Camp Beckwith is a little slice of heaven situated on Weeks Bay, an estuary of Mobile Bay, in Fairhope, AL. It was my second home from the summers of 1986-1997. That's a lot of years, folks. For some reason, I have not visited my old home for about 10 years, until last week. My dearest of dear friends, Curt Kennington, is serving as the camp chaplain for the summer. So he and his little family, the fabulous Sellers and their precious baby Grayton, get to spend the summer enjoying the camp grounds and serving as the camp staff "Mom and Dad." I can think of nothing more spectacular, and I spend a lot of time these days being insanely jealous of Curt. However, of all of my Beckwith friends, no one has ever been more devoted to our sacred ground than Curt, who grew up spending summers and winters at Camp Beckwith. He is sort of a product of that place, and it is only fitting that he continues to serve there.
So, Joe and I loaded up our little family and headed south to meet up with a triumverate of veterans. Ashley, another dear friend and former Auburn roommate, now lives in Sydney, Australia. She was able to come for a visit since she was visiting with her father in Fairhope, and she had her darling toddler Oliver in tow. (Oliver and Grayton are about the same age - nearly one - so they toddled around together trying to avoid the wrath of the insane Jacks) And by another twist of fate, our friend Tara swung by. She was visiting with her parents in Seminole, a little hamlet just outside of Pensacola, while she is in transition between Los Angeles and Atlanta (anyone know of any acting jobs for this amazing talent??). So, these three ladies, being me, Ashley, and Tara, came together to surround Curt for one magical afternoon. Ashley and I fell into our old pattern of talking a mile a minute about everything and everybody, while Curt shared info with us about this and that since he is always in the know about most things, and Tara got on with her suave self interjecting the sliest of sly comments here and there (but as you'll see from the pictures, she was most thrilled to get her hands on all the babies!! I need her around more often -which I might get the luxury of having since she'll be down the road in Atl) Joe and Sellers were odd men out, wondering who on earth were all these people that we were gossiping about so enthusiastically. We all felt so comfortable with the fact that we all still love each other and know each other so well after so much time has passed. I still miss my days at camp everyday. I can't wait to go back and visit with Curt and Sellers a while longer. An afternoon was not enough.
The four of us on the dock. There is a series of these pictures, some of which are very telling of our personalities. I'll save those for us, only we will get it (isn't that always the way with old camp friends? full of obnoxious inside jokes!!)
Tara grabbed Nealy almost immediately.
Before we knew it, she had Ollie.
Grayton says, "Hey man, whassup?"
I was also thrilled for my children to have their first Beckwith experience, complete with a camp meal. The announcements song has remained the same after all these years, and we all joined in with the campers and staff to sing and beat on the tables followed by the same old announcements that we all as counselors made a dozen times before (If you tie dyed today, be sure to pick up your shirts outside the cabins......The dance will be held in Wilson Hall tonight at.....Don't forget to check your contact information on the posted sheets so we can correct them before tomorrow......and so on.....). Jacks was clearly enthralled and amazed with Beckwith, and he promptly made himself at home upon the first invitation to play. Here's what happened..... Anne Talbert was one of my campers (I think....I lose track of who was at Beckwith when and for what reason), as well as a child of Beckwith like Curt, and she now serves as the camp nurse for the summer. Her 4 year old daughter Grace saw Jacks approaching the waterfront, and she immediately ran up and greeted him by saying, "Hi Jacks, do you want to come and play with me?" Let's see, how can I describe how enthusiastically and seriously he took that offer? Have you ever seen the Firm with Tom Cruise? Do you remember the foot chase scene where Tom ran his little heart out? That was Jacks. Only instead of running away from something, he was running toward the bay while throwing his pacifier and blanket behind his head toward me because those things were just slowing him down! He saw that Grace was playing in the water, and he was clearly not dressed for the occasion, so he promptly took all of his clothes off. I was okay with no shirt and pants, but it was his decision to ditch the diaper. Hey, what can I say? He was born to be at Beckwith? Am I admitting to untoward behavior on the waterfront? Not at all. But am I denying it? Not really.....
I recently suggested to Curt that he write a blog to chronicle the events of this summer. Beckwith is in some financial jeopardy, and it's future is unsure. This could be an important summer for Beckwith.
Check in with Curt if you are interested in learning more about our little Beckwithian universe. I hope that if he gets more visitors, he'll actually write some posts (he's only written one vague general post that alludes to me telling him to write a blog, but doesn't say a damn thing. Get on it, man!!!).
Okay - I have tons more blogging to do to catch everyone up on recent events, but it'll take me a while. This post took me forever! Maybe because it's pretty sappy and personal, and I tend to hide behind snarky and quippy to avoid the cheesy stuff. So, I'll get to our family lake trip later on.
But for now, Happy Father's Day to my sweetest Joe who we would be completely lost without, and to my daddy, my brother, my brother-in-law, and all my friends who get to be daddies. I hope your day was perfectly perfect.
