Trolley, Issue # 7: "Summer Camp"
Welcome to Trolley, the online journal of the NYS Writers Institute.
For the seventh issue of the NYS Writers Institute’s Trolley journal, we collaborated with Writers Read, a New York City-based non-profit literary forum that produces curated events and podcasts celebrating the spoken word.
Writers submitted essays -- with a 650-word limit -- on the theme of "summer camp." 16 writers were selected to read their moving, hilarious, and poignant essays in front of a sold-out, live audience on Sunday, June 30, 2024, at The Linda - WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio in Albany.
It was the first time Writers Read presented a program in the Capital Region.
We present 15 of those essays with video from the June 30 event (marked with a *) along with 15 additional summer camp stories.
A web magazine of essay, opinion, literature, culture, and politics, published by the New York State Writers Institute based at the University at Albany.
- Editor: Paul Grondahl
- Executive Editor: William Kennedy
- Managing Editor: Michael Huber
Past issues
“We were a cabin of oddballs, both at camp and in the eleven months a year we wished we were at camp...”
- Elizabeth Bayou-Grace
“In the summer before eleventh grade, I make the fateful decision to get a job as a camper-waiter in Connecticut…”
- Mark Berger
“When we were young, our summer camp was our back yard…”
- Barbara Chepaitis *
“Somewhere in the southern Wisconsin woods, there’s a swamp bordering a small lake. That’s where I spent most of the last night of my only summer camp experience, alone, sitting on a rock…”
- Anthony Cresswell *
“By the third morning, my crush on the boy with the squinty blue eyes was in full bloom…”
- Pernille AEgidius Dake
“A boring week of swimming, softball, and crafts began to evoke an appetite for the risqué…”
- Joe Di Bari *
Through It All We Made it Here
“But camp for me is about something else, memories that would not come from a camp for able kids: the sound of a wheelchair rolling across pavement…”
- Gabriel Donovan
“We made many loop loom potholders that graced pots of bubbling spaghetti sauce and trays of sausage and peppers…”
- Patricia Eretto
"The guidebook called it 'unnamed summit' – it should be 'Just Kill Me Now' Mountain."
- Peter Finn *
Living Camp Through Brochures
“I mounted the saddle, and off we went, at a walk, at first, then a trot.”
- Wanda Fischer *
“My parents were able to escape their shattered dreams during our summers on Tully Lake…”
- Carol Felice Fitzgibbons *
“I could not see the other canoes through the fog. I tried not to sound panicked. ‘Stay calm,’ I yelled…"
- Paul Grondahl *
“Lighthouse Camp for the Blind in Waretown, New Jersey, pumped my adrenaline from the moment I arrived…”
- Robert Gumson *
"...we did not get one of those coveted jobs. We were assigned to a day camp called a Special Place for children with disabilities."
- Linda Kindlon-Cary
"Elizabeth chased away my homesickness and made me forget about the heat and my multiple insect bites."
- Susan Lapann-Toohey *
"The campsite was aglow from Coleman lanterns as we all gathered in formation, more than a little confused and bleary-eyed. "
- Stephen Madarasz *
"He kept a knife in bed with him with which he would carve various sharp weapons from tree bark. This he did in the middle of the night — he never seemed to sleep."
- Gary Maggio
"When they cast me as Lysander in 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream,' I cried."
- Kyle A. Massa
"Around Easter, three years ago, a Facebook message crossed time and space straight from my 1950’s childhood..."
- Susan Megna
The Closest I Came to a Summer Camp Summer
"I was drawn in by an Irish drifter, who was chasing enlightenment through veganism...."
- Annika Nerf
"My feet didn’t make a sound walking down cabin row to knock on the window frame where he slept. "
- Christy O'Callaghan
"It was right then that the stress of the long year, long drive, and the hot sun had evaporated..."
- Peter Randazzo
"Taking calming breaths, I approached the ladder with my rounded jousting sword in hand. I stumbled over the rope and narrowly caught my fall."
- Margaret Reynolds *
"I was shuffled off to Camp Blueberry Bush to give me a break from the injurious behavior of my older brother Ricky..."
- Emily Rubin *
"...she’d asked if my kids had checked in for camp yet and the camp staff told her no. This made no sense."
- Sam Shipherd
"...we always went the third week of August, just as visitors were streaming into our city -- Saratoga Springs -- for the Travers Stakes."
- Katherine Morna Towne
"The hook hovered over me like a severed hula-hoop at the end of a pole. I refused to reach for it, despite my waterlogged lungs and wobbly arms."
- Kim van Alkemade *
"Devon’s not very verbal; he says little except to express basic needs. I teach him hand games, and he delights in them..."
- Casey Vincelette *
"My Summer Camp was my own earned money to buy comic books, ice cream sodas, a Bic pen, a composition notebook..."
- Dan Wilcox
"Mom decided I should go. It was a camp for special kids: kids with asthma. Which I think she thought was like having polio."
-Louis Wittig *