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Trolley, Issue # 7: "Summer Camp"

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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.

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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

Flock of Peculiar Birds

 “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

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All's Fair

 “In the summer before eleventh grade, I make the fateful decision to get a job as a camper-waiter in Connecticut…” 

 - Mark Berger

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Camp Can You Dig it

 “When we were young, our summer camp was our back yard…” 

 - Barbara Chepaitis *

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Sentry at the Swamp

“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 *

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Skirting Fun at Summer Camp

 “By the third morning, my crush on the boy with the squinty blue eyes was in full bloom…” 

 - Pernille AEgidius Dake

The Unenlightened Voyeur

“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

Free For All

 “We made many loop loom potholders that graced pots of bubbling spaghetti sauce and trays of sausage and peppers…”  

 - Patricia Eretto

Unnamed Summit

 "The guidebook called it 'unnamed summit' – it should be 'Just Kill Me Now' Mountain."

 - Peter Finn *

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​Living Camp Through Brochures

 “I mounted the saddle, and off we went, at a walk, at first, then a trot.”

 - Wanda Fischer *

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Summers on Tully Lake

“My parents were able to escape their shattered dreams during our summers on Tully Lake…” 

 - Carol Felice Fitzgibbons *

A Magical Canoe Adventure

 “I could not see the other canoes through the fog. I tried not to sound panicked. ‘Stay calm,’ I yelled…"

 - Paul Grondahl *

Lighthouse Camp

 “Lighthouse Camp for the Blind in Waretown, New Jersey, pumped my adrenaline from the moment I arrived…”

 - Robert Gumson *

A Special Place

"...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

Ah, Summer Camp 1969

"Elizabeth chased away my homesickness and made me forget about the heat and my multiple insect bites." 

 - Susan Lapann-Toohey *

Night March at Camp Wauwepex

"The campsite was aglow from Coleman lanterns as we all gathered in formation, more than a little confused and bleary-eyed. " 

 - Stephen Madarasz *

Sprout Lake Camp

"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

I Hate You, Lysander

"When they cast me as Lysander in 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream,' I cried."

- Kyle A. Massa

Six Decades Later

"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

Silent Footsteps

 "My feet didn’t make a sound walking down cabin row to knock on the window frame where he slept. "

 - Christy ​O'Callaghan

Waddling Around the Jaws

 "It was right then that the stress of the long year, long drive, and the hot sun had evaporated..."

- Peter Randazzo

Black Tag at Cass Pond

"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 *

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Latrine Days

"I was shuffled off to Camp Blueberry Bush to give me a break from the injurious behavior of my older brother Ricky..."

 - Emily Rubin *

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Lost

 "...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


Our Week at the Lake

"...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 


Deep Water Test

"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 *

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​Mulberry

"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

"My Summer Camp was my own earned money to buy comic books, ice cream sodas, a Bic pen, a composition notebook..."

 - Dan Wilcox 

Gulag

 "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​ *

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