by Mitch Tucker – Former Camper & Staff
Sometimes, the best parts of camp are the ‘in-between’ times. I’m talking about the conversations on the marathon walk to the store. The goofing around while lining up to peg in at swim beach. The rest hours spent with your tent mates playing cards and making each other laugh harder than you thought possible. You know, the stuff that happens between all the stuff.
The in-between times were where we could listen to cool new music, talk about girls or guys, and tell stories about our lives. I remember when I was camper, this counsellor (or was it a CIT?) was talking to us about music. Seeing my keenness, he lent me his Paul’s Boutique cassette by the Beastie Boys. I played it over and over again in my walkman, and it remains one of my favourite albums to this day. I wish I could remember exactly who that counsellor was . . . shout out to all the counsellors from the early 90’s! I learned a lot about music from you guys!
We related to each other freely in these times, feeling accepted among friends, existing in a time and space that was somehow different from our regular lives back home. We could take away pure magic from these interactions, and leave a little magic behind of our own. Remember that hour or so between going to bed and actually falling asleep?? Ghost stories, frankincense and hugs & high fives . . . awesome stuff.
And sometimes, in these in-between times, activity would spring out of nowhere and amazing things would happen. The entire boys tent-line in erupting in an epic pillow fight. Building an incredible colony of sandcastles, complete with a working canal system. An improvised jam session with freestyle raps about greeting cards. One time I jumped over five vertically-stacked milk crates on a dare!
Magic happens everywhere at camp! It really does, even (especially) in the in-between times.
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