Archive for the 'Daily life at Pemi' Category

At the request of Director Danny Kerr, the senior staff at Pemi has written the following vision piece in which they enumerate the values and beliefs that shape Pemi.

1. A prime objective of being a camper at Pemi is having the opportunity to try and learn a variety of activities and occupations.

By being involved in and trying a variety of offerings, campers learn to appreciate the activities they are not familiar with and better understand and respect the campers and staff who lead or are involved in these activities.

Variety helps counteract the hyper-specialization that is so prevalent in schools and is so much a reality for children in America.

Involvement in a variety of occupations is a way to explore who you are and fosters the courage to grow and mature as a person.

It also encourages self-directed learning in a high reward/low risk environment and allows you to determine what may not be your passion, an important lesson as well.

2. Pemi is a joyous place.

Humor is an important aspect of being at Pemi. Humor lets us celebrate what we do and who we are, but it also helps us keep things in perspective.

Music is an important part of this joyous atmosphere, whether the music is all-camp singing, staff music, or the music campers enjoy in occupations. Music brings happiness and a sense of bonding to our community in part because it is something everyone can enjoy, be they professional musicians or campers who are simply singing in the mess hall.

We strive to achieve the highest professional standards in all our endeavors, but accept the reality that things don’t always go as planned. It is part of being human to make mistakes, and important to understand that they are inevitable and can be part of the happy reality of camp.

3. There are many ways to affirm and to serve others at Pemi.

Living intentionally is one way to affirm and serve and is a prime way to develop our sense of community. Living intentionally often means developing personally as you are learning to help others.

Role-modeling is everyone’s job at camp and is a primary way that we help the community to understand what it means to live intentionally.

Camp is a place to redesign or reinvent yourself each year, in large part because it is a safe place to grow and mature.

4. We always strive for and hold the community to the highest standards in everything we do.

We help campers look for and profit from the expertise that is around them on a daily basis during the summer.

The pursuit of the highest standards teaches as important a lesson as achieving the final product.

Showing respect for ourselves, others, and our setting, be it in camp or out of camp, is a vital standard to hold ourselves to.

5. Caring and inspiring relationships are at the core of the Pemi experience and are the driving force at camp.

Relationships made at camp are life-long, life-changing, and based on the common experience of being at Pemi.

These relationships are often cross-generational, are inclusive, and have within them the same standards of high expectations and responsibility that we try to achieve in all other facets of camp life.

Life at Pemi involves some jargon with which neophytes may not be familiar. Here, then, is a Pemi primer: an introduction to the lexicon of the place. (Definitions with a hyperlink have another blog item devoted to them.)

AC: Assistant counselor. Most cabins have a junior counselor who assists the head counselor. He has just finished his junior or senior year of high school, and is almost always a former Pemi camper.

Bean Soup: Every Monday night the camp convenes in the Lodge for a reading of Bean Soup, a series of articles, some humorous, about the week’s events at camp, read aloud by the editors.

Brave: The Pemi Brave is an award that is earned through a series of accomplishments by an ambitious camper who excels in a variety of fields across the Pemi curriculum: athletics, nature, the outdoors, public service, and more.

Bunk: A bunk at Pemi is an upper or lower bed in a cabin or tent. Some camps use the term “bunk” for cabins, but Pemi doesn’t.

Cabin: A cabin is the camper’s home for the summer. There are also three heavy-duty canvas tents on platforms at Pemi– Junior Tent, Hill Tent, and the Lake Tent.

Chief: The Chief is the highest achievement at Pemi, earned by only eight to ten boys in Pemi history. Like the Brave but much more difficult to earn, the Chief award is obtained only by the Pemi boy who has demonstrated remarkable achievement across all aspects of the Pemi program. It takes multiple years to complete the requirements for a Chief.

Distance swim: In order to be permitted to take a boat out solo when the waterfront is open, a boy must first complete his distance swim: a closely supervised swim, about .5 mile long, from the high dive at the Junior waterfront to the high dive at the Senior waterfront.

Division: There are four divisions at Pemi: Junior (ages 8 – 11), Lower Intermediate (ages 11 – 13), Upper Intermediate (ages 13 – 14), and Senior (ages 14 – 15).

Dope stop: After a hiking trip, Pemi campers stop for candy and a soda. It’s not the best part of a hiking trip, but it’s pretty darn good. The term “dope” derives from the early New England slang for soda pop.

Flat Rock: Diagonally across from camp on Lower Baker Pond, this rock sticks out into the water (not surprisingly, the rock is flat). Most nights at camp, in lieu of a meal in the Mess Hall, a cabin of boys and their counselors will canoe across the lake and cook their dinner over a fire.

Free swim: Every afternoon at 5 pm, campers have the option of enjoying Free Swim, which is held in both the Junior Camp and Senior Camp. Campers are closely supervised by counselors, and must swim in groups of either two or three. Because this activity is included with the price of tuition, it is considered doubly “free.” (We kid, we kid.)

Gilbert and Sullivan. Every summer, Pemi performs one of four Gilbert and Sullivan operettas: HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance, Mikado, or Iolanthe. These productions take an entire season to put together, and the results are frequently soaring.

Hanover Day: During Pemi Week, the senior campers get to spend a day in town. Shopping! Pizza for dinner! A movie! Ben and Jerry’s ice cream! Need we say more?

Inspection: Every day, after breakfast, the campers and counselors clean their cabins.

Junior Brave: This award, like the Brave, is earned by a camper in the Junior division who achieves success in the outdoors, nature, athletics, and more.

Lower Baker Pond: This is the lake that Pemi is on. No exaggeration: it’s one of the most beautiful places around.

Metal Boy: A fictional character of Pemi lore. He’s made entirely of metal. Watch out for rainy days!

Mess Hall: The dining hall: a beautiful sloped-roofed, high-ceiling building perched on a hill overlooking camp, where all meals are eaten, family-style.

Occupations: The daily, structured activities, based on lesson plans. There are three occupational hours before lunch, and for juniors, a fourth after rest hour.

Pagoda: The bathroom—for going “number two.” See the entry for “Squish” below for the Pagoda’s partner in crime.

Pemi Hill: Behind the Intermediate and Junior camp there is a wooded hill rising up about Pemi. A short, steep trail up the hillside takes Pemi campers to a wooden shelter that sits beside a fresh spring. Each cabin has the opportunity to spend a night up there at least once a season, and cook breakfast over the fire in the morning. It’s close enough to camp to still be able to hear that bugle calls, but far enough away to still feel like camping.

Pemi Week: The last week of Pemi, when the normal schedule of occupations ceases and daily events celebrate the season: Games Day, Woodsdude’s Day, the Triathlon, the Art Show, the performances of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, and more. It concludes with the Final Banquet, the Final Bean Soup, and the Final Campfire.

Pine Forest: Like Flat Rock, Pine Forest is a dining location across the lake which cabins can canoe to with their counselors and cook dinner over the fire.

Polar Bear: Every morning, campers leap out of bed with a glad cry (“huzzah!”), do quick exercises to wake up, and then jump in the lake. (Required for the first week that a boy is at camp for the summer, it’s optional afterward.) Just for fun, here’s a video of a young Pemi camper jumping into Lower Baker Pond.

Pink Polar Bear: Why jump in the relatively warm lake to wake up, when you can dunk in a very cold stream first thing in the morning? Many boys choose this option.

Rest Hour: After lunch, for a blissful hour, the campers relax on their beds and quietly read, write, or listen to music. There is a chance that counselors might even enjoy this break more than the campers.

Soap bath: Every Sunday, campers are obliged to be weighed, and then take a quick bath in the lake, using their biodegradable soaps. While hot showers are available all week long, some campers are occasionally reluctant to bathe themselves of their own initiative. Thus, the soap bath.

Squish: The bathroom. But only if you have to go “number one” or brush your teeth.

Tecumseh Day: Pemi’s historical, epic athletic rivalry with Camp Tecumseh. Think Athens vs. Sparta, but instead of bows and arrows and chariots, think baseball, soccer, swimming and tennis. And better sportsmanship. And no killing.

Two-day, three-day, four-day: Overnight trips. Junior cabins go on two-day long hiking trips; Lower Intermediates on three-days and Upper Intermediates on four-days. Seniors can go on a series of ambitious and optional trips, such as climbing Mt. Katahdin, paddling the Allagash waterway in Maine, or traversing the Presidential range in the White Mountains.

Bugle Calls:

Pemi is one of the few places where you don’t really need to carry a time piece: the bugle calls, played by a counselor, let you know what time it is. Here are some of the most common ones.

Reveille: Played at 7:30 sharp, this bugle calls pierces the quiet morning air with an upbeat and clear message: get out of bed! Former Pemi counselor Lance Latham sent along this great video he shot in the summer of 1987 of counselor Dean Ellerton playing reveille. Tom Reed, Sr., is seen on the hill, helping to encourage the boys out of bed.

First call: Played five minutes before a meal begins. Here’s a cheesy YouTube video, not affiliated with Pemi, that demonstrates the call.

Tattoo: Played at 8:45 pm, this bugle call means that it is time to start getting ready for bed. Here’s another YouTube video, also not affiliated with Pemi (and somewhat weird), that demonstrates the call.

Taps: The bugle call, played at 9 pm, when it is time to sleep. Here’s an excellent History Channel clip about the origins of the call.

This next blog item comes from Ian Axness, Pemi’s Head of Music. It’s his fourth year at Pemi, and he’s a 2009 graduate of Oberlin College (a place with deep Pemi connections) where he majored in Music History/Theory and worked on numerous music theater productions.

I can think of few spaces dearer to my musical soul than the main dining room of the Pemi Mess Hall. I think it has something to do with the decades of singing that have tempered the wood paneling; all those college songs and Doc Reed originals have had an effect on the place. The vibrations of an entire camp community singing in unison are truly remarkable. My knowledge of the connections between music and health are limited, but I can say without a doubt that spirits (and, certainly, vocal cords) are strengthened as a result of Mess Hall singing. In this way, music at Pemi exists as a living record of tradition, just like the plaques and trophies that hang on the walls. The unwritten call-outs, the pauses and ritardandi (moments of slowed rhythm) learned by rote and repetition, the Jones Junior High song— these are all a part of our shared Pemi musical foundation. And I firmly believe it is from this foundation of sonic exuberance that the rest of Pemi’s musical life springs.

I’m the Head of Music, so it would make sense for me to write about the dynamic, innovative musical curriculum at Pemi— to gush about the wide range of occupations that encourage personal investment in one’s instrument, and foster creative ensemble cooperation. I should perhaps speak about the concert events throughout the season, such as First- and Second-Half Vaudevilles, or the Pemi Pajama Pops, or Market Day (the Pajama Pops are a mid-season concert, and Market Day is a community event in nearby Wentworth where Pemi campers and staff perform each year). I could even talk personally about the joys and challenges of learning new repertoire myself, to be performed at Sunday Meetings or in the “Pemigewassett Opera House” (the Lodge). These are all essential parts of the Pemi music program, but for me music at Pemi is most strongly linked to the Mess Hall— from the daily singing of grace, to the percussive “P-E-M-I-sis-boom-bah” cheer, to Journey’s song “Don’t Stop Believing,” which is sometimes spontaneously sung at camp meals.

The music created at Pemi exudes a positive energy that can become wonderfully contagious. Boys create acts together for Saturday campfire or Vaudeville simply because it is fun and personally rewarding to do so. Camp is a place to try new things, and music is no exception. In fact, my first year as pianist in 2007 for the show “H.M.S. Pinafore” (it will return this summer!) was the first time I had ever played an entire Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. The positive creative environment at Pemi makes it possible for new musical experiences to instantly become great experiences for campers and staff alike.

The best part of music at Pemi, though, is that one cannot avoid it. Music is everywhere— flooding out of band practice in the Junior Camp, wafting through the Senior Lodge, strumming out of a guitar on the Intermediate Hill; even the regularly scheduled bugle calls are musical.

But if you care for a repast,

You’d better learn our songs, and fast.

(Except at breakfast.)

Ian encourages all campers to bring their musical instruments with them. This summer, he notes, there will be even more opportunities for campers to create ensemble music without such pesky obstacles as practicing.  Making it up as you go is okay!  (He also has this secret note to parents: Playing IS practicing!)

Of all the traditions at Pemi, the one with the strangest name is called the “dope stop.” For those unfamiliar with this term, let me first assure the curious reader that there is absolutely nothing drug-related about this tradition: “dope” is old New England slang for soda. (Al Fauver hypothesizes that the word “dope” sounds similar to “Coke,” and may be where the term originated.)

I’ve written here before about Pemi’s wonderful trip program, in which hiking trips leave nearly daily from Pemi to explore the White Mountains. Campers return from these trips usually tired and exhilarated at the same time—but that sense of exhilaration can come both from having completed a great foray into the woods, and from the special treat that comes at the end: the dope stop, when boys have the chance to run into a store and buy candy and a soda. When you’ve gone all summer at Pemi with none of that sugary stuff, it’s a big deal indeed.

I called up Al Fauver recently to ask him about his earliest memories of dope stops. “I was a kid at camp in the twenties and it was well established by that time,” he said.

But while it’s a tradition that dates back to the beginnings of camp, the first version of the dope stop involved home-cooked food, as part of a trip to Mt. Cube.

“We used to walk all the way from camp, on up to the foot of the trail,” Al said. “On the way up that long hill was the Pease Farm, and we would stop there and order blueberry pie to eat on the way down. They’d have milk, and half a pie per person.”

“She would bake them as we were climbing the mountain and they would be all ready for us, all warm, and the milk, and the sweet blueberry pie, it was great,” he said. The blueberries were, of course, local. “They picked them right in the back fields.”

Today, the dope stop is slightly less bucolic. Here’s how it works: The van or bus stops at a gas station or shop somewhere between the mountains and camp. The campers, in their sweat-stained t-shirts and shorts, hiking boots most likely still on, emerge from the vehicle, bedazzled by the prospect of getting to go into a store and buy something. One counselor supervises the van, while the other runs the operation inside the store. In pairs or in threes the campers wander the aisles. Quick! What to get? So many choices! Milky Way or Skittles? Coke or Gatorade? These are life’s tough decisions.

And decide they must, as time is limited. (As is the money they can spend, which is limited to roughly $2 per camper.) Famously, a legendary trip counselor named Reilly McCue gave campers something like 30 seconds each to make their decisions; that has since been relaxed somewhat. How would you spend your $2? For each camper, that’s a decision they ruminate on throughout the hike, and then, in a bewildering moment among store racks and coolers, must choose. It’s a long way from the simplicity and elegance of blueberry pie at the Pease Farm.

Most campers, of course, opt for the classic combination of a candy bar and a soda. But there have been notable exceptions, when campers chose to be unorthodox. Jackson Reed once used a quarter to buy air—yes, air—from the compressor outside the store intended for topping off tires. It was a hot summer day, and he used the pressurized air to cool himself down. Bill Pruden once used his money to buy an apple—and a copy of The New York Times. And last summer a Junior camper, Kevin Lewis, bought a cucumber!

The campers have to finish their goodies before arrival back at camp, and soda size is limited. The campers usually hurry to finish their loot, as it can’t be taken back to the cabins. The trash is thrown away; the cans and bottles are recycled. Gone are the days when each camper got his own half of a freshly-baked blueberry pie, but with that tradition pretty far gone from camp’s institutional memory, today’s campers seem perfectly happy with the modern dope stop ritual.

–Rob Verger

Just after breakfast each day at Pemi, there’s a magical moment when something incredible happens: The campers and counselors scurry back to their cabins, and clean!

Inspection—it’s a beautiful, essential part of the Pemi routine. Clothes are folded and squared neatly on the open wooden shelves. The floor is swept, and swept again, and the front steps, too. The towels and bathing suits hanging out on the breezy porches are positioned with care. Endless pairs of shoes are lined up under the beds, all those cleats and sneakers and Chacos and flip-flops in tidy rows. Campers run to the bathrooms to brush their teeth; one camper makes a dash to empty the cabin’s trash and recycling bins; the counselor hovers parentally about, encouraging the campers to use their time well. Quick! Dirty laundry in the laundry bags! Don’t forget to make your beds!

It’s one of the rare times in a Pemi day when recorded music can be played out loud, and anyone walking past a row of Pemi cabins during inspection will hear a medley of different songs emanating from each.

Inspection, while perhaps not in fact the most exciting event, serves an important purpose: it is Pemi’s way of putting itself together for the day, squaring everything away, making everything clean and ready to go. It gives each cabin composure, but I think it composes the minds of everyone at camp, too.

And then, at 9:20, the bugle blows, signaling that it’s time to put the brooms down. Each counselor walks towards the cabin he’s been assigned to inspect, bellowing something like, “By your bunks, Junior Six!” He then proceeds to evaluate the cabin on a numeric scale, judging everything from the neatness of the shelves to the deportment of the campers. (“Deportment” really is the word listed on the inspection checklist on a clipboard; I think Pemi is the first place I ever heard it used.)

If the inspection process sounds militaristic at all, it’s not. It’s thorough, but relaxed. Campers might complain about it, but I like to think that some of them secretly like tidying up. What I’m certain that they like more is the potential reward: the cabin with the highest average score at the end of the week gets a bag of Skittles, which when you’ve gone a summer with basically no candy, is a great treat indeed. (Some may remember the old reward was Hershey Kisses—Pemi has moved away from those, as all those little aluminum wrappers were too wasteful.)

When inspection’s over, the campers hustle to the first hour of occupations. The cabins are now clean for the day, but twenty-four hours later, they’re definitely ready to be cleaned again.

–Rob Verger

On with the Soup!

One of Pemi’s weekly highlights occurs each Monday evening, which is when the most delicious meal is served: Bean Soup. Campers arrive with carved wooden spoons in hand, ready to taste the delicious soup.

If you’ve been to Pemi, you know that Bean Soup is not really food in a traditional sense, although it certainly does provide nourishment. (And campers don’t really arrive with carved wooden spoons, although making the spoons used to be a camp tradition.) For those unfamiliar: Bean Soup is, loosely speaking, the camp’s newspaper, and is read aloud in the Lodge to the entire camp by editors, who sit perched on chairs atop a wooden table, above and in front of the gathered crowd. The editors write a lot of the articles, but also read ones submitted by campers, counselors, and staff. For the record, the whole experience is supposed to be humorous, and frequently, it is. (I’ve heard that the name Bean Soup came about because, in camp’s early years, there was a great deal of real bean soup served in the Mess Hall.)

Bean Soup, like any newspaper, is topical, timely, and provocative. It thrives off of whatever funny thing has happened at camp that week, and proudly shines a spotlight on the person responsible for the funniness. Awards are given each week for the director, camper, staff member and counselor who deserves to be recognized for, usually, something silly that he or she has done. And, in the final serving of Bean Soup, these awards are given out in a serious way to those who have had the greatest contributions over the entire summer.

Each holiday season, a bound edition is mailed out to the camp family. In this sense, Bean Soup serves (no pun intended) as the camp’s history book. It chronicles the funny things at camp that have happened, but also tells of trips, sporting events, and the everyday minutia of a season (the jokes, the weather, the food) that wouldn’t be preserved otherwise. It captures, and helps define, each season’s zeitgeist.

To me, Bean Soup has always been one of my favorite things about Pemi. It’s funny, and on its best days, maintains a balance between the kind of humor that might make a Junior camper laugh and the stuff that might make the back of the room, where the counselors and staff sit, laugh too. Bean Soup is light-hearted, sure, but it’s also a place where important things happen: people are recognized for the good they have done. And all of the best things about Pemi—the great humor, the sense of community, the unselfish spirit—are written down and captured, to be read again, when the camp season has long since ended.

–Rob Verger

Upper 2 on the summit of South Twin. July, 2008.

A Pemi day has a great, busy rhythm to it. But one of the most rewarding parts of the camp season comes when that routine is replaced by a trip into the mountains, whether it be a quick scramble up to the bald, brisk summit of Pemi’s neighbor, Mt. Cube, or a four-day trip through the Franconia Range.

Pemi has a long tradition of taking trips into the woods—the Appalachian Trail even cuts through a corner of camp property—and it’s always been one of my favorite parts of the camp experience. I can still clearly picture sitting on the warm rocks of a White Mountain summit on a Pemi trip, taking a sip from a water bottle and refueling with cheese and crackers. As both a camper and later, a trip counselor, I hiked up countless White Mountain trails.

Mountains in the Whites offer striking environmental contrasts. At the lower altitudes, just a few minutes away from the trailhead, the forests are quiet and stream-filled, and clusters of Goose Foot Maples line the trail. From there the trail usually steepens, and the group might become quieter as the climbing begins up a packed-dirt and rocky trail. As you gain altitude, the trees generally transition from deciduous to coniferous, and just below the tree line, the trees are usually compact, sturdy little evergreens. Then there are the summits and ridgelines of the Whites: these are breezy places where on a sunny day in the summer everything is warm and wide open and expansive: if the visibility it good, you can see for miles, with rolling mountain ranges receding into the distance. And when it’s windy or stormy on these ridges, you feel grateful you packed a bomb-proof jacket.

Things change on trips. Far from the comforts of camp, Pemi boys are challenged on the trails, and are spurred out of their daily routines into a new world. Boys on trips find themselves tested, in a good way. You carry your own water, and learn to take care of the needs of your body. If it’s raining, you use your rain jacket, and cover your pack with a pack fly, or line it with trash bags, or both. You learn the importance of keeping your sleeping back dry. At night, the trip counselor and the assistant counselor cook food over a WhisperLite stove, which produces a comforting little roar and an efficient blue flame. Dinner might be macaroni and cheese with tuna, which I think is delicious (but hunger is the best sauce). At night, you sleep in a tent, just a sleeping bag and pad and tent floor between you and the earth. Breakfast might be instant oatmeal, eaten quickly before hitting the trail.

With all these changes in routine and environment, hiking trips can be some of the most memorable experiences a boy will have during a season at camp: while days at Pemi blur together happily, trips have a way of drawing out the day and becoming bigger, more luminous experiences. Conversations on the trail and jokes over supper become all the more memorable, because there are no other distractions. Even your thoughts might seem stronger, more focused, in the woods and on the trail.

I have plenty of vivid images in my head from Pemi trips: dipping a Nalgene bottle into a cold stream and then dropping an iodine tablet in it to purify the water; eating dinner out of a plastic cup and then later eating oatmeal out of the same cup the next morning. Or, as a counselor, waiting until all the campers are in their tents at bedtime, and then making the rounds once more, double-checking that the tents are pitched properly and will stay dry in a storm, tightening the stays and stakes, saying goodnight to each group of kids.

Then there’s perhaps the sweetest part of the trip: emerging out of the woods and then hopping in the van or bus to go back to Pemi, and stopping on the way back for rare treat: candy and a soda. Rolling back over that bridge, coming back into Pemi, even just from a day trip, might be the best feeling of all: it’s a feeling of coming home after an adventure.

My experiences on trips with Pemi were incredibly formative in producing who I am today. What memories do you have? If you went on trips as a camper at Pemi, or led them as a counselor, what was the experience like?

-Rob Verger

These days, when I travel, I take one of two rolling suitcases I have. Both are convenient, and either will easily glide between the turnstiles in the subway in Boston or New York. But when I took my first trip to Pemi when I was a kid— for half of a season in 1988—I took with me what might seem like a much less practical item by today’s standards: a big trunk.

Recently, I dug it out of storage in the basement just to take a look at it. It’s three feet long and nearly two feet wide, and heavy even when pretty much empty. It’s dark green on the outside with an even darker trim, and has metal rivet-like things holding it together. Curved and delicately shaped pieces of metal are wrapped protectively around the corners and the edges, and there are heavy clasps on the front. The associations it has for me are all tied to Pemi, for I’m pretty sure I took this big clunker with me each season, packed full of stuff.

This was actually my father’s trunk before it was mine—and he took it to summer camp, too. On the inside there’s a white label with green writing on it that has my father’s name on it and then the words “Camp Zakelo, Harrison, Maine.” My name is literally tacked on over this label, on masking tape, and in my dad’s handwriting, it says “Camp Pemigewassett” now, on the bottom of the old Camp Zakelo label. My family isn’t big on hand-me-downs or heirlooms, but I still love the fact that both my dad and I used this trunk for camp.

Packing a trunk full of stuff for a summer on Lower Baker Pond was a ritual for me, and I’m sure that it was, and is, for countless other Pemi campers. But however you get your stuff to camp (and these days, for storage reasons, Pemi prefers you use duffel bags), there’s something about that summertime ritual of packing that, for me, really captures and symbolizes something essential and wonderful about spending a summer away from home, at Pemi.

Ultimately, you might pack something you don’t need, or leave behind something that you do: and at Pemi, you learn to live and thrive with what you have. For most boys, they’re living away from home for the first time, and it’s a journey that, in the act of packing and leaving and adjusting to life in a new place, is fantastic preparation for all the transitions that happen later in life, like going to college.

–Rob Verger

Photo by Rob Verger

One of my favorite parts of being a camper at Pemi was the mornings spent in occupations, hustling from one activity to the next. “Occupations” is the word Pemi uses to describe the organized activities that occur every Moday through Friday and some Saturdays; each activity is 55 minutes long. Campers sign up for new occupations each week, giving them the consistency of five or more days in a row of doing the same activity, but also a change each week, too. This allows the instructors to develop lesson plans that build day-to-day; occupations are where the most structured teaching happens at Pemi each day.

As a camper, I loved any occupation on the water: waterskiing or canoeing, for example. Lower Baker Pond is more than big enough to host lots of activity on it simultaneously and feel far from crowded. I’ve also always loved the chance to take a canoe or kayak under the bridge into camp and explore the quiet lily pad and reed-filled lower lake, or “swamp,” as it’s sometimes called, with a group of campers and staff. (All campers at Pemi are always very closely supervised by staff on the water, both on the lake and lower lake.)

But most of all, when I was a camper, I loved taking sailing occupations. I loved time on the water in a small Sunfish sailboat, and later, in a larger boat called a Puffin. (Now, the Puffins have been upgraded to more modern multi-person sailboats called Capris.) In my years on staff at Pemi, I taught sailing more than any other activity, and I liked the circularity of it: as a camper, I learned how to sail, and as a counselor, I taught it.

Pemi offers all the occupations you might expect: baseball, soccer, tennis, basketball, wood shop, music, and nature occupations galore. If you were to drive into camp on a busy morning, you’d see the fields and the lakes alive with activity, and maybe pass a fifteen-passenger van driven by Larry Davis for a quick outing to the nearby butterfly field. But there are also occupations you might be surprised to hear Pemi offers—night photography, for example, and other arts occupations, like rock painting.

What were your favorite occupations to take or teach when you were at Pemi, and did any of them influence the direction your life took? I know that I can’t pass a sailboat now without thinking happily of Pemi.

–Rob Verger

Pemi sailing program, circa 1930s.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the first item of this blog. It was great to read about the rich and profound memories many of you shared.

One theme was education. Dan Murphy wrote, “Pemi inspired me to become an educator. Many of my favorite counselors were teachers during the school year and their influence led me later to a career in education.” And Phil Landry, a full-time fly-fishing guide and instructor, followed that thought by writing, “While on Pemi’s staff I learned too much to summarize here, but I learned how to teach. Not only that, but I learned how to teach ‘the things that I love.’”

Other themes were love of sports, music, and the outdoors. Jim Bingham wrote about “Hiking the Presidentials in 1966, on a 4-day trip, using a Pemi-supplied Army surplus wood-and-canvas pack ‘frame’ that I lashed my canvas duffel bag to…” (We don’t use those frames anymore, but a few do still kick around the trip room.) And Jan Zehner, who had a career in the foreign service, wrote that, “Four years as a Pemi counselor (late ’50s) cemented a love of water, mountains and nature in general.” Oliver Pierson, who now lives in Namibia, Africa, captured the fullness of life at Pemi this way:

“I was lucky enough to beat Tecumseh, hike the Mahoosucs, win a tri-state soccer tournament, take the lead (female) role in Pirates of Penzance, win the Pemi Brave, and enjoy countless other awesome memories while a camper at Pemi.”

Musician Stephen Funk Pearson credits Pemi as being where he learned the guitar: “I first picked up a guitar and took lessons at Pemi and went on to perform all over the world and my newest cd “Artists Around the World” is all my original compositions for guitar with other instruments which are performed by world-renowned musicians.”

Personally, the best thing about being at Pemi for me was the close friendships the place offers, and the simplicity of being so close to the natural world for a summer—the beauty of an afternoon spent sailing on the lake, or the feeling of space and air and freshness when you break above tree line on a hike in the White Mountains. Jaime Garcia spoke to that when he wrote about how Pemi influenced the way he saw the world during a career in the Navy:

“Throughout my trips around the world … I have appreciated the natural beauty of the visited ports and had the opportunity to go on several nature trips during my time-off (hiking, whale watching, etc). Even while the ship cruised through the Pacific Ocean, I appreciated taking a few minutes to watch the stars – they always reminded me of standing the ‘night patrol’ duty” on “clear but cold summer nights” at Pemi.

Counselors love to halfheartedly complain about having night patrol duty, but most find that it’s usually a peaceful way to spend an evening, outside and under the stars.

Finally, Erik Muller, who I believe was my assistant counselor when I was a camper in U-1, captured the Pemi spirit in broad strokes, this way:  “… I discovered so many things to appreciate. The importance of sportsmanship, trying new things, giving, the beauty of the outdoors, and just how to live with others began at Pemi for me.”

Thanks, everyone, who commented. We encourage you to share your thoughts, and suggestions for the blog, in the comment field below on this item and the previous one. It’s great to connect with so many people here. Keep your eyes out for more items to come!

–Rob Verger

The Four Docs, the founders of Camp Pemi.

Welcome to Pemi’s new blog! Check this space often for news from camp, information on Pemi’s history and traditions, discussion on camp-related topics, and the occasional profile of a Pemi alum, camper, or staff member.

We plan on offering a wealth of information– varied, useful and possibly even entertaining– in this space. We hope that it grows into a forum where everyone in the Pemi family can participate, be they parents, campers or staff. We also hope to include as many voices as possible, both in the blog items to come and in the comments field below. We’ll explore topics that pertain to campers, like Pemi’s diverse programs or the possibility of homesickness, and to parents, like the challenges of “letting go,” or how colleges might view the camp experience.

Since 1908, Pemi has been on a remarkable journey. As those who know Pemi well can attest, Pemi’s excellence comes not just from the singularity and warmth of its community, but also from the balance it strikes between tradition and change. For example, most Pemi boys still start each summer day with a jump in Lower Baker Pond, but happily we no longer have to cut ice from the lake each winter to use as a refrigerant during the summer, as we did in the early twentieth century. In short, Pemi has been around a long time, and has evolved a great deal since its birth. While boys at camp still have to write a letter (on paper!) home each week, here we’re happy to embrace the digital age.

To celebrate the launch of the new web site and this blog, we turn to our Pemi alums, and ask: Did one or more of Pemi’s program areas– sports, nature, music and the arts, trips, the waterfront and boating– influence your passions or professions? And what ideas might you have for how this space can be used?

Please submit a comment below to join the discussion. (If you don’t see the comment field below, click on the “Full Post and Comments” link above, just underneath where it says “Welcome.”)

–Rob Verger

Rob Verger, a freelance writer, is a former Pemi camper and staff member. His work has appeared in the Boston Globe, the Travel Channel’s website WorldHum.com, the Valley News, and other publications.