If you don’t remember the words to every alma mater you’ve ever sang at Song & Cheer during Color War, and sometimes even the alma mater of the other team, I would probably think you were lying. Not to point fingers, but Zach Feldman if you’re reading this, you definitely know the words to every alma mater since 2006. To me personally, it is hard not to sing along whenever I hear the tune of a previous alma mater. I figured I would take a different approach to this blog post. Instead of going on about a story about how much camp means to me, I wanted to pick excerpts from previous alma maters and explain what they meant to me and my camp experience.
“June 24th, I woke up early
I packed my bags into the car
Drove down the road, and to the bus stop
It’s been so long since I’ve been, home” -2007 Gray Gladiators
These words were sung at the finale of Color War 2007. This was the conclusion of my first Color War, a yearly tradition that would grow to have a profound impact on my life and my Wildwood experience. If you ask me how my first bus stop was as an 8-year-old in 2007, I would tell you that it went pretty smoothly; I got on the bus, excited to embark on this new journey. If you ask everyone else, mainly my parents, or Mark & Lisa, they would say I was a wreck; citing that I was crying hysterically and had to be dragged onto that bus so that we could leave. And I couldn’t be more thankful that I was forced onto that bus almost 12 years ago. To show that it only takes one summer to fall in love with Wildwood, a vaguely similar situation occurred seven weeks later at the end of my first summer when they told me it was time to go back home. I was once again hysterically crying, but instead of my parents, this time I was hugging my group leader, not wanting to leave my new home in Bridgton, and for the second time I was forced onto the bus. That first summer definitely flew by, but some of my closest friends to date were formed that summer, and we still look back at some of those memories from 12 summers ago. I am currently a junior in college studying abroad for the semester in Europe and while here I went to meet up with a fellow 2013 Senior, Ravi Rozen, and in that short stint of time we were together we talked about camp and he wasn’t hesitant to point out that he beat me for Junior Camp Basketball MIP as a Cedar Pine, a constant joke that we always bring up considering how both of our basketball “careers” played out.
“And for the next 49 days,
Revelry sounds the day is waiting” -2008 Blue Pirates
I think Adam Bass hit the nail on the head in his blog post when he said “Wildwood gives us the privilege to live with our best friends for 8 straight weeks” and “at Wildwood, you get to be who you want to be.” Time really does fly when you’re having fun, and days really come and go every summer if you don’t make the most of them. Every day at camp is a new opportunity to try something new, make memories or even just stick to your routine of passing the time with your best friends. Believe it or not, I actually learned how to ride a bike at camp. And I know what you’re thinking, learning to ride a bike at 9 is pretty crazy and I should’ve probably learned when I was 5 or 6, but I actually learned how to ride a bike when I was 15 in 2013 because I figured there was no better time than as a freshman in high school.
2008 was my Hemlock year when I sang these words, and poor Danny Moll had his hands full with us that year, a group of 44 kids. I’ll let you read that again because that is not a typo, we occupied bunks 5-11 to full capacity. For 13 of these 44 kids, we would grow up every summer together until we were seniors, adding two more at later dates to round out the 15 of us that occupied Senior Bunk in 2013.
The relationships you form at Wildwood are second to none, and I think that the relationships formed between campers and counselors are often overshadowed by the strength of relationships formed between campers. One of my generals from this Color War was Spencer Adler, “Spoon” as he was referred to, and Spoon joined my group as a CIT in 2009 when I was an Oak. Spoon watched us grow as he climbed through the ranks with us up until we were Seniors, and I still talk to him pretty regularly to this day. He has been one of the biggest influences in my life and I often tried to emulate the things I learned from him to my campers, who I grew very close with over the few summers I was with them.
“Every time we miss our old camp family
We think about the Gray and the Blue” -2013 Gray Vampires
Separation anxiety from our home in Bridgton is definitely a real thing. The end of August to the beginning of June was always the worst part of my year growing up when all I wanted was to be at camp. Home friends are great, but they will never truly understand you like your camp friends do. And whenever I’m feeling a little down, talking to my camp friends always gives me the boost I need. My group grew very close over our summers together, and to this day we communicate almost daily and we try to see each other throughout the course of the year. It’s crazy because the same things we talked about and laughed about when we were 13 or 14 still arise as topics of conversations today. Like when Jordan Kotler channeled his inner Steph Curry in Maple/Senior basketball in Color War 2012, going 3/3 from 3-point range, or when Ross Basner & Thomas Goldhagen took down Cedar’s 1 seed in a double’s tennis tournament, or when Sam Selati finally lost his first Color War as a general in 2013. These memories are things we still talk and laugh about to date, never losing their luster. Whenever I think about camp, I have infinite memories to pull from to brighten my mood and just smile.
“Wildwood, the camp of grays and blues
Wildwood, I’ll be coming back to you” -2016 Gray Ghosts
2016 was my last Color War, and as a participant in Color War, these were the last alma mater words I ever sang, and they definitely hit home for me. I have been away from Wildwood for the last two, soon to be three summers, and despite not being there physically, I am constantly checking in with people who are still there to make sure everything is running smoothly. I have visited camp for color war the past two summers that I missed, and it always feels like I never left. I am a little kid in a candy store & there is a smile on my face the entire time I am there. Color War is a mini-reunion for ex-campers who all come for the same purpose – to check in on their home away from home despite going down different paths after leaving camp. I don’t think it can truly be put into words the impact Wildwood has had on my life; it is the place where I grew up, the place where I found out who I really wanted to be, and the place where I have found my best friends. This ode to Wildwood only scrapes the surface of how much Wildwood has meant to me throughout my life, but I hope these excerpts from alma maters bring back some joy of the songs sang every summer.
Tyler Gersten was a camper at Wildwood from 2007-2013 and returned as a counselor from 2014-2016.
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