where i used to go...........

A good friend sent me this photo today with a teaser, "guess what this is?" Not many would recognize it, and only a handful would look at the building in this photo and have the same nostalgic feelings I have of it. This little cabin nestled in the woods was where I spent many wonderful hours during my youth. It used to be a destination as a kid, and then it eventually though temporarily it became my domain, albeit one I shared with a gaggle of kids. This used to be a merry making hub of activity craft shop. It hasn't functioned as one for many years. The beams are broken from age and winter beatings. It's filled with rusty old iron bunkbed springs from long ago......abandoned and left to harbour the echos of the past.

But, back when the voices were creating the future echos?

It was a haven that housed 4 groups of kids during four activity periods everyday for two months out of the year. They would arrive excited to hang out..........to make something, to listen to the music, to chat with their friends, to be still in a place where still was in short commodity. After outbursts of activity emanating throughout the rest of camp.........from swimming to sailing to water skiing to skin diving........it was a place to catch one's breath. Even the wiggly jiggly ones who rarely could sit still, they would find some focus in the craft shop.

This magical spot was set up with shelves, supplies and half creations hugging the perimeter, while a work area was set up in the middle in a U shape. I worked mostly behind the work area in order to facilitate and help kids working on projects, all the while working on my own. It would be nothing for 15 kids to be in there working on 15 different projects ranging from plaster molds to copper enamelling, to etchings, clay pottery, weaving, and various and sundry other sorts of crafts.........and two or three staff to direct the harmony.

Paints, dyes, powders and clay......glue, varnish, wool and strings.....sticks, sand, pipe cleaners and jute...... it was all there to do with it what we wanted.

I think this is where I first learned about how the process of creating was much more satisfying than the end product. It is also where I learned how an activity where one is working with their hands has the power to allow for a comfort in sharing of the heart. Lots of talk was interspersed with the music and the jokes and laughter.

Some nights, when I wanted to get away from the hubbub of the other staff milling around after the campers went to bed, I would head up to the craft shop to work on a project......sometimes alone........sometimes with a friend......in the stillness of a summer night. Creating something helps clear the head. It's where we find our flow.........where time slips by unnoticed and takes with it the fog of worries......

I can't imagine how many kids soaked up the welcome over the years.....too many to count. The majority of them left something there forever though.....they left their name, painted on the inside walls of this cabin......in their favourite colour....in a spot chosen for posterity....with the dates of the years they lived at camp. The walls are plastered with names, some painted over.

Mine is in there.....1970-1981.....in red. Names which conjure up the faces of the echos. If I close my eyes, I can see the inside of this little place and know exactly where I painted my name, just like everyone else who holds a memory or two of the old craft shop.

Nostalgia has it's place in our memories. It can be visited like a good friend who lives far away. It can leave you feeling a whole mix of emotions too that sometimes surprises us with the intensity it creates. Sometimes it simply slips by as an afterthought. I guess the word that best describes this particular nostalgic memory for me is bittersweet. But mostly sweet.....a whole bag of sweets.

Thank you Ribii Scott for the chance to relive some sweets......and to hear some of the echos. And one of the echos is you!