Mike Davis shot this photo on the canoe dock at Camp Carolina for Boys just outside Brevard, North Carolina, around 1990. I attended this camp from age ten in 1978 to age 24 in 1992.
This lake, along with some of the rivers in the surrounding region, was where it all started for me. Each day I would spend some time in boats on the water, and take my meals in the dining hall up on that hill above my head. If I got sick or needed first aid, I would visit the infirmary in the house on the right. In the O.D. House, that little shed you can see above and to the right of my head, there was a pay telephone that people could use in the rare event that communication with the outside world was necessary. The barn to the left was a lodge for small gatherings.
There were, of course, many other camp activities, but canoeing was my favorite, and those other activities took place outside the scope of this photo.
In the late 1980s I served as the head of the canoeing program, and this little dock was my fiefdom. I was determined to convince campers to become paddlers just like I had done. Not every one of them complied, but it was an important exercise in my own paddling education to explain to others what I had learned in previous summers.
The camp has been in operation since 1924. Do the arithmetic! It's time for a centennial celebration. And that's just what will be happening this coming weekend: I'll be attending an event at the camp along with other camp alumni. I don't know who will show up, or how many people, but I hope it will be well-attended by folks who value their camp experience as much as I do.
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