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June 30, 2012

Programming Prose


If you were to turn into Camp Road and pass the Martin Family Farm, you would see Gypsy Camp on your right. You would pass the miniscule bee farm (with bees that wouldn’t hurt a fly). You would be surrounded by constantly growing corn and various cover crops. After passing the water tanks labeled ‘Bug Juice’ and ‘Milk,’ you would move through the gates and therefore officially enter camp. Following a sharp right turn, you would see the Art Barn and two rows of cars. Passed the cars is the office. If you were to continue on this road, you would see the Sing Benches, and then end up just left of the centerpiece of Camp Seneca Lake, the Time Square of New York City, the Washington D.C. of America, the core of the apple: The Dining Hall.

Not only does the Dining Hall house decades of recorded history through hundreds of plaques, it is also the gathering place for the entire camp each day. Something truly special about CSL—which does not happen at other camps or other places in the world, for that matter—is that the Directors, first time campers, Head Specialists, Bunk Counselors, long time campers, Activity Counselors, Nurses, Doctors, Specialists and Unit Heads all eat together. We all eat the same food (except for the vegetarians), wait in line at the same salad bars, fill the same pitchers, etc. It doesn’t matter if you have been here for thirty years or three days, the Dining Hall is the great equalizer.

Another remarkable feature of the Dining Hall is that the energy is contagious. During lunch, if S-3 arrives with a natural vigor, they begin dancing with the music. In turn, the people at adjacent tables start to get excited and eventually the entire Dining Hall is dancing just because one bunk was excited when they walked through the doors.

During meals, there is ample time to look up at what are, simply, decorated pieces of wood that denote past campers, past staff, and past inside jokes. Reading the plaques with your friends you inevitably find striking similarities between your inside jokes and the inside jokes from Tusc 1994, which ironically occurred before you were even born. You wonder about the seemingly random images like a chef with a mustache or a flaming guitar, but realize that these images mean so much to one particular group: what is random to those on the outside is evocative to those on the inside.

So, after ten months of anticipation, when you do finally make your way down Camp Road and enter the centerpiece of Camp Seneca Lake—bursting with uncontainable excitement—understand the profound significance of the Dining Hall and how you are becoming a part of its deep rooted history.

Jake Massa
Programming Specialist

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