LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Matters |
by Murray Archibald |
Skipping Stones
I always liked skipping stones on a still lake. I haven't done it in a whilein fact, I don't remember the last time I even stood on the shores of a lake much less while skipping stones across it. Skipping stones is something I used to do a long time ago. I remember doing it, but more like it happened to someone I used to be. That makes me a little, if not sad then certainly nostalgic. I think it time that I found a lake and a few flat stones and a couple of quiet hours away from the office and my studio and everything I think of as "work." Anyone care to join me? What made me think of skipping stones, however, has more to do with the rapid passage of the summer season than it does with the actual act of casting a flat stone across a still lake. When I think of the last few months I do so in snapshotsmoments frozen in the second of impactas though a photograph had been taken each time a stone touched down on the mirror surface of a lake. Memory is a funny thing sometimes and it has a way of playing tricks with timeone moment condensing it into a tight bundle of intense emotion; the next stretching it out as thin and as fragile as a piece of tissue paper. I haven't had time as yet to absorb and fully process all the memories from this past summer season. Some of them are as faint and wispy as smoke, others overwhelmingly bright sometimes painfully brightbut all of them have taken on a faint golden hue and a softening of the edges. At the moment I am feeling good to have made it through another busy summer. At the moment I am elated by the success of Sundance and another good Labor Day weekend. My elation colors all my memories of the summer and thus, for nowand who knows, maybe foreverthey are recast in a different light. September always seems the perfect time for reflection to me. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that we live in a summer resort communitya place that changes with the seasons as much as the seasons themselves are changed by the passage of timeperhaps it is only a part of the natural cycle, the time of harvest, the time when we examine the fruits of our labors. So for whatever the reasonor for no reason at allhere are some of my snapshots from summer 2006. Here are a few of the places I touch down as I skip, like a stone, over the surface of the past few months. Snapshot 1 Saturday, May 27, 4 p.m., The HeART of the Community Preview Party at CAMP Rehoboth. I took a photograph of some of the artists who participated in the HeART project. Then Steve took the same photo with me in it. I started to say that we were sitting in the new rocking chairs donated to CAMP Rehoboth by ELBoW Productions during the summer, but that hadn't happened yet. Snapshot 2 Saturday, June 3, 6 p.m., The Founders' Circle Black and White Beach Ball at the Atlantic Sands. I like to wear black and white but I can't remember what I was wearing that evening. I was about to speak briefly to the crowd and I remember thinking I was very tired and hoping it didn't show as much as I felt it did. I liked the black and white umbrellas we had hung in the ceiling of the ballroom. Snapshot 3 Saturday, June 17, early evening, The Delaware HIV Consortium Wow Awards Gala on the farm where M. Night Shyamalan's The Village was filmed. Steve's sister Judy was visiting us from Atlanta and the Consortium was presenting Steve and the staff of CAMP Rehoboth a Wow Award. All three of us went. Wow! We got to go up in a hot air balloon, tooand it burned the top of our heads. I took a photo of Glen Pruitt while he was in the balloon. The balloon was bright orange. Snapshot 4 Sunday, June 18, early evening, Baltimore Avenue. Steve and Judy and I were having an early dinner on our deck when black clouds of smoke came rolling up from the street. Like everyone else on Baltimore Avenue we all ran out to see what was burning and then stood in the street gaping at the flames shooting from the alley behind all the restaurants at First and Baltimore. After about 10 minutes I realized that I was about to be stripped of my Jimmy Olsen merit badge. I'd forgotten my camera. By the time I ran home and back, the flames were out. Snapshot 5 Sunday, July 2, 12:15 a.m., backstage at the Love Retro Ball. Martha Wash had been on stage for about 15 minutes when she suddenly exited as a prelude to singing "It's Raining Men." Suddenly she stuck her mic into my hand. "Ask them if they want to hear more," she said. So I did. I think she thought I was Stevebut so does everyone else. Oh yeah, it was Steve's Birthday that night, as well. Snapshot 6 Saturday, July 22, 6:45 p.m., backstage at Follies 2006. I was on my way back to the tech booth to call the cues for the show when I spotted Steve and John and Glen getting into their mics. They had on their pink tutus, of course. I made a mental note to get them some new costumes for next year's show. Snapshot 7 Friday, September 1, RB Convention Center the day before Sundance. We'd been in the Convention Center since Monday afternoon and everything seemed to have come down to finishing the 18 light columns that surrounded the dance floor. Suddenly I spotted Keith Neale and Susan Bolivar on a dolly. Their job was fastening the fabric panels (18 columns, 4 sides each, 4 cable ties each side, 288 cable ties). I'm glad they found the dolly. Oh yeah, Keith's partner (Susan's brother) Arthur was 12 feet above them attaching the panels at the top. Snapshot 8 Sunday, September 3, 8:05 p.m., The dance floor at Sundance 2006. The doors had just opened. Bob Ramsey had just powdered the dance floor. Everything was in its place, and basically my work was almost doneat least until 10 a.m. the following morning. I love the dance floor at midnight when it's jam-packed with dancers, but I also love the first moment at well. The music and lights are in motion. The dance floor is in pristine condition. The bartenders chat quietly behind the bars in preparation for the crowd to come. The stage is set...the night of magic is yet to come. Funny, but when I started writing the words for this article I thought I would have trouble remembering the details, but as I skipped over the surface of the summer, I remembered it all...this year, last summer, and the many that came before them. My thanks to all of you who have helped make our memories of summer 2006. Though the busy summer season is past, CAMP Rehoboth is open all year long. Stop in and see us. Murray Archibald is Founder and President of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, and an artist in Rehoboth Beach. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 16, No. 13 September 15, 2006 |