WINGDALE REVISITED

A week after the conclusion of Labor Day Weekend, here's what you missed if you weren't there:

Checking in at the Mo and finding out what bunk you were in...watching people arrive...changing for Shabbat...Shabbat services at the amphitheater, overlooking Lake Ellis while we said kabbalat shabbat and swatting mosquitoes as we watched children bury themselves in gravel...watching open-eyed children frolic on the camp grounds...a softball game featuring a six-year-old catcher...babies in the sand by the Agam...bonding bunkside with friends...repeated viewings of the Shidduchim Wall on the mirpeset of the Chadar Ochel...the Big Three of Be Carefuls: sunblock, bug spray, and water bottles...cheesecake and tofutti cuties for dessert...pineapple trees with fruit kabob branches...the first ever Kikarstock dinner festival and party to rock Beit Degel Bet as never before... karaoke delights for both adults and kids who were up too late...the traditional campfire...a special Monday jazz breakfast...promises that we'd all do it again next year...

You know the drill. Alumni Reunion, Labor Day Weekend. 2005's on its way.

Shanah tovah, to all.

RAMAH CAMPER AND HARRY POTTER

Expecting a post about Labor Day Weekend? Don't worry. It's coming.

But in the meantime, the Ramah Bloggerette came across this Jewish Week article about Harry Potter as an educational tool. It also features comments by Yehudit Shuster, an SAR student and Ramah camper who won her school's Harry Potter club's essay contest comparing HP's vision of his parents in the Mirror of Erised to Moses' glimpse of the Land of Israel, that he would never experience in his lifetime:

“Both of them saw what they most desired and knew they were never going to experience it,” Yehudit said in a phone interview from Camp Ramah in the Berkshires.

Our campers sure are terrific--the Ramah Bloggerette approves of this melding of Judaism with popular culture. Yasher koach, Yehudit.

NAMING THE BUNKS

Last year, I was at Camp for Labor Day, and was lucky enough to stay in what I believe is being called "new staff housing," right near the B-side softball field and the girls' kikar, down the road from Beit Gesher. As soon as I saw these four-star accommodations, private rooms with overhead fans and carpeting, I decreed that thenceforth, the bunk should be called "The Excelsior."

Which got me thinking...why not rename all the bunks in Camp according to a theme? Instead of "Oh, are you in B-14? I'm in B-25" wouldn't it be more exciting to say "Oh, are you in Cosmopolitan? I'm in Margarita"?

Maybe drink names is the wrong way to go. But you get the point. Maybe cities in Israel? Classic TV sitcoms? Tractates of the Talmud? Hotel names? Hebrew animals?

Weigh in with your thoughts, and I'll give it some thought over this Labor Day weekend. Discussion to continue on my return.