This will be my last year going out to Culver to visit the kids at camp. Ryan will be attending band camp next year just as Brooke is this year. During these summer visits, I try to meet up with Ross, my roommate when I was at Culver for high school. He claims that he has been visiting his kids at camp for more than 20 years. Probably true since he has one that has graduated college and a last one in upper camp. He is far better at math than I am so I’m not going to argue how he came to this figure. We were joking this last weekend about whether we were going to see the council fire. Counsel Fire is a long tradition at Culver Woodcraft Camp where the campers gather to watch fellow campers perform a legend or story from different American Indian tribes. Most people would find the campers performing Indian dances to be the core of the performance. It is certainly something to see, there is much hard work on the part of the camper. The part I am most interested in is the story, what wisdom was being told by Native American around the campfire ages ago. I have read and listened to Joseph Campbell talk about the hero’s journey. This, however, is where Ross and I part company. He can’t stand the stories or the recording. The pops, the hiss, the 1950’s diction….. Even though the camp has “cleaned up’ the recording and put them on CD, I think the analog nature of the recording and their age lends a great deal to the experience. I have a feeling I will miss this next year.
These images are from the final Counsel Fire where distinguished former campers perform a fire dance.
