Welcome back to Chippewa Trail Camp, the Finest Camp in Michigan. I can’t tell you how it gets my little bat heart beating to have all of you here again. Just hearing your voices makes me remember the good old days when I’d keep track of all the embarrassing things you’d do each week at camp and write about them for Log.

 Not surprisingly, you scalliwags have not dulled with age. You’re still up to some mighty interesting things. In fact, I think it’s worthwhile to note some of the highlights from the first Chippewa Trail Camp Reunion, in the fall of 2004.

 What a weekend! The laughter. The songs. The tears. The…wine bottles!

 The reunion kicked off Friday night with Shorty’s arrival to a rousing chorus of We Welcome You to Chip-Way Trail. Dinner was followed by a Log program, complete with a bugler – who for some unknown reason had to play Taps in the middle of Log. However, you Chip-way girls didn’t let the unusual scheduling interfere with your fun. You simply opened more wine bottles.

 The next day, I flew around the property as clusters of reunionites wandered the camp and reminisced about days gone by. From the barn and horse rings to the old golf course to the tennis courts and down past the chapel, to the Council Ring and the waterfront. You snapped pictures, shared stories, and realized that many of you couldn’t remember if the archery range had two or three targets.

 You toasted the lake, you toasted your friends, you toasted your youth, you toasted…oh, heck, some of you got pretty toasted! In fact, several of you bellowed forth an old song I hadn’t thought of in years – the one with the lines – ‘And If Shorty should appear, we’ll say Shorty have a beer, in the cellars of old Chipway Trail.’

 But the most amazing sight was to watch as you pulled out the old Indian Council drum and tried to reenact those famous dances. You tried ‘em all – the 12-step, the grapevine, the stomp hop and the toe-heel. Once again, you laughed, you cried, you tried not to break a hip, and you couldn’t remember whether the jump-out-from-the-audience-and-scream-like-a-banshee was from the start the War dance or Victory dance.

 So, in order to jumpstart those slightly fading memory cells, most of you trooped over to the Alden Museum where you clawed through old camp photographs like you were at a 50 percent off sale at Nordstroms. I don’t think the musuem curators knew what hit them! But, as all good Chip-Way girls, you left the museum in tip-top shape and returned back to the camp just in time for cocktails.

 In true Chippewa fashion, the dark and windy skies of the day parted, the sky turned blue and everyone was treated to a beautiful sunset over Elk Lake. After dinner, you sang the old songs and played a camp trivia game that was as cut-throat and competitive as any battle between the Orange and Green I’ve ever seen. But a candlelight campfire and singing ‘This Little Corner of the World’ brought a perfect end to a perfect day at the most perfect camp on earth.

 The next morning, around a final campfire, Shorty had the crowd in stitches with her usual combination of philosopher and vaudevillian – telling tales of keeping all you campers in line over the years, with just a few ‘corrections.’  The tears flowed, the laughter peeled, the songs lifted into the crisp fall air as the first Chippewa Trail Camp reunion came to a close.

 And as I sat in my bell tower and watched you drive out of the gates, I promised myself that I would do a better job of keeping in touch with all of you. I want to remain a beacon for Chippewa Trail and do my part to keep our spirit alive. I stood atop the bell tower, looked out at the lake and like Scarlett O’Hara shaking her fist into the sky, I vowed that I, Billy the Brown Bat… would start a BLOG!

 So, with just a few taps on my bat lap top, the BillytheBrownBat.com site was up and running! I am totally and completely serious…Check out BillytheBrownBat.com when you get home and surf on over regularly because I’ll have lots of updates.

 Now that Deb Jordan and her family are in residence in our Lodge, I hope to see many of you and your friends take her up on her offer to come back for some mini-camp reunions.

 But, I feel that it’s only fair to warn you that the old rules still apply. If you do something embarrassing here at camp, I’ll know about it.  And so will Google.

 
Your friend,

Billy the Brown Bat