Page 189 - WhyAsInY

We’ll err (But) Be true
become a counselor at Brookwood, a camp at least one aspect of which would doubtless appeal to my mother: Brookwood was owned jointly by the Kotimsky family and the Tuchman family; they also owned a large, very successful, and well-known catering service for bar mitzvahs and weddings, Kotimsky & Tuchman, known in the trade as K&T. Campers at Brookwood would be served individually, rather than family-style, which was the fashion at virtually all other camps, and—the key—the food was reputed to be excellent. I believe that that fact was outcome- determinative for a very high percentage of the families who moved over to Brookwood. (For what it is worth, K&T catered the feast at my first wedding.)
There was a problem with Brookwood, however. By the time I came around to making my decision, all spots for “general” counselors had been filled. The only way that I could work there was to have bunk responsibilities but also function as a “specialty” counselor. And what specialists were they lacking? Only one. Could I be the archery coun- selor for the entire boys camp and teach four or five archery periods each day? Sure. In fact, I had been a not particularly bad shot at Camp Anawana—when I was eleven. Moreover, I knew how to string a simple bow (the feather was up when you notched an arrow); that if you don’t use an arm guard, you’ll get a nasty burn; how many points one gets for hitting the various concentric colored rings that surround the bull’s eye; and how to say, “Boys, I really mean it; everyone should be sure to stand behind the archer about to shoot, or no one is doing anything but sitting this period.” Most important of all, I knew that I wanted to go to camp.
I will spare you the details of how I was almost outed as a faux Robin Hood by the most senior group of boys, but somehow I managed to prevent that, probably with candor and humor. More important is a discussion of the culture clash that gripped Camp Brookwood that sum- mer: As it happens, a very large number of campers, boys and girls, moved from Kee-Wah to Brookwood, enough so that almost half of the campers had had experience in Wingdale, and the other half had spent their summers in Glen Spey. You will recall that Kee-Wah was a “pro- gressive” camp, in that it did not have Color War; instead, it had Tribe
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