A couple of years ago, a high school pal of mine started a yahoo group for our high school graduating class, as a way to keep in touch, share memories, and stay informed of upcoming reunions. This week one of my former classmates sent an email that opened up the floodgates of my memory - the subject line, "Adahi" (pronounced ah-dah'-hee) sent my mind zipping back through time to sixth grade.
Wow...Camp Adahi. It was a landmark field trip for every 6th grade class that went through Stony Creek Middle School. It was the Holy Grail of field trips - 3 days and 2 nights away from home, during the school week, for the entire 6th grade. It was held near the end of year, sometime in May, but the teachers started talking it up at the beginning of the year. In fact, the 5th grade teachers would mention it now and again.
The funny thing is - it wasn't that far from home. Out of curiosity I Googled it (Camp Adahi is part of the PA Camp Fire program) and found out to my utter surprise the camp was only 10-20 miles from home. It's in Mohnton, PA, 10 miles outside of Reading, of which my hometown was a suburb. I drive farther to church every Sunday than this camp was from my house. I guess anything seems farther when you're riding there on a school bus.
Anyway....the camp was set up in the usual way such camps are. There was a main building/cafeteria/gathering room not far from the main parking lot where we ate all our meals and had our whole group sessions. Over a footbridge and up the hill into the woods were the campsites. There were cabins, platform tents, and covered wagons. If I remember correctly, the girls got the cabins and wagons, the boys got tents (and maybe cabins). I was *so* jealous of my best friends who got the wagons - until the first night, when the temperature dipped down to 40 and it rained!
It was my first time camping, and my first time away from home (that wasn't a sleepover at a friend's house). My mom had volunteered as a chaperone for part of the trip, and even though I was kind of embarrassed I was really glad she was there that first night.
After I got settled in though, I discovered I really liked camping - my folks were always *so* not camping-type people (My dad always said he'd done his time without all the modern conveniences and was perfectly happy to stay put in his air-conditioned house and sleep in a comfortable bed.) So this was my first opportunity to experience it. Obviously it struck a chord in me, as 2 of my favorite summer jobs I worked at summer camp. And I married a man who loves camping and so now we go camping as a family.
Must be all that Celtic blood (1/2 Welsh and a small part Scottish) I inherited in my DNA. I've always felt very much at home and at peace in a forest....
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