Camp Woodland Blog

Alumni Perspective – 2nd week of Camp!

Posted by on July 4, 2012

Alice Lurain went to camp as camper/counselor in the 80’s though the late 90’s.  Alice is a successful Chemistry teacher at a private school in New York City.  

Read below about her camp memories of the 2nd week of Camp!

All told, I spent 10 summers at Woodland – 7 as a camper and 3 as a counselor.  While the first week of camp was always a whirlwind of nervous excitement – finding out which cabin I was in, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, basking in the sense of freedom that came from being far from parental control, far from the daily academic and social pressures of school life, and in such a glorious place – the second week of camp was when the fun really started.  By the end of the second week, it felt as though we had been there for years and my cabinmates felt like the lifetime friends that many of them still are.  Week two was the time when we all settled comfortably into the routine of camp life. 

Although my last Woodland morning was well over a decade ago, I can still remember it like it was yesterday – waking to the morning bell in the cool North Woods air, shuffling to and from breakfast snuggled in sweatpants and sweatshirts, finding my name on the job wheel (and cursing that it was my turn to sweep), racing to clean the cabin for inspection, watching the flag being raised at morning assembly, running across the still dewy grass to the stable to tack up my horse or down to the waterfront for an icy swim in Sand Lake. 


I remember that rest hour felt like an eternity as I waited eagerly to jump from my bunk and sprint down the steps to water ski or sail.  By week two, my “letters home” usually went something like, “Dear Mom and Dad, I am writing this because I have to.  Camp is great.  I never want to leave.  Love, Alice.”  I remember arriving at dinner with the glow of the day upon us and begging Alice D to eat faster so that we could get dessert (see last alumni post).   Week two was when even the new campers started to know the songs that we “sang” in the dining hall with joyous enthusiasm that more than made up for our lack of musicality.

Week two was the time when you learned who in your cabin was a hilarious ham when performing skits, who had a knack for creative lyrics for songs, who was a killer “spit” card player, who was good at uncapsizing a canoe, and who could whistle the Star Spangled Banner after eating a Saltine cracker to give your team the edge in 4th of July games.  We went to bed each night, after our counselors read aloud from Danielle Steele or V.C. Andrews, already feeling the excitement of the next new day ahead.

Last night, I sat on my roof deck in New York City watching a fireworks display in some far-off New Jersey town, and I could almost hear the collective chorus of campers and counselors around the TP-Woodland 4thof July campfire on the shores of Lake Nokomis – “Ooh…aah…wonderful!”