Play Date at Camp Deer Run

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Saturday at my 50th (gag) camp reunion was all about playing. The start of the day was camp skits and sing-a-long in the girls’ lodge. As I looked around the old lodge, hundreds of memories flooded my brain: skits, songs, plays, movie night, and scavenger hunts. FYI: These so-called cabins had bunks with double mattresses, carpet on the floors, and dormitory size bathrooms. This was not roughing it unless you were one of Bill Gates’ kids.

Being close to the boys’ camp was a big deal. But alas the boys rarely if ever shared the interest in having us around. Nonetheless, on Sunday mornings, the one day they let us eat together, we got up early to blow dry, curl, and apply what make-up we had. I think if the boys put on a clean shirt it was momentous. And at that, it was probably the counselors who made sure the guys changed clothes at least once a week.

Next up for the reunion, we had a huge picnic lunch out on the lawn. There were hundreds of “old” campers there catching up on 40 or 50 years of life. My favorite interchange was when one sweet elderly lady, a past director, asked my fellow camper friend if she had children and a husband. “Well, I have kids, but I divorced the husband,” my friend replied. “Oh, dear that is so sad, I am so sorry for you,” the former director said. As she left my friend leaned over and whispered, ” I didn’t’ have the heart to tell her I’ve been married and divorced three times.”

So many of our role models came from lifelong marriages. And most of my friends my age had two or three marriages under our expanding belts. None of us expected to be divorced, but life happens. What I loved is that we have all survived the sorrows life handed us and bounced forward to still see the point of going on. Since this was a Christian/Bible based camp, I know we all had to overcome the shame of not quite cutting the Sunday School model of perfect little girls. But when I ponder it . . . well, if Jesus isn’t about forgiving others and moving forward what did he teach? As I recall his peeps were not folks who followed the rules or the expectations of others. In fact, they were not religious at all. So there I was surrounded by my dear friends, all of us hilarious, funny, and smart, and our core beliefs led us to an understanding that Jesus wants very few things of us: to laugh, love, and forgive others and ourselves. Basically to pick up the pieces and play again.

And play we did. At the pristine waterfront on a lake with a clean white sand bottom surrounded by granite boulders and giant pines, we kayaked, sailed and swam. I hadn’t been sailing in years so I loved being out on the lake by myself feeling the breeze on my skin. Later that day I went tubing (dragged behind a speed boat hanging onto an oversized rafting tube). I pulled muscles I had forgotten I had. I sunburned my face, got pebbles in my shoes, and then drenched my weary body in the cool lake. The archery range was open. So was the ropes course. I bypassed those more daunting sports and caught up with some friends who were heading to a lake house owned by one of the girls. (Yes, girl, albeit over 60, but for that one magical weekend we were all girls again).

Sally Franz is a former stand-up comedian, motivational speaker, and radio host. She is a twice-divorced mother of two and a grandmother of three. Sally has a degree in gerontology and several awards for humor writing. She is the author of Scrambled Leggs: A Snarky Tale of Hospital Hooey
and The Baby Boomers Guide to Menopause.