Ch 30

A camp story


Rachel, Emily, Kathleen, Lily and I circled around the Ardery dining room table one March night, a reunion of camp friends. The sun had gone down hours ago but Lily was still singing the chorus of the song she had learned on the radio that day. Emily had abandoned the loom she'd earlier gotten at Hobby Lobby when we got crafting supplies. Instead of weaving a potholder like the ones from our childhood she was twisting the pastel loops around the fingers on her left hand. The loops were slowly becoming a stretchy, twisted chain. "What is that?" Rachel asked. Emily tilted her head and laughed, "It's a headband! Didn't you make these when you were a kid?" She taught us her method and we all started twisting and knotting and tying until a small mountain of rainbow patterned headbands were in the middle of the table. We wore the headbands stretched around our heads like hippies until we abandoned them when it was time for bed. Stuffed in the bottom of our duffel bags they remained after that weekend, too ridiculous to actually wear after that night with friends.

...

Colleen Kelley is a person of influential presence. She walked through the double doors of Scheumann Lodge, ready for the 2011 resident staff training to begin. Dressed in Nike neon running shorts, tall black socks, and a jersey Colleen was dressed to the nines in Camp Tecumseh style; a would-be "best dressed" in the fashion watch of Tecumseh Bend. All except for the odd wreath of blue, green, orange and white encircling her head. A potholder headband had returned.

Before leaving the parking lot Rachel convinced her, "If anyone can rock this, it's going to be you Coll. Maybe you'll start a trend." Little did we know how prophetic Rachel had been that morning. By two o'clock three more headbands from that weekend in April had been unearthed and become the target of "What is that?" and "Where do you get that?" comments from returning staff.

They might have been too ridiculous to wear in the real world but they were quickly accepted by the Camp culture. Arielle was the first to figure out how to tie a rose knot for extra swag and Mel was thrilled to get her own headband mid-way through the week.

...

During the 25 hours between staff training and the first week of summer camp 2011 Sarah Mooney and I made a trip to Hobby Lobby to stock up on a supply of nylon weaving loops. That Saturday night we wove a collection of pastel and neon headbands and divvied them up for girl counselors in Lake and River. Our fingers were sore by the time we finished but we had made over 20 of the newly coveted treasures. At the staff meeting on Sunday, ready for campers in our blue staff polos, Sarah and I passed out the new accessories to some of our friends.

Excited to have a potholder headband of their own, the hippie sweatbands were worn with pride. As we toured past the pool and on the lake road and through the dining halls that Sunday the headbands stood out like rare gems. Hobby Lobby became a top priority for nights off as more and more counselors learned to twist and tie the loops. I started carrying a bag of the loops in my backpack so I could make them on the go, passing them out to friends that still didn't have one.

...

Tuesday night during the second week of camp I was surprised when Ellyn, Keefer and Maggie surprise visited the CILT girls and I in Choctaw cabin. Always overflowing with energy, this trio showed up in new matching Varsity sweatshirts from Gordman's they had just purchased together, telling stories from their night off and asking the new CILT girls questions. "We got you a surprise," Ellyn told me as she threw a Meijer bag at me, a smile of anticipation on her face, eager for me to look inside. I could tell right away it was a t-shirt but in a thousand years I never would have guessed what it looked like.

The large graphic, front and center on the maroon tye-dye t-shirt was a pair of wolves. Gray, fierce, powerful wolves with an orange sun rising in the distance behind them. I held the shirt up with both hands and looked between it and Ellyn not sure how to react. "Yay... a wolf shirt... thank you..."

The three of them were practically bouncing on the bunk bed with excitement, "It's for wolf shirt Wednesday," Keefer explained. Ellyn and Maggie held up their hands like a wolf, middle and ring finger touching their thumb and the pinkie and pointer up like ears and howled together, "Ahoooooooo."

Ellyn, Keefer and Maggie had all been campers of mine the summer before and this quirky plan was very typical of them. These girls had carried around plastic swords, worn overalls as normal attire, and made up songs spelling their names. While most people would ask, "Why in the world would you wear a hideous wolf shirt on Wednesday?" these girls ask, "Why not?"

...

Wednesday morning Arielle and I quickly got ready before flagpole, pulling on our matching wolf shirts from the girls and completing our outfits with neon potholder headbands. We made sure we color coordinated because it's always faux pas to clash. Her orange shorts complimented the flaming sun and my purple shorts subtly highlighted the purple undertones of the tye-dye.

At flagpole we found the trend-setting trio to take a wolf shirt Wednesday picture, wolf hands up. At least we weren't alone in our unconventional wardrobe choices. Our howls could be heard through out the dining hall all breakfast long. Tye-dye Tuesday had been an accepted theme for years but wolf shirt Wednesday, this was ground-breaking.

...

A summer of nine weeks is long enough for any trend to solidify.

Shoshone started a weekly activity of making potholder headbands and the Shosho girls led the fashion wave in Lake Village.  Even boy counselors like Evan, Kraft and Chris learned to weave the loops and spread the joy of potholder head ware. Day Camp counselors, Brave girls and Buffalo Brothers sported neon headbands. Session three CILT girls had a potholder headband making party their second night at camp and sported their creations the rest of their time together. Several times during the summer we bought out Hobby Lobby's entire supply and counselors would go into a panic of what to make without the most popular craft. The most common question in letters from campers that already returned home was, "Where do you get the stuff to make those headbands?" Emily and the girls of Chickasaw made a potholder headband so long we could use it as a jump rope before lunch every afternoon.

Many counselors jumped on the bandwagon and found their own heinous wolf shirts at Miejer and Wal-Mart on nights off. A couple weeks in, the cashier would look up from the wolf shirt and say, "You must work at that camp." Each Wednesday I would gather the growing number of those wearing wolf shirts for a picture. When Beef arrived for the second half of CILT session two he outfitted all of men of the Yurt with wolf shirts. When Pathfinder Ellie Pearl arrived for week six of camp she brought her own wolf shirt because she had heard the buzz from campers earlier in the summer. Week eight, as Rachel and I paddled across the lake in our wolf shirst on a Wednesday we howled up at the Lookout and a pack of wolves howled back. Lauren, a CILT girl, mailed me a care package including a CD of wolf songs late in the summer.

...

The ability for things like potholder headbands and wolf shirts to catch on is only one of the hundreds of reasons why Camp Tecumseh is like nowhere else in the world. We support quirky here. Creativity is encouraged. When someone has a good idea we tell them to go for it and do what we can to see that it happens.

I've never witnessed another culture quite like this. Write on rocks and give them away as priceless keepsakes? We do that. Knotted pieces of string hand-crafted by eight-year-olds are more precious than diamonds. A red rubber ball named Gerard X united dozens of Pathfinder girls. An ugly, bright, crazy printed sweatshirt was worn by a different person though every performance of a closing campfire just because Sara thought it would be a good idea. Kids leave faded swim bands on their wrist all year long because it reminds them of this place.

...

When the school year began the trends didn't die out. A handful of students at my school sought out wolf shirts after I told them about the trend. The Friendship Bracelet Club learned to make potholder headbands. Counselors taught their friends and sorority sisters at college to make the stretchy accessory and they made appearances in classes, on the intramural field and during Dance Marathon. Tecumseh friends of all ages wore wolf shirts back at their schools and campuses.

This Christmas one of my campers squealed when she unwrapped a wolf shirt under a tree and another reported that she was ordering a wolf shirt with her Amazon gift card. A CILT girl made potholder headbands for all of her cousins and they wore them all of Christmas break.

There is something so important about being goofy, child-like, weird. I think that as we grow up we put so much of our worth into what others think of us instead of what makes us happy. We worry about being judged instead of just being ourselves. I love that when Colleen wore that headband into staff training on the first day of camp she wasn't concerned about if everyone else would laugh at her; she thought it was fun and she was ready to kick start a summer of fun. Ellyn, Keefer and Maggie didn't care that most people thought those wolf shirts were ugly and would never be caught dead in them. No, those girls bought wolf shirts for themselves and their friends simply because they thought it would be fun.

Let's do things just for the fun of it. Wear your favorite bright pink sweatshirt even if it means you'll stand out. Laugh out loud in the movie without worrying if you're too loud. If the music is good, dance. Give a present that you made with your own two hands. Be yourself because that's the best thing you can do. Never underestimate the power and beauty of being unique, it just might catch on.