Monday, February 9, 2009

Camp Counselor

In High School I was an counselor for the Outdoor School program at one of our local grade schools. High School students basically went to camp for a week to mentor 5th graders in various outdoor & group activities.

Every night we had campfire. We were blessed to have an indoor area to host it. Whether rain or shine we enjoyed campfire.

There were 2 counselors in charge of seating kids in neat & tidy rows. Those neat & tidy rows had to be re-adjusted everytime we did a stand up, action song (Cinnamon & I sang Singing In The Rain).

But at the end of the night, each row was excused one by one by the man in charge. His camp name was Tigger. He had a beautiful, masculine singing voice. Two songs he sang make me tear up ... even today. One was called Bamboo, the other was All My Life's A Circle. I found versions online, but none do it justice. His version was slow & calming. The kids were silent & were excused row by row while the rest of us sang this song w/ him, waiting for our turn to head back to our cabins for lights out. Here are the lyrics:

All my life's a circle
Sunrise & sundown.
The moon rose through the nighttime
Till the day break comes around.

All my life's a circle
But I can't tell you why.
The seasons spinning 'round again
The years keep rolling by.

Seems like I've been here before
But I can't remember when.
And I got this funny feeling
That we'll all be together again.

There's no straight lines make up my life
And all the roads have bends.
There's no clear cut beginnings
And so far no dead ends.

BTW - my camp name was Porkchop. I nickname given to me by my dad when I was a baby. I had fat thighs.

Did you ever go to camp? If so, what was your favorite song?