Do you recall how we sat by the smokily burning fire-camp logs
Singing "The Ash Grove", our favorite song?
Or how we awoke to the bugle call every morning,
Rushed to wash-up in the icy fresh splashes, brush our teeth after
dressing,
Ran to the house for breakfast -- where there was Central
Plumbing?
Under the watchful and caring eyes of Mrs. Mollie Ruden we were
inspected,
But lots of listening and talking about the daily chores were mixed
with our chatter.
Eagerly we took on the day,
Meeting all new challenges without dismay.
Do you recall the Blueberry picking, or the sweet smell of
honeysuckle by the pool,
The crawling 'round the grasses in the meadow,
As we hid going deer-watching in the evenings,
Passing by the mushrooms under the white pines, along with some
Indian pipes peeping.
And that dirt road brown dust of the broad road leading
outward
To a world forgotten, between the lines of Frost, Millay, and some
hanging vines?
--- Enilda Lozada (camper, 1961)
There's a tadpole in the pantry
(He'll be there for quite a spell),
In the kitchen there's a mollusc
With a very funny smell.
On the window sill, a spider
Weaves her web, quite undisturbed.
In a Northrop camper's household,
Nature must proceed uncurbed.
In a bottle, Mrs. Mantis
Rears her 47 pups,
We must drink our tea from saucers,
There are snails in all our cups.
There are grasses in our glasses,
There are mosses in the sink,
There is something in the bathtub,
Possibly the Missing Link.
Rocks of geologic glamor
Still encumber the back stair,
Seaweed, birds' nests, gulls' wings, lichens,
Get into the family's hair.
For the last two months a gypsy
Has encamped upon our sill.
(He's a moth, a sloth that slumbers,
Two months hence he'll be there still!)
Yet, though Nature crowds our mantel,
Preempts pots and pans and dishes,
Though fat worms live in our basin,
In our jam jars, little fishes,
Though each corner has its "treasure",
Some strange natural surprise,
At this clutter, who would mutter,
Who would have it otherwise,
Having glimpsed the pure and glowing
Stars in Northrop campers' eyes.