A Tribute

Tonight I took a walk down memory lane. As I sped up 35W, turned off on County Road D and made my way down Silver Lake Road, an overwhelming fear suddenly panged me: what if everything I saw was not exactly as I remembered it? How will this trip affect all of the wonderful memories that I have associated with this place? I don’t recall much about high school or things that I have learned in various classes over the years, but my Silver Lake Camp memories are stored up in the “DO NOT FORGET” category of my brain, if such a thing can exist. That’s how important camp was to me.

Unfortunately, within the first few steps past the parking lot, I realized that my expectations were going to be let down. And it was devastating. I walked past overgrown patches of grass that used to be important landmarks: the chapel, health station, candy store, oak manor. All of it is gone. Not even Kate’s Place survived. The beach was almost unrecognizable, with long grass growing all the way up to the water’s edge and missing the dock, canoe rack, and boat shed.

Every step was accompanied by a thousand memories. The bad buddy board; campers lining up for swim tests that they were inevitably going to fail; staff orientations in upper lakeview; flag raisings that I rarely made it to; “everybody’s favorite game: copy the pillar standers”; checking my mailbox; the oak manor rooms that I never got to live in; the craft shack’s endless supply of unwanted tie-dyed shirts; the field that hosted the water carnival; the island; the health station that accommodated our lice-checks, and later where I was checked for lice many times over; cabin talent shows in the chapel; the afterglow bonfires; writing on each others’ hands at the end of the summer; saying goodbye to the kids at the end of each week; saying goodbye for now to fellow staff members at the end of each summer.

Despite the many struggles and frustrations that came along with the job over the years, Silver Lake Camp is still hands-down the best thing that ever happened to me. Re-living it tonight was disappointing, but thinking about all of the relationships that were formed there that have been maintained over the years makes the fact that the buildings are gone an insignificant detail.

When I was leaving the camp office (one of the only two buildings still standing), I was approached by a park employee.

“Did you have any questions about the park?”

To which I wanted to respond, “Do you have any questions about the park??” ...but instead muttered, “No.”

“I guess it used to be a Salvation Army camp,” she said. “The crazy thing is that I work with a lady whose grandparents met here, working together at the camp.”

“Wow…” I said, blinking back tears, “that is crazy.”