July 3 Getting Settled

Part of getting acclamated to the routine of camp life was getting to know my bunkmates. All six of the residents of Bunk 11 were from the New York metro area: Myself, Hilary Kurtzweil and Susan Nichols, who were from Forest Hills, and knew each other; Patti Schulman, who I think was related to Milton Schulman, one of the camp's directors, from Hewlett; Gail Trattler from Great Neck, and I can't remember where Ann Glaser was from. We were all 10 years old, and first time campers. (NOT a pretty stage...) I, as usual, was the smallest of a group that varied wildly in size and shape. But, what we lacked in looks, we made up for in noise. We were VERY loud. Our counselors definitely had their hands full. Our co-counselor, Debbie Belchetz, was a former camper, from Larchmont, NY. Our "main" counselor, was Susie Steinberg, a cute blond from the south. Both Debbie and Susie had sisters at camp: Susie's twin, Laurie, was a counselor a few bunks down, and Debbie's sister, Ruthie was in the bunk right next door. Lucky for Susie and Debbie they had someone to run to when they needed to escape from us. I heard about all these strange categories: Ritual, Assmbly, Color War... And then there were the songs. A first-time camper definitely had alot to assimilate.
Today was team "election day." Even though color war hadn't "broken" yet, we all had to go to the Inter Social Hall and elect team officers. I had no idea what this was about. First, we had to elect two captains, and two co-captains. Okay. I could understand that concept. But, I really didn't know any of the girls who were nominated, as they were older, more experienced campers. So, I did what any self-respecting new camper would do: I just voted for the girl who looked most eager and pretty, along with every one else. The next category was song leaders. Now, voting for this was easier, because it required a visible skill. I saw a few of the nominees for head song leader audition, and even my ten year old open mind had to acknowledge that the conducting style of the Lenore song leaders was rather unsual. I'm sure it began conventionally enough, many years before, with a girl standing in front of the group and moving her arms side-to-side, in a manner similar to an orchestra or choir conductor. But, somehow, over time, this style morphed into something completely different and comically bizaare. My guess is, that because the two song leaders had to stand together on a short and narrow bench, they had to position themselves at an angle, moving their arms forward, to avoid knocking each other off the bench. As a result, by 1959 onward, the style of song leading became a sort of jerky, flailing of the arms in a back and forth motion in time to the music. (I now realize why my father laughed hysterically at every assembly he witnessed on Visiting Day!) The nominations for co-song leader came up, and I was floored, when some well-intentioned soul nominated me! I had no idea what to do. I frantically asked a girl sitting next to me for some help, and she said to just copy what everyone else did. And I almost did, until, at the last second, I chickened out and declined. However, all the rest of that summer and winter, I diligently practiced those arm motions. So, by the following summer of 1960, I was ready! And at the appropriate time, I was nominated and elected Inter co-song leader of the Green Team, proudly flailing my arms back and forth to the music, along side Joanne Witty, It was possibly one of the proudest moments of my life. The song we auditioned to would likely have been an "up-tempo" anthem like:

Here's to thee Oh Camp Lenore,
Shine ever bright!
As long as winds their breezes blow,
Waves of green and white.
We love your hills and silver lake,
We'll be faithful ever more.
To the friendships we have made here,
We sing to thee Oh Camp Lenore!