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!)

But different songs have been popular at different times in Pemi’s history.

For example, Tom Reed, Sr., mentioned “And When the Battle’s Over” as being a song that is never sung anymore, but used to be sung “to honor any distinguished visitor.” The “Junior Camp Song,” Tom says, “has always been sung,” while the song about the Pemi Kid is rarely sung these days. “Bloomer Girl” is sung less frequently, too. (And bloomers have gone out of fashion.)

Then there are other classics, like the “Clam Shell Song” or “We’re From Camp Pemigewassett” or the “Marching Song.” That last one comes in two versions—with embellishments like the words “sweet gasoline” when the song is sung during the regular season, and a more serious, non-embellished version when the song is sung at a banquet.

When I asked Tom if he had a favorite song, he chuckled. “I don’t think I have one, but I think the “Boating Song” and the “Campfire Song” are the most beautiful songs we have, and the kids love both of them, and then there are the rabble-rousers, like the “Junior Camp” song, and so on. I like them all, but like them not just for the music, but for the Pemi connections they have.”

What songs were popular when you were at camp, and which was your favorite?

–Rob Verger

To learn more about the logo’s history, I called up both Tom Reed, Sr., and Al Fauver to ask them what they remembered about its creation. Both of them spontaneously began to sing bits and pieces of a song, written by Dudley Reed (Tom Reed Sr.’s father), about the creation of the image of the Pemi Kid:

List to the tale of the Pemi kid

Born in 1919

Created by Williams of Oberlin

Out of the back of his bean

He carries a message of “pep and speed”

Most unlucky gossoon

Always going but never arrives

He was born in the dark of the moon

Don’t use “gossoon” in your everyday speech? It means, according the Oxford English Dictionary, “a youth, a boy; a servant-boy, lackey.” It’s also a convenient rhyme with “moon.”

The original image of the Pemi Kid—hanging in the camp library—was created by a counselor named Jack Williams in 1919, sprung seemingly from “the back of his bean,” (his head) where most good things usually originate.

I asked Tom Reed, Sr., what the Pemi Kid symbolized to him. “It is the kind of innocent active energetic skinny Pemi kid, striding along with his cap in his hand,” he said.

“It was the indomitable Pemi kid,” Tom added, with a chuckle.

“Action,” is what Al Fauver said the Pemi Boy symbolizes to him. “Always doing something.”

“What it really means to me, anyway, is here’s a kid that goes away, and there’s so much for him to do,” Al said.

“I think that the greatest thing” about the Pemi Kid, Al added, “is that song.”

And what about that cryptic line, he was born in the dark of the moon?

To be born in the dark of the moon, Tom Reed Sr. explains, means “that you would have misfortune.” Why did Dudley Reed include that line? Perhaps because the poor “unlucky gossoon” is “always going but never arrives.” Happy running, Pemi Kid. Whatever the alignment of your stars, you’ve managed to be a central part of Pemi mythology for nine decades.

Music and lyrics to the song, below.

–Rob Verger

Music and lyrics © Camp Pemigewassett