The great camp robbery: a novel
I worked at a summer camp this summer, as I have for the last five summers. There’s an entire series of stories to be written about that world, but I’m going to keep it to one this time, hopefully.
Camp is -to just about everyone who is a part of it- a safe place. It’s a place without hatred, without animosity (you heard me Clifford, stay out,) and overall a place for getting away from the real world. Not so much for our (the staff’s) sake, but for the campers. A surprising number of campers come from low income families in poverty stricken areas of Minnesota. We even had a pair of brothers this summer who were fresh out of New Orleans. Their family had scraped together a hefty sum of money (camp ain’t cheap, as much as we’d like it be) to send these two boys away from the hell that their family was currently going through. We also see a surprisingly large number of children coming from abusive families. We actually have a legal procedure we have to go through if we as counselors are confided to about abuse. We’re bound by law to involve the proper authorities (as if we wouldn’t anyway) immediately. You wouldn’t expect it, but we get at least a couple of cases every summer.
What I’m trying to say here is summer camp is supposed to be a place for kids to get away from the stresses of regular life. Sadly, this isn’t always the case. This summer saw a rash of petty theft at Camp. In the span of three days, a 35mm camera was stolen out of a camper’s bunk (a camera that had been a gift from a now dead grandparent,) an iPod was stolen from that same camper the next day. An iPod was stolen out of a staff member’s CAR. Out of his car! Should he have locked it? Perhaps, but who raises their kids to think that going into someone else’s car is okay? Either way, this thief had some balls - the parking lot is in plain view of the camp office windows.
The same day, my iPod was taken off the desk in my cabin along with the charger. Again, yes, it should have been put away safely, but usually it was, and I was the counselor for the Counselors in Training – the golden children being groomed for staff next summer. I’d been on the Superior Hiking Trail with these guys for 6 days and I would have trusted them with my life, and with my life goes my tiny electronic toys.
The section our cabin was in (along with the other “victims”) was a flutter with conspiracy and investigation. We made an announcement that if the items weren’t returned to a designated public space (a countertop in one of the gathering spaces,) an investigation would begin. We gave them a chance to go back on their mistakes and return the stolen stuff. No such luck.
We got all the campers in the section together (13-17 year old guys) and left the room, asking them to agree upon a course of action. Yeah, we know a learning moment when we see one. The guys actually worked out a plan, they wanted all of their bags searched.
Wait, what? Wow.
We asked them if they were positive, and just about every camper was all for it. There was one group of kids, the too-cool kids, if you will, was literally squirming in their seats, asking odd questions, and generally being all sorts of suspicious. From that point, they were suspects number one, two and three.
The search began. We went cabin by cabin, with everyone sitting out in the space between the cabins. Every camper was present during the searching of his bags, as is policy. No stolen goods were found, and everything went well, except at the very end. I and the CIT’s were watching the rest of the campers while individuals went in to be searched. They let me search my CIT’s bags, as it was just about assured that none of them had taken it, these guys were flawless, as far as I knew. So, 5 of the 6 CITs have been searched, and now it’s time for the last one. I’m joking around with him as I go through his duffel bag. I reach into the bottom of a side pocket on his duffel bag and pull out a pipe. A pipe that reeks of ganje. Of course, the shit hits the fan at this point, as again, I’m bound by law to report this sort of stuff to the director. Long story short, my CIT gets sent home, solely based on policy. The pipe had apparently been in that bag for a couple of years, and the bag had been under the guy’s bed for the same amount of time, he was a long reformed pothead, and camp was his escape from his troubled family. Had I not dug the pipe up, it would have no doubt stayed there until the guy went back home, and probably long after that.
This is starting to get long, so I’m going to wrap it up with all due haste. We never found the stolen stuff, but another iPod went missing from the personal locker of another staff member. The only other person who knew that the iPod was in the locker, much less in existence (it had just been purchase) was the victim’s co-counselor. Shit-fan contact once again. The co-counselor’s stuff was searched, and another iPod charger was found in his possession, one that was clearly marked with a symbol that had been put there by it’s proper owner (one of the other victims.) All of a sudden things get hush hush, and the suspected staff member is sent home, and the administration wont talk about it. I asked if it had anything to do with the stolen stuff, and I was told that they had reason to believe that he had taken at least some of it, but was being fired (and banned from camp property) for another more serious reason that they weren’t allowed to discuss with me.
What? Shit…
So, to summarize for those who skipped ahead, because of this guy who stole this shit, not only are several people out several hundred dollars, but several days of camp were disrupted for a third of the camp, campers lost their faith in their peers, a CIT was sent home from camp, and the sanctity of the camp environment was shattered for many. I’m actually sick of writing about this now, I forgot that there was a lot to this story that needed explaining. If it seems like I left anything critical out, ask me about it.
What’s that? A light at the end of the tunnel? A happy ending? No, it couldn’t be. Yes! I finally got up the balls to buy a new iPod yesterday! This is a big deal for me. Once again, finally, I will never be without music. If something needs a soundtrack, BAM, I’m studying to Yo La Tengo: Autumn Sweater, or driving to Muse: Knights of Cydonia, or walking to school to Dexy’s Midnight Runner:….no…I take that back.
Radio show! Thursday Night! 1am! Listen to it! Exclamation Point!
Camp is -to just about everyone who is a part of it- a safe place. It’s a place without hatred, without animosity (you heard me Clifford, stay out,) and overall a place for getting away from the real world. Not so much for our (the staff’s) sake, but for the campers. A surprising number of campers come from low income families in poverty stricken areas of Minnesota. We even had a pair of brothers this summer who were fresh out of New Orleans. Their family had scraped together a hefty sum of money (camp ain’t cheap, as much as we’d like it be) to send these two boys away from the hell that their family was currently going through. We also see a surprisingly large number of children coming from abusive families. We actually have a legal procedure we have to go through if we as counselors are confided to about abuse. We’re bound by law to involve the proper authorities (as if we wouldn’t anyway) immediately. You wouldn’t expect it, but we get at least a couple of cases every summer.
What I’m trying to say here is summer camp is supposed to be a place for kids to get away from the stresses of regular life. Sadly, this isn’t always the case. This summer saw a rash of petty theft at Camp. In the span of three days, a 35mm camera was stolen out of a camper’s bunk (a camera that had been a gift from a now dead grandparent,) an iPod was stolen from that same camper the next day. An iPod was stolen out of a staff member’s CAR. Out of his car! Should he have locked it? Perhaps, but who raises their kids to think that going into someone else’s car is okay? Either way, this thief had some balls - the parking lot is in plain view of the camp office windows.
The same day, my iPod was taken off the desk in my cabin along with the charger. Again, yes, it should have been put away safely, but usually it was, and I was the counselor for the Counselors in Training – the golden children being groomed for staff next summer. I’d been on the Superior Hiking Trail with these guys for 6 days and I would have trusted them with my life, and with my life goes my tiny electronic toys.
The section our cabin was in (along with the other “victims”) was a flutter with conspiracy and investigation. We made an announcement that if the items weren’t returned to a designated public space (a countertop in one of the gathering spaces,) an investigation would begin. We gave them a chance to go back on their mistakes and return the stolen stuff. No such luck.
We got all the campers in the section together (13-17 year old guys) and left the room, asking them to agree upon a course of action. Yeah, we know a learning moment when we see one. The guys actually worked out a plan, they wanted all of their bags searched.
Wait, what? Wow.
We asked them if they were positive, and just about every camper was all for it. There was one group of kids, the too-cool kids, if you will, was literally squirming in their seats, asking odd questions, and generally being all sorts of suspicious. From that point, they were suspects number one, two and three.
The search began. We went cabin by cabin, with everyone sitting out in the space between the cabins. Every camper was present during the searching of his bags, as is policy. No stolen goods were found, and everything went well, except at the very end. I and the CIT’s were watching the rest of the campers while individuals went in to be searched. They let me search my CIT’s bags, as it was just about assured that none of them had taken it, these guys were flawless, as far as I knew. So, 5 of the 6 CITs have been searched, and now it’s time for the last one. I’m joking around with him as I go through his duffel bag. I reach into the bottom of a side pocket on his duffel bag and pull out a pipe. A pipe that reeks of ganje. Of course, the shit hits the fan at this point, as again, I’m bound by law to report this sort of stuff to the director. Long story short, my CIT gets sent home, solely based on policy. The pipe had apparently been in that bag for a couple of years, and the bag had been under the guy’s bed for the same amount of time, he was a long reformed pothead, and camp was his escape from his troubled family. Had I not dug the pipe up, it would have no doubt stayed there until the guy went back home, and probably long after that.
This is starting to get long, so I’m going to wrap it up with all due haste. We never found the stolen stuff, but another iPod went missing from the personal locker of another staff member. The only other person who knew that the iPod was in the locker, much less in existence (it had just been purchase) was the victim’s co-counselor. Shit-fan contact once again. The co-counselor’s stuff was searched, and another iPod charger was found in his possession, one that was clearly marked with a symbol that had been put there by it’s proper owner (one of the other victims.) All of a sudden things get hush hush, and the suspected staff member is sent home, and the administration wont talk about it. I asked if it had anything to do with the stolen stuff, and I was told that they had reason to believe that he had taken at least some of it, but was being fired (and banned from camp property) for another more serious reason that they weren’t allowed to discuss with me.
What? Shit…
So, to summarize for those who skipped ahead, because of this guy who stole this shit, not only are several people out several hundred dollars, but several days of camp were disrupted for a third of the camp, campers lost their faith in their peers, a CIT was sent home from camp, and the sanctity of the camp environment was shattered for many. I’m actually sick of writing about this now, I forgot that there was a lot to this story that needed explaining. If it seems like I left anything critical out, ask me about it.
What’s that? A light at the end of the tunnel? A happy ending? No, it couldn’t be. Yes! I finally got up the balls to buy a new iPod yesterday! This is a big deal for me. Once again, finally, I will never be without music. If something needs a soundtrack, BAM, I’m studying to Yo La Tengo: Autumn Sweater, or driving to Muse: Knights of Cydonia, or walking to school to Dexy’s Midnight Runner:….no…I take that back.
Radio show! Thursday Night! 1am! Listen to it! Exclamation Point!
5 comments:
you weave a tale like a spinster makes a quilt.
well done.
i think at camp, you get to be the best version of yourself.
sorry for the stolen ipod.
sucky about the ipod.
Hey if you're gonna counsel there again, you should see about me being able to... I was a counselor at a YMCA camp, the second oldest one in North America for 3 years and a camper there for 5...
ps that was me, Alex
Well written article.
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