Tumpline June 2012
Published: Fri, 06/15/12
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What's New up at Camp? - Quoi de nouveau au camp? Each spring, new construction and a fresh coat of paint ensure that Nominingue looks better than the year before.
 Chaque année, de nouvelles constructions et une couche de peinture fraîche assure que le camp est plus beau que l'été précédent!
 Family Camp Steve Mentz Connecticut, USA FC 2009In 1984, Camp Nominingue held its first Family Camp. Our goal was to provide adults and families with the opportunity to take advantage of our amazing facilities- a long sandy beach, a beautiful 400 acre site, accessible canoe tripping country, and interesting and varied programs. Each summer since then, Nominingue has hosted families who wanted to introduce their children to summer camp, alumni who want to relive their childhood experiences, and families and couples looking for a relaxing holiday...  The baseball grace has become our family ritual.
Every so often, in the middle of winter or during a long trip, one of the kids will start it up, and we'll be back in the great north woods of Quebec, sitting around the dining room tables. Doo do duh-doo da-doo, someone sings, and then all together: grace! Little and big hands bang hard on tables, and the silverware jumps. Time to move... The song transports us back to our week in Nominingue in 2009. We'd never been there before; we were introduced by my college buddy Erik Blachford and his family. The week whirled by: pre-breakfast plunges into the water, canoeing to Acapulco, swimming across the lake with my six-year old daughter Olivia, playing "spot" with my eighty-year old son Ian... We arrived as outsiders, Americans even, and left as part of the Great Tribe of Nominingue, waking to Thoreau and singing about the north woods. We can't wait to get back!  Family campers live in tents during their stay; they enjoy excellent meals, morning and evening snacks; programming is relaxed as campers choose to participate, or not, in scheduled activities; some families visit once, most return year after year to share a unique holiday at Camp Nominingue. In 2012, Family Camp will run from August 18th to the 26th.
How many parts to a Nominingue adventure? Elisa Van WagnerIn 2001, our son started camp at the age of 7. Starting camp at any age is a huge deal. Of course, all parents all remember the first day of kindergarten, but this seemed an even bigger undertaking for such a small child and for us because we had just tragically lost my sister Shannon and niece Alice in June, and there was a lot of grieving being experienced in our family.  Emmett's first 2 weeks of camp were hard. He experienced some home-sickness and I, although living at camp, knew I had to stay out of sight so I wouldn't exacerbate the situation. It was a long 2 weeks. But Emmett's counsellor and the staff in section one did an amazing job at making sure he had the attention and time he needed. When he returned home to the cottage and I unpacked his trunk on the front lawn, Emmett knew we were so proud of him and what he had accomplished...Even if most of his nicely packed clothes had not been touched!
The years progressed with Emmett returning to camp each summer for varying lengths of stay, learning new skills, making new friends, and yes, even learning how to get along with other boys that weren't so much his friends. Going on canoe trips was a favourite experience: exploring other lakes, rivers and swampy areas; learning to gather wood for the fire and, eventually, learning to cook over that fire; gaining confidence, learning to assess danger, navigate a route and work as a team.  Each summer, he was excited to get away to camp, to leave the trappings of the city behind, to get back to his home away from home where he could play hard, increase his skills, get dirty and fall asleep at night under the tent and fly, content.
Emmett completed the LIT program at the age of 16 and I was excited for him to become a staff member the following year. But lo and behold he said, "Mom, I think I want to try staying in the city. I'd like to play rugby and hope to find a job, you know, see what it's like to spend a summer in town with my school friends". OUCH! Why had he gone to camp for all these years, I wondered? But at the same time I knew that at camp he had learned to make choices and here he was...making a choice. I think he missed camp last summer.... no, I know he missed camp. So this year, 2012, 11 years after that first summer, my son is embarking on a new Nominingue adventure, as a camp counsellor. He has learned so much over the years and now I look forward to watching him learn more. I look forward to being proud of how he takes care of our campers; watching them look up to him and seek him out if they need him. He knows the ropes, but there is always more to learn. He is up for the challenge and has a great team of leaders here to help him grow into a wonderful, empathetic leader of children.  That's what camp is all about....growing, learning, living, choosing...and I am so very proud of his choice for this summer.
Romeo the Handyman J.R. Warren 1939-1946Romeo the handyman was to me an unsung hero of Camp Nominingue. Everyone knew who Romeo was, but I doubt that more than a handful of campers and counsellors ever got around to speaking to him from the opening day of a season to the closing day. More than anyone else, he held the physical plant together. He was always around the camp fixing something, or painting something, or digging a hole for a post or starting the water pump. Romeo took great pride in his association with the Camp. One day, he said to Mr. Van Senior, "This your camp. It my camp too!" And he meant it.  Like most campers, I knew Romeo only to see. But, one night during my first year, I was wandering around over by the craftshop when I saw the glow of a Coleman lantern coming from Romeo's workshop, which was attached to the craftshop. I peeked in the door to see what was going on. He was in there sharpening an axe on a large wet grindstone. It wasn't easy because he had to hold the axe in one hand while turning the crank on the grindstone with the other. He had another bunch of axes to do and thought he would never finish. They were axes for canoe trips.
He spoke practically no English and I spoke only minimal grade 8 French, which bore no resemblance to Quebec French. When he saw me, he waved me to come in. In a mixture of French, English and hand motions, he asked me if I would turn the crank for him. I nodded yes and started turning the crank. It was harder than I thought. After every axe, and sometimes in the middle, I would have to stop for a rest. Romeo would smile and occasionally say something I couldn't understand, but which I took to be the equivalent of "Tough work, eh?" After a while, I worked up enough courage to answer "Oui" and he would smile again. A couple of times during the rest break, he got out his tobacco pouch and rolled himself a cigarette. I'll never forget the smell. The smoke had the nicest aroma: sweet, rich and pungent, quite unlike machine-made cigarettes. While we were doing the work, he showed me the proper way to sharpen an axe was to grind the cheeks of the blade as well as the edge. This maintained the shape of the blade and made possible a sharper and better-lasting edge. By the time we were finished, we had done about a dozen axes. Not bad. I was late getting back to my tent and Alex, my counsellor, seemed a bit worried. I think he was afraid I might be lost in the woods.  Afterwards, Romeo always waved when he saw me and as we came to know each other better with each passing year, we got so we could carry on a passable conversation with each other.
The spirit of Romeo lived on in his son Lucien who succeeded him and in his grandson, Michel, who still keeps the camp in shape as head of maintenance, in addition to camp canoe builder. Tumpline Submissions - Soumissions pour cette lettre de nouvellesWe are looking for submissions for our newsletters from campers, staff and parents... from this summer, as well as from recent and less recent alumni. These submissions may be general memories of camp experiences or specific memories about a canoe trip, about a favourite program or a funny experience. Please send your submissions to grant@nominingue.com. You may submit your stories and memories in English, French or Spanish.  Nous sommes à la recherche de textes de campeurs, parents et de moniteurs de l'été 2011... et de souvenirs de nos anciens campeurs et moniteurs des années récentes et moins récentes. Vos textes peuvent décrire vos expériences en générale ou une excursion de canot, un programme favori ou une expérience drôle. SVP envoyez votre texte par courriel à grant@nominingue.com. Votre texte peut être écrit en français, en anglais ou en espagnol. | |
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