The Ideals of Camp Strawderman

“Kernal Coooooorn made a soldier outta me, (yehaw!). To ride in the rough cavalry! When I got a little older, Put a squirtgun on my shoulder… Kernel Corn made a soldier outta me!”
Faint chants can be heard just outside the valley, as the morning fog slowly creeps out of camp, leaving the valley ready to greet the new day as the sun pokes itself out into the world. Its a Saturday in July, but not a ‘change-over day’ so naturally, riders can be found up at 5:30 in the morning, making their way down to the barn to prepare for Cavalry, the weekly morning ride that only the most experienced campers get to participate in. Some days is just a normal quick trail ride through the quiet Shenandoah valley, over to the Christmas Tree Farm or perhaps to Fire Road. But today campers trot back into camp, with a bit more pep in their step. “The villains are coming out today!” a camper excitedly whispers and from up The Hill come three cloaked figures towards the group. Suddenly the horses trot faster and begin to chase the cloaked figures, all in good nature of course, and more shouts emerge from the group. This sight is not an anomaly for most campers. Its 6:40am so the Morning bell has yet to wake the sleepy camp and some campers scramble to get a good view from the window of their cabin. From afar, it looks like pure chaos but to campers its just another Cavalry morning.
Like most things about summer camp, until you go, its impossible to understand. Recently I listened to a This American Life podcast, ‘Notes on Camp’ which discusses different traditions and songs that were universal to all camps around the U.S. Co-ed, all- girls, horseback riding, swimming, STEM camps and sailing camps all shared values of camaraderie, hard work, honesty and inclusitivioty; old cabin songs, outdoor activities and traditions that molded camps into a cohesive community of like minded individuals sharing very intimate experiences. It discussed how camp is oftentimes a sanctuary for oftentimes privileged, urban kids to spend their summers unplugged and removed from society; thereby, receiving very different experiences than your average day camp or part time summer job as a life guard or cashier. This never even crossed my mind, all those years I attended sleep away camp.

I, too am at fault for being one of those privileged kids who spent their summers in the mountains of Virginia, along with a majority of my white gal pals from the DMV or Richmond. But my summer camp was far from the movies and we were more privileged in the sense that we had the freedom to explore the outdoors and live in rustic cabins; we took cold water-community showers and hiked up mountains after hours of riding and swimming. Electronics were forbidden and even if campers had them, oftentimes the service was so poor that it was not even worth trying to make a simple phone call; that is, if you didn’t want to venture on top of the outhouses for a better signal. We wrote letters in our free time and forgot about the troubles of the school year. We lived in our rustic cabins, most over 80 years old and signed our names on the walls, always on the search for past relatives. Most people’s grandmothers, moms, aunts or cousins attended camp. It was just tradition.

Needless to say, Camp Strawderman was the best thing happened to me, where I was blessed with a magical child hood and I would always count down the days in the school year to spend two, four and eventually eight weeks in the Shenandoah Valley, which my moms oftentimes compared to a military camp. Our days would begin at 7am, sometimes even 5:30am depending on if it was our day to make breakfast on a griddle or early morning rides through the valley and would last until 9:30pm, where we would immediately fall asleep, exhausted from the day’s activities.
Our days were filled with swimming lessons, horse back riding lessons and sometimes even trail rides, archery, art or choir and then normally more swimming in the afternoon; followed by some free time which was normally spent in the green chairs with a soda or maybe on a walk around camp hunting for frogs or beetles. Sometimes the camp dog, Coyote would make an appearance. He was the most popular one on campus and can always be found with a pack of girls chasing after him. Hiking, campfire songs, and camp shows follow the evening and then back to the cabin at 9pm. Some days were horse show days, water pageant days, or special cabin- themed events. No matter the weather; if it was thundering or flash flooding or over a hundred degrees out, it was a general consensus that a day at camp, which felt like a week, was infinitely better than a day at home.
Its these moments, that made my childhood so magical. Most of my favorite child hood memories are at 6am, riding through the forest with my best friends and watching the sun peek up into the sky or giggling late at night under the stars as we snuck out to the tennis courts. Its living side by side with people who are good hearted and are just so happy to be here. And finally coming of age to hike Schloss, the biggest hike at camp where Judy, one of the O.G.s has to drive a whole cabin to the bottom of the mountain. Its the butterflies you feel in your stomach crossing the creek into camp, or when an older girl from TA remembers your name, even 5 years later. Its growing up with the same people and spending your warm, July and August days together under the sun, in the camp pool and in very, very tight corners in your cabin.
My last night as a camper was one of the saddest days of my life, which symbolized my eight years at Strawderman. I even wrote my college essay about my camp, told all of my school friends how much more I loved my camp friends and oftentimes would play old choir and country songs and look through pictures in my room when I was camp-sick (its a very real thing).

Some days like this morning the sun will wake me up at 6:30am and I will sit on my porch and think about camp. I will make coffee, listen to my favorite camp songs (Wagon Wheel, Springsteen and Home by Phillip Phillips and by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros if you wanted a taste) and reminisce the ‘good ole days’ with myself and find comfort in that. Waking up early reminds me of those camp mornings of stumbling into an old pair of sweat pants and sweatshirt and making the trek up the hill to the dining hall, where bacon and pancakes normally greeted us after our morning ritual of saluting the flag. One of my favorite things about camp was Sundays, not only because my parents sometimes visited with food from the outside world or that we got to sleep in an extra thirty minuets, but because Chapel in the Pines was on Sundays. Although my family stopped attending church in high school, I loved listening to the weekly camp sermon, sing choir songs and take some time to appreciate the Shenandoah Valley and nature around me. Every Sunday, a designated camper would recite the Ideals of Camp Strawderman, which every Strawderman girl learns to memorize her time there; they are ideals that I still remember and strive to live by every day and cherish greatly.
The Ideals of Camp Strawderman are
to make girls so happy
they will share their happiness with others.
To make friendships which shall last through life.
To develop strong, healthy bodies
through regular exercise, good food,
and rest in the pure mountain air.
To create a love for God’s out-of- doors,
and a reverence for his handiwork.
To bring out the hidden possibilities which lie
within each girl and to help her find herself.
So to all the camp girls out there, hold tight to your camp days and friendships that will last through life. They will. Always remember to tuck in your sheets, to turn your tag at the pool and when you’re in a tight spot — you know you’ve always got. Omega Club. And never forget, green and white are always a good color combo.

I hope every girl finds her Strawderman sisters and summertime home, whether it be through college, traveling or at a summer camp at home.
-Catie
