The second summer of our return to Burlington, Mom thought I would benefit from the socialization of summer camp, and off I went to Camp Abnaki in North Hero for two weeks. Not that memorable; I learned to swim, passed my ‘minnow’, ‘flying fish’ and ‘shark’ distinctions (a fast study, blub), did typical summer camp stuff ie: ran around a lot, played soccer and baseball, swam, ate camp/institutional meals, passed the time…
Upon my return home Sunday afternoon, I was driven immediately to Rock Point, the Episcopal church’s conference/youth/religio-social property on Burlington’s north shore on Lake Champlain, where the church (for us, St Paul’s) held week-long co-ed summer camp sessions at ‘the Institute’, a large grey stone edifice that had rooms galore and may have once been a convent, or conference/ institutional/ wayward home affair. I, however, was beset by homesickness, and after a few hours of blubbering and sobbing was rescued by Mom and allowed home. At least until next year…
Fast forward: the next summer, Abnaki again for FOUR weeks (! I may have over-embellished the fun I’d had !). The saving grace of this tour of duty was that my sister Chloe had a job at the camp, I think as a nanny/au pere to the kids of our director Norman van Gulden. AND… she had our dog with her (Cinder, I think, black lab…), so the sometimes tedious duration was lessened by familiar and familial distraction.
This time returning home I was more prepared to go directly to Rock Point, which at this time I realized was CO-ED in stark contrast to Abnaki which was … reflecting my mood… neanderthalian. I could last another week of friend-making, especially since half the campers were the ‘better’ half (my longheld opinion). I only remember a few highlights of that week, one being the end-of-week dance, oh yeah…
and the other is a longer anecdote: the building had a tall bell tower, and from morning to night we were called to our tasks- meals, gatherings, prayer-y things (!), etc, by the tolling of this mammoth church bell in the tower. One particular evening we were advised that in the morning- very early in the morning- we would be woken by the usual bell, have a quick breakfast and head out to… something church-related, I imagine. For some decidedly teenage reason I made a plan with a co-conspirator to… errr… disrupt the plan. Well after lights out, we met at the maintenance room to the bell tower, and armed with our necessary gear climbed up the ladder to the bell itself, and using our belts, tied a couple pillows around the big clapper. Needless to say, in the morning we were brusquely woken by the appearance of councilors, rather stridently urging us to wake up, we had a schedule to keep.
I don’t recall having a return experience at Camp Rock Point, but that could have been coincidental…
jmidworth 
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