet about make-up or boys or inter-girl competition. Your month on Crete sounds perfectly heavenly – I’d do that right now if I could!
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Yes, your experience sounds just right. I wish more people would grow up similarly. And here is something that I wrote about my Crete on my first blog:
https://manjamaksimovic.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/august/
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In case you don’t get notifications from the old blog anymore:
Lovely reminiscence. Greece is a special place (OK, I’m biased since it’s my mom’s country); it’s easy to see how languid summer memories of that beautiful place never fade.
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Thank you. 🙂 Yes, I saw that you read it and I’m glad. Some things are forever.
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It does seem surprising that your old camp can still do the things you did. Maybe the parents have to sign stacks of hold harmless agreements up front, or the wimpy kids with helicopter parents don’t show up anyway. Too bad, I can see where it would help confidence, and encourage skills beyond finding cool apps for the smartphone.
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There is the usual paperwork (truly nothing excessive), but parents agree that kids will not arrive with any electronic device that is cellular- or wifi-capable, which is so awesome. The camp stresses that safety is their top priority but that it comes not only from highly experienced staff but also from the girls themselves, who learn about the connections between adventure, skills, preparation, confidence, discipline, and good judgment. I love the whole philosophy and sent my boys and my daughter to this kind of traditional outdoor camp. It’s not for everyone, I will acknowledge, but I found it to be one of the most valuable parts of my and their lives.
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Sounded like quite the camp life back in the day. Not just hiking around, but paddling and a bit of rifles too. I’m sure all of the girls were supervised back then… Now you make me want to go out into the woods. Such a free kind of life 🙂
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I forgot to add – it sounded like you never ran out of food 🙂
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Oh, it was a busy place! We did stuff all morning and all afternoon, but we also had simple downtime – no phones or iPads or devices back then! It was indeed very freeing. (And yes, we had plenty of hearty food, which we ate with abandon!)
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Sounds like wonderful experiences; and what a wonderful way to develop independence and the belief in yourself from a young age.
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It was wonderful indeed, and I think I would have had a much harder time coming out of my shy little shell without the confidence I built in the outdoors.
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And look what great stead it’s stood you in! I didn’t have a quarter as many adventures at that age. Still trying to catch up now 🙂 I read some of your daughter’s snippets too. She sounds a great girl and you must be proud.
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Thanks, Jo – I think she is a winner (but I’m a tad biased). And yes, those early outdoor experiences set me (and her) up for further adventures in life!
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What awesome memories. I always wanted to go to camp, but we couldn’t afford it. I had Girl Scouts and many vacations up to the woods of northern Michigan. Once the woods gets in our blood, it never leaves.
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It’s just the being in the woods that counts! Maybe even better with your family and a local group. I was lucky to get to go to camp (my siblings never really did) and luckier still to go to one that was so simple and pared back. It made me realize luxury is the richness of the environment, not a money thing.
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Great memories! I think you were very fortunate to participate in such a camp, as helped to make you what you are today, a strong and independent person, nature lover, etc. I think we should see more often such camps, but they kind of disappearing..
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You are right – I was very lucky my parents thought this was a good idea. I was eager, but they made it happen! There are still some very traditional camps where electronics are eschewed, facilities are not meant to be fancy, and activities are basic sports and pastimes that can last a lifetime, but these days many kids and parents want something more upscale. Kind of sad, but I guess priorities change.
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Wow, that was quite a camp, Lex. Certainly better than any I attended. But I had the woods at my back door and learned to wander on my own. And then later, I led long distance backpacking for a number of years, giving hundreds of people the type of experience you had. The wilderness is a great teacher. –Curt
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Perfect last sentence, Curt. I love backpacking in the wilderness for its own sake, but it does teach us a lot about ourselves, too.
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Certainly true of me, Lex. –Curt
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Lex, this is such an awesome post! I loved reading about the origin of who you are today and how you approach the world. What an invaluable experience. I’m happy to hear the camp is still going strong — even with that sentimental mildew smell. 🙂
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Thanks, Kelly! It really was a life shaping experience for me and, as strange as it sounds, I do love the smell of mildew to this day because it brings back those simple, happy days of fun and growth. (I’m so weird, I know!)
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Although I didn’t attend camp as a kid I loved reading about how it made you strong and confident. Having just returned from a camping trip I can attest to the wonder of sleeping on the ground, unplugged from technology and connecting with nature. Bliss!
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So you survived the disconnection! (I know you did because I just read about the dolphins and rays.) Of course, when I was a kid, there was nothing to disconnect from except maybe my David Cassidy albums (haha), but even now I occasionally welcome a leap off the grid. Email is so much more exciting after a week without it!
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Oh gosh Lex, I have similar memories which I truly treasure. Thanks for bringing them back for me!
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That’s how I felt about that video that appeared in a random email. It brought everything back so vividly! Fun to remember the good childhood memories, but even better to have had the opportunity to create them.
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What a wonderful picture you paint, and how lovely that this camp taught you such amazing things at such a young age. Learnings that have stayed with you your whole life. *Sigh…I must admit though that while I loved reading this, it also made me a little sad for my little one…because I wonder if these kinds of opportunities still exist today. I feel almost that we’ve all become a little bit too jaded, that we “know” too much, and that that kind of innocent exploration is lost forever… 😦
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I do think there are little pockets of these kinds of “old-fashioned” experiences left in the world today, and I think as parents we can still create them ourselves (even if it is so hard to swim upstream against techno-everything!). But I hear you – with each passing year, we become a little more separated from the earth and basic skills. I wonder if there might be a swing back someday as people realize computers and an online life are not 100% satisfying (fun as they may be!)?
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What an incredible tribute to your childhood camp. I think you should share it with them! (It would be great marketing for them) I wish I had had something so constant and sustained throughout childhood as your camp experiences. I was fortunate though to grow up on a hillside with total freedom to roam about independantly. They too were my best memories of childhood and instilled in me the love of nature I retain still today.
Great post! Beautiful photos!
Peta
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Thanks, Peta – you are always so wonderfully positive! Your hillside and childhood freedom match mine – away from camp as well. I think the way we lived a few decades ago was a little freer in many respects. I don’t think my parents even knew where I was half the day! Now some parents track their children’s every move. I do feel lucky, too, to have had that chance to connect with nature on my own, at home and away.
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Absolutely! I used to “vanish” for hours ! to my special rocks and places on the hill…didn’t tell anyone where or when I was going…as long as I was back before dark!
(I think “helicopter” parents are ‘robbing’their children of independance and self confidence that comes through exploration and time discovering solo.) Thise were some of my best childhood memories.
P
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It sounds wonderful. I didn’t get to have a camp experience as a child, so I’m envious. I did get to camp and hitchhike in Europe in my 20’s and for me, that’s the trip that opened the world. Here’s to freedom —
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Somehow I missed this comment, Sandy – sorry!
Freedom is the key – whether discovered at camp, on an overseas trip, or in one’s own backyard … A lengthy sleep-away camp just doesn’t work for most people for lots of different reasons; I was very lucky to have the chance to do it, but I’ll bet that urge to roam might have arisen somehow, some day whether I went to camp or not!
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This sounds like my happy place as well! Getting into nature, disconnect from city life. We didn’t have anything like camp when I grew up, I am sure that would have been an awesome experience and as you say – something that really helps build confidence in a kid.
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Camp was a huge part of my childhood, but others find their own ways of building confidence and exploring the world around them, both near and far. From the looks of it, you are an outdoorsy type, too, and you certainly have some great natural beauty close by!
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I loved this post, Lex. Basil and I didn’t get to camp as kids. We caught on pretty late in life. 3 years back, we camped (pitched our own tent) for the first time, in Iceland. It was a fantastic experience. And Basil was totally sold on the idea of such a life. So much so that even before shortlisting our apartment in Seoul, he bought a tent. Camping here isn’t the same, but I’d say, it’s still an opportunity to get aligned with the outdoors. I would love getting all muddy and dirty on a trip. 🙂 We travel very light.
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Well, I started early and you later, but look who married a camper! My husband does NOT love camping at all, so most of my camping experiences now have to come on my solo trips or when I join trekking groups without him. He did do an 8-day circuit trek with me in Chile a few years ago but was quite happy to be done with the tents! (He loves hiking, just not tents!)
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I would have loved to have shared your childhood experiences in Green Cove and if I had a daughter (or really, at this point, a grand daughter) I would totally send her there. Lovely photos. Want to walk right into that last one. Hugs from Singapore.
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It’s still up and running (with the same old cabins!), so you could do that! How is Singapore?!?! I actually told my husband I am (or we are) going there at some point while you’re there, so settle in and get ready for company! Haha – sort of joking, but sort of not! Hope the Intercontinental was heavenly and that you are enjoying some long-term land time.
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I would LOVE for you to come visit. The InterContinental was heavenly. We are now shuttling back and forth between our friend’s apartment in Singapore and our boat in Johor Bahru as I look for work. Singapore is very friendly and clean. A place where you are very unlikely to get egged, lose a child, or lose your appetite for solo travel as a woman. At first I found it a bit ‘sterile’ but I’m starting to discover some interesting little enclaves. Taking the camera out Friday with a friend for more exploring.
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