When you get a phone call in January asking you to return to a place that is held most dear in your heart after almost 22 years, a lot of things go through your mind. “What will it be like there?” “How much has it changed?” But the most pressing question for me was clear from the moment I agreed to return and coach baseball for Robin Hood: “What if upon my return, somehow, I discover that the memories I hold so dear are more wishful remembrance than reality?”
For almost 7 months prior to camp opening for season 96, up to and including the 11 ½ hour drive from Cleveland to Freedom, I found myself filled with so many emotions–excitement, anxiety, uncertainty and most of all, hope. Amazingly, the moment I made the left hand turn onto 65 Robin Hood Lane, every bit of nervousness and stress vanished. Driving past Friedman Field then the main soccer pitch made the greatest years of my life rush back to me in an instant. By the time I reached the office, I was a child again in his most sacred of places on this Earth!
Within hours I was walking around meeting new people. I found myself staring directly into faces that I knew. Not because we had ever met before, but because those were the exact same faces I went to camp with, just one generation further down the line.
The Boys Camp, still in the bunks I had slept in, still have our names on the cabin walls. Girls Camp, of which I was a camper during its creation, is now thriving in every way possible. Those original ladies of 1987 “who dared” must be so proud!
My first evening I met several campers who were very homesick, just as I was as an Archer in 1986. I assured each one that when I check back with them in a few days, it is going to take the army to get them to leave this place.
Once settled in, it was time to get to work! With 6 activity periods a day, we got groups attending baseball and softball. All ages and skill levels were coming. WIthin days I observed campers who had never held a bat hitting line drives to the outfield and boys and girls who didn’t know how to put on a glove making phenomenal catches! I saw smiles, teamwork, increased self confidence, competitive spirit and above all else, young men and women making what I assure will be lifelong friends.
When Peter asked me a few days in what I thought regarding camp, I could only think of one way to describe it: “somehow Robin Hood is completely different, yet it is exactly the same.” The campers I attended with are gone. Only a small handful of staff from my days remain. Some new structures have been erected while some familiar ones have been repurposed. But in the end, none of that matters because somehow, someway, against all odds, the Magic In The Trees is just as strong as it ever was when I was one of Robin Hood’s “Merry Men.”
P.S. By the way, those homesick campers I mentioned earlier? It would take a great plastic surgeon and a lot of money to remove the smiles from their faces 10 days in! As suspected! The Magic In The Trees!
David “Perly” Perlmuter
