In this week’s blog, Catherine D. explores one of the many things that makes Keystone such a magical place.
Last week, on July 16, Keystone was alight with excitement as we celebrated our 108th birthday! This day is always one of the extra special days of the summer, as campers and staff alike learn about and reflect on Keystone Camp’s vast and rich history. One of the most important pillars of this place, and one of the major contributors to camp’s longstanding success, is our devotion to tradition. From the levels system to campfire on Sundays, and from Sliding Rock outings to Team Games Day, each year of camp life builds on the summer before, and the summer before that, and so on. One of the reasons it’s easy to lose track of time here is because this place, in and of itself, is timeless. At camp we live in a combination of old and new, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. This stretch of July always seems to heighten this feeling.
Beyond Keystone’s birthday, the July session is home to our longest session and many long-time returning campers. Each of these campers carry unique memories of past camp experiences, while also enthusiastically contributing to and making new memories for each other. In the spirit of tradition and celebration, last week was deemed Holiday Week, with Christmas rounding out the festivities this past Sunday. Christmas in July is one of Keystone’s oldest traditions, first created in 1933 by one of Keystone’s co-founders Fannie Holt. The first “outsider” account of this silly summer holiday was by the Washington Post in November of that same year, and it continues to be celebrated around the US today (see the Press section on our “About” page for several other news pieces on this).
Miss Fannie, as we call her, is one of camp’s biggest muses in terms of our dedication to this spirit of whimsy. It is because of her that our age groups are called Elves, Pixies, and Dryads! She believed in camp magic before it even existed, and her fun and mystical attitude has continued to impact camp for over a century. We carry on her memory and the traditions that she began for the sake of camp as a whole. We strive to keep traditions like Holiday Week and Christmas in July alive to allow each member of the Keystone community to experience this whimsical joy, whether it’s their first year or their fifteenth.
As someone who has now experienced 13 Keystone summers, I’ve come to understand how integral the upkeep of tradition is to the camp experience. Many older institutions often make claims to a rigid routine, but what I love about this place is that it’s anything but rigid. Memories and traditions breathe and grow along with us as we, as a camp and as individuals, get older and learn new things. Our renovated dining hall and new Lodge location are perfect examples of this. At the beginning of this summer, I was sad (to say the least) about our loss of the old Lodge, which was moved to make room for the renovations in the dining hall. Walking into one of the oldest spaces on camp felt like stepping into Miss Fannie and Miss Florence’s shoes, finding camp at its source, and appreciating the unending worth of this place. It was a space of hushed serenity in the midst of a very chaotic camp day. But as I helped to decorate the new Lodge, I was relieved to find that the same century-old magic followed us there. Putting up pictures, books, and momentos of years past made me realize that the physicality of camp has almost nothing to do with its impact. Memory, spirit, and tradition are what make up Keystone at its core; nothing made of brick and mortar could come close to that. It’s impossible to build a new place to contain the laughter of a cabin at lunchtime or the voices of 150 campers singing through nostalgic tears during final campfire.
The impact of Keystone’s traditions and history goes far beyond our gates. In the week of our anniversary, it is a joy to realize how far the roots of Keystone extend beyond time and space, and how they will continue to grow for the next century and beyond! -Catherine D.
