SAVE CAMP

Well, so far, September is fired.

Every Labor Day Weekend I've gone camping at a distant YMCA camp in Plymouth, WI. I've made s'mores, sung my "Oompa Oompa"s, and trekked up to Victory Hill for 29 consecutive years.

That's every Labor Day since I was born. There were some years that I didn't even put a Christmas tree up, but I always made it to camp.

I made it to camp when I was to supposed to fly to England. I made it when I was so poor that I was selling plasma twice a week for groceries. I've been going for the last five years even though it takes planes, trains, and automobiles from San Francisco to get there. I even went to camp when I was 13, cynical, and upset about missing INXS play at the Colisium.

The time has come that camp is being sold. It's trying to buy itself for 8 million, thanks to its alumni, and it could continue its campfires as an independent site. But the stories of contractors wandering around my Second Home, the idea of condos or a golf course existing on the land where I'd want my ashes scattered someday. The idea that this was the last time I'd see these lush green lands and tell jokes with these people. Guh.

What horrid timing, what with Katrina and all the Real Horrors going on in the world, too.

My camp's fate will be decided at the end of the month. Maybe I could have a Burning-Man-esque Camp Fundraiser or something. At least there is savecamp.com already.



Also: Northwest Airline doesn't do crap for you on your birthday. :(