Camp
Today, I spent the day at the American Museum of Natural History (AMHN). I got there at about 1:00 p.m. There were tons of camp groups wandering through the museum. I knew this would happen. This would piss off some museum goers. But I loved it.
I wandered through the mammal’s wing. A bunch of kids stood in front of the wolves. They shrieked, “Wolf”. They all tapped on the glass and yelled, “You can’t get me”. They all smiled and went to the next exhibit.
Most of these kids were day campers. I did see a group wearing t-shirts that said their camp hailed from the “Old Dominion” state. Maybe they were on trip in into the City that Never Sleeps.
I too, went to camp. Camp Chappegat (aka “Chappy Hill), part of Ten Mile River Scouts Camps, located in Narrowsburg, N.Y. Mine was summer camp. I lived there for many weeks during my summer. It was the greatest experience of my life. Nothing can replace. I was 12 when arrived on the Hill. Sometimes I still feel like I am 12, and on the Hill. I made more lifelong friends than I can ever count. I still speak to dozens of them everyday.
So while these kids in the AMNH were on a camp field trip, I thought back to the trips we took. We went on many. Yeah, we went to Hall of Fame in Cooperstown to pay our respects to team that the building was built for, the 27-Time World Champions. We went to Callicoon to bowl. We went to Action Park. I fell off the Alpine Slide. It was painful. And, who can forget our, Super Week banquet in El Monaco’s. Man how I miss the red sauce.
We enjoyed these trips. But I must say and I surely hope my fellow “Scouuuuuuts” will agree that our best trips were the ones we did right in the vicinity of our blessed camp.
We had bog hikes. What could be more fun than playing in a bog? We went to Father Meyers Swimming Hole. It had a giant tree with a rope tied around it. We climbed up the tree and grabbed the rope. We swung on it, until we fell into the swimming hole. We swam around a little and climbed right back up our tree.
On Saturdays we had leanto inspections and hiked out to Bob Landers. Most of us had the two hamburgers, fries and soft drink special. Then we hiked to the Delaware and Ten Mile Rivers to swim. We hiked back up to our beloved hill. We had a great BBQ and then our famous campfires. We had skits that would have won more Tony’s than any Broadway drama or musical. We were that talented.
TMR is huge. We went on many hikes. My favorites were lead by an alumnus. He used to come up and stay on the Hill each summer for about three weeks. He used to teach me all sorts of things about the camp. He became my mentor. I still consider him my leader.
He would take us to D-1. His camp. On the way, he would point out historic sites, the dining hall, old cabins and other stuff. Sadly, None of these buildings remain. Well one was actually moved to our Camp Museum in headquarters. He took us to the “Asshole”.
The Asshole is two large rocks with openings that resemble, the aforementioned. I visited about three summers ago. It is still there.
We went on other great trips in camp. We went to the old saw mill, we hiked through closed down sites and dreamed of what went on there.
Sadly, camp Chappy closed after 1988. But everyday, especially during the summer, I still dream about the fun we had there. Oh Chappy, boy do I miss you.
I would love to carry a scouuuuuuts’ trunk up the hill.
CH CH CH AP AP AP EG EG EG AT, Chappegat, Chappegat, Yeah Chappegat.
