First impressions are always interesting. When I got to the ferry it was pretty easy to tell who was heading to the camp. Already there (do I use names or not?) was a dishwasher who had been a camper for years and liked to talk a lot, and another unit leader who spent her time on her phone. A waterfront guy showed up as I got there, his parents told me about him while he scowled on his trunk. A couple more dishwashers, so young looking, and two more unit leaders showed up. One was stressing about leaving her phone in her friends car, the other said she was from Vermont and stood there coolly in her sunglasses, surveying the scene. I wondered what the people where going to be like there and what I was getting myself into.
I often try to remember how I became friends with the people I know. I can never remember. I often worry that I am not going to be able to make anymore, it always seems to take a long time, but I don't think that I really does, there just isn't any specific moment when it happens. I was apprehensive about going somewhere that I did not know anyone, but I think that it is good practice to do every once in a while. I tend to move every three years, so I guess to that I do it pretty often.
Getting on the ferry took some effort because we all had so much gear. I had a trunk that probably weighted over sixty pounds and a backpack that had my banjo in it (everyone kept asking me if I had a guitar). Luckily my trunk has detachable wheels so I was able to move it myself, but we must of looked kinda weird, I mean how many people do you know that have trunks and use them as suitcases?
When we got on the ferry we get split up; I wound up sitting with the two unit leaders that showed up after me. We talked a little bit, sort of forced getting to know each other talk. None of us knew what units we were going to be with and little did we know that later two of us would be co-unit leaders. I found out that I had knew some of the same people as one of them, she went to college with a bunch of people from my hometown. The ferry was an hour long, we spent a lot of looking out the window at the amazing scenery. In the booth next to us there was a girl scout troop and a little way away was a bunch of men playing guitars and mandolins. It was a good prep for the summer.
When we came off the ferry the camp skipper was there to meet us. He got us to throw all our gear in the back of a van and then walked us up to the old grey fifteen passenger van we were to ride to the other side of the island on so we could get a whalered over to our island. It took us about 5 minutes to figure out how to shut to the door and at some point we picked up another unit leader, this time a guy.
The island the camp is on is a pretty small one and only accessible by private boats. The camp owns half of the island, the state owns a little and the rest is houses, mostly summer ones. I love the fact that you have to take a boat to get on or off the island. You can't use drive up or walk in. My first ride over was driven by one of the camp director's whose philosophy is that there are two speeds, full and stop. It was a fun ride, about twenty minutes long and the first of many that summer.
When we got to the island it was after dinner so they just let us take what we wanted for sandwiches from the walk-in. They told us where we were going to be living, loaded our gear in a van that looked the same as the one on the other side, and took us to our tipis, only hitting one tree on the way. My tipi mates had arrived earlier that day or a couple before and so were already moved in.
That night most everyone hung out in the lodge, singing camp songs around the fire. The songs that we sing at camp were mainly old folk songs mixed in with some from the 60s and 70s. Not the lame songs that we sang at the camp I went to, these were actually good songs that you wanted to sing. I tried to notice when my tipi mates went to bed but since I can never recognize people when I meet them I didn't see them leave and almost got lost on the way back to my unit, but luckily someone nice showed me the way.
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