I don't think I have ever journeyed to a place that far in my past - 20 years is a long time. The last time I was there I was visiting with friends. Our 20-something selves piled into a Honda Accord and made the joyous ride to PK while blasting Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" on the car stereo. Prior to that trip I had spent many summers there over the years in various capacities - as a young child, as a teenager, as a camp counselor in my first few years of college.
My first time at PK was in 1978 when my parents dropped me off for three weeks (THREE WEEKS? Were they nuts? I was only 8 years old!). I remember sleeping in a cabin next to my best friend DeeDee whose trusty stuffed monkey named "Dido Vlodko" sat on her little cot and subsequently accompanied us to various camps over the years, even as we entered our teenage years. I remember lying on my little cot at night - staring at the ceiling and crying for my mother. When my mother came to visit two weeks later, however, I think I gave her a quick hug and kiss and then ran off with my friends as if I hadn't missed her at all. I remember swimming in the lake that was infested with leeches, so much so that every 5-10 minutes we had to do a "leech check" to pull off any of the bloodsuckers that had attached themselves to our juicy little legs. I remember getting plates full of noodles for dinner topped with butter and cheese, warm and gooey and oh, so yummy. Singing "Nich vzhe ide" around the campfire ("vatra") at night still gives me goosebumps.
I didn't return to PK until 1986 at age 16, having spent the years in between at various other Plast camps. I spent two summers there as a "yunachka" - sleeping in a tent with my friends, shaving our legs at the "myvalka" in the woods, attending the "vechirky" (dances) and praying that we wouldn't get stuck dancing with some loser when Stairway to Heaven came on. Stairway to Heaven was inevitably one of the last songs played during these dances, which were usually held in the open air pavilion by the kitchen. The song always seemed to last forever, which was great if you were dancing with someone you liked, but excruciatingly painful if you were stuck with someone else. Not to mention that one little fast part of the song that pops up halfway through where you're not sure whether to continue slow dancing or whether to step it up a notch.
Now that I think of it - those were extremely awkward years. I did not enter my teenage years gracefully, but very dorkily and with a healthy dose of self consciousness. Those two years I spent there as a teenager were fraught with insecurity and doubt. I think the most fun I had was the year I spent as a sestrychka, camp counselor for the little kids when I was eighteen years old. We had a blast - most of us were college bound in the fall and were just celebrating our impending freedom and everything that lay ahead.
PK lies in the middle of Amish country in Ohio - when I was there over 20 years ago, there was not much around there. Now I hear the nearby town is much more built up - they even have a Wal-Mart (gasp!) The camp is full of large fields, acres of wooded area with trails, the leech infested lake still exists but now the swimming takes place in a crystal clear pool - which I'm quite happy about. A group of dedicated parents comes and stays for a week (or two, or three) to work in the kitchen all day to feed the hungry masses. Ella and I are going to sleep in a tent all week - so I was quite pleased to see that the forecast for the area shows temperatures in the 80's during the day and the 60's at night. Sweating in a hot tent is not my idea of a good time, even though I've done it many times before, back in my good old tabir days.
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