I love this...
I was looking through old blogs and reminiscing and came across this one that Helen wrote after Fall Fest.....after reading Tater's posted of Boomer's writing and now this one, can't you just FEEL Chanco - the memories brought back by reading these are so vivid - smells, sights, sounds of our beloved Chanco... It is like I am there again. How I love that place......
Chanco TwicePosted October 16th, 2007 by Helen Somers
It is strange… yet laughingly normal to have been reading all the bios and blogs about people I remember so fondly from the rather (ahem) distant past. A Chanco Alumni Association has been formed! It seems long overdue, but I suppose we needed to need it in order to form it, right? Many thanks to everyone involved in the foundation and development of the CCAA. I am proud to be a part of it – and I am glad to be back. I am glad we are all back to save the place that arguably saved each one of us at one time or another in our young lives. I know I have certainly missed Chanco in my life.
You know what I have really missed? I have missed the feeling I had driving down the winding road toward Chanco for Fall Fest. It was the very same (the exact, very same) feeling I remember as I made my way toward camp for an October weekend, or a Youth Senate, or a Happening, or a Staff Week for the summer many years before. I was filled with all of the nervous, happy anticipation of what lay ahead. Who would be there? How smoothly would the weekend run? Would I have time for a shower before breakfast – or would I have to wait until afterward – or (gasp) miss one altogether due to over-scheduling? (These are serious issues, people, then and now!) Would people really show up? Would they have a good time? Would they come back? Would the spirit reach each person in the same way? Would it reach them at all? It is a feeling I remember so clearly of being passionately connected with something so important and so powerful that I couldn’t imagine my life without it… yet, it was my life that led me away from camp, down other roads, toward other destinations. I spent years trying to fill the void where camp had been. I missed the feeling, the spirit of Chanco, without realizing just what it was; but I sure knew as I passed by Zooms, and then “the swamp,” and on past the boy scouts pulling up their socks at Pipsico toward Fall Fest - The butterflies swarmed! I missed the people, the purpose, the Spirit. I missed Chanco. Thank you for bringing it all back… It is so good to be home.
- Jen Schroeder Alfano's blog
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I love this, too! I was
I love this, too! I was just was just remembering today what the first day of camp was like each summer ... wondering who my counselors would be, wondering what campsite I would be in ... free swim was always soon after check-in and I can remember how I felt walking down Cardiac Hill for the first time each summer ... I can still hear the twigs snap under my feet and smell the James. Remember the first night ... falling asleep in those cots that used to hang in the middle from so many decades of use? I could never sleep the first night ... I hadn't adjusted to the heat and the sounds of the woods ... my sheets would stick to me and my tentmate and I would keep doing "bug checks".
I was in DC today and read one of my favorite FDR quotes ... "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith." There is no doubting Chanco ... not with so many of us helping to keep it alive.
The spirit of Chanco...
I am so grateful to you for pulling out the 'scrapbook' of memories!! Your thoughtfulness is a timely reminder of the spirit and power of Chanco. I am both honored and surprised that you chose to re-post these words.
Your friend - Helen
Back there someday
Thanks, Jenny, for re-posting Helen’s blog from after Fall Fest. I, too, have re-read it recently and have been reminded of the flood of feelings that always began and ended every Chanco event I ever attended or summer that I worked. I remember driving back to Camp on the last day of the summer of 1989 on the gravel road, seeing the trees and sunshine, knowing the time to leave was drawing near, listening to “Say Once More” by Amy Grant with tears rolling down my cheeks because I couldn’t bear for it to all be over. Now, you’ll likely think I’m nuts, but there is a song by Gonzo from The Muppet Movie called “I’m Going To Go Back There Someday” that has always reminded me of that very feeling of leaving camp. If you’ll indulge me, here are the words…
“This looks familiar, vaguely familiar,
Almost unreal, yet, it’s too soon to feel yet.
Close to my soul, and yet so far away.
I’m going to go back there someday.
Sun rises, night falls, sometimes the sky calls.
Is that a song there, and do I belong there?
I’ve never been there, but I know the way.
I’m going to go back there someday.
Come and go with me, it’s more fun to share,
We’ll both be completely at home in midair.
We’re flyin’, not walkin’, on featherless wings.
We can hold onto love like invisible strings.
There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.
Part heaven, part space, or have I found my place?
You can just visit, but I plan to stay.
I’m going to go back there someday.
I’m going to go back there someday.”