Camp was something I would cry and beg not to go to every summer. I thought it would be nice to stay in Toronto and be with my school friends instead and I was afraid to leave home I guess. I would cry and carry on every year...beg, plead, throw tantrums...whatever I could think of to manipulate my parents into not sending me to camp. The funny thing about it was that once I got to camp, I loved it.
I had no brothers or sisters at home, so when I went to camp I felt like I had a big family. I did have lots of cousins in Toronto. Sari, Enice and Steve and Bob and they were at camp too, although I was in between Sari and Enice, and Steve was a year ahead. I don't remember tormenting Dennis Portnoy and what I do remember was that I always felt I had a special bond with Dennis and I liked Jill a lot also. I used to love having so many girls around I guess I was comfortable in their company and I have always had friends that were female. I liked the guys in my cabin a lot also. Neil, Alan, and I remember Donna also and Ronny, a lot of the names have slipped away now...my memory isn't as good.
I'm 56 now and most of that time has been spent in an institution...for some hair brained stunt or other. When I think back to the camp years those were the best years of my life. The good clean fun of waterskiing and swimming and going on canoe trips. And, being able to smoke sometimes depending on who was with us. The plays we did...Bye Bye Birdie etc. I wonder sometimes what happened to the kids from Buffalo or Windsor that I would see at camp...the Gardner sisters and I have thought about Reggie Gerztman and some of the people from Cincinnati. I learned a lot about honor and truth at camp and getting along with people. So different from what I put myself through in years to come. I got involved with drugs and treatment...jails, institutions, and death...as they say in some of the 12 step programs.
Now I am working at a shelter for the homeless, addicted, and sick...and I have turned my life around as I don't use drugs anymore or smoke or drink and I try and give back some of what I took in the sick years when I was in active addiction. I'm not well off. I owe for credit cards and normal bills that everyone has, I guess...but life is a lot better for me now that I have thrown the drugs to the ground. I remember Camp with fondness and when I need to go back in my mind to a peaceful good time in my life I always think of camp and the good times I can remember and good people I knew there.