Memories from a Camper from 1969 - Rafael Velez

Camp Herrlich 1969

I can clearly remember the summer of 1969, I was 8 years old and Mom had signed me up to go camping that year. It was one of the most incredible summers I've ever had. Now, I was a city boy, born on the island of Manhattan in the great city of New York and it was my first experience away from the city. I went to Putnam County, which was located in upstate New York, to a place called Camp Herrlich. It was a Christian-based camp. As a quick side note, I was doing some research, and to my delight, this camp is still in full operation!

I remember as soon as we got off the bus,and walked to our bunkers.Our camp leaders gave us cups with lids, which was kind of odd considering there were no water jugs around but they continued to pass them out. Then he told us the strangest thing I have ever heard,  he told everyone to collect as many flies as we could while we were on our way to the bunkers. We all looked at each other, thinking that was a weird request, but we did as we were told. So, as we were walking to the bunkers, we had our cups with lids and every fly that flew by we would grab it and keep it in our cups. We arrived at the cafeteria, or mess hall as we called it, then we asked the camp leader, "why do you need the flies"? He said, "we need all the flies so that we can make our famous bug juice"! And we were all like, that's disgusting! He couldn't stop laughing, but in reality, the camp called fruit punch bug juice, go figure. And just in case you were wondering what happened to all our cups they were all thrown into a barrel with the flies in them.

Now every day was a great day at the camp. We would learn to swim, do archery, arts and crafts, and plenty of row boating, we didn't have kayaks at that time,and fishing, and something that I never got to do in the city, climb trees! I always tried to find the highest tree to climb and just sit and look out and see how beautiful nature was. I even learned how to make candles in the sand at the lake. This was the very first year I discovered fireflies! It was fascinating to me! I didn't know that they even existed because I don't remember ever seeing them in the city. Anyway, because I was so accustomed to going to church especially on the weekends, I didn't know if that summer I would be attending church, but on the first Sunday evening, we had church. It was a little strange to me because on a Sunday I would normally get up and the first thing we would do at home would be to get ready and go to church. But at camp, I remember my first Sunday doing what we would normally do, have breakfast in the morning and do activities throughout the course of the day (all fun stuff). But now it was Sunday evening and I clearly remember walking through the woods and there was an outdoor chapel, this chapel had no walls and  ceilings, the stars in the sky and a bright shiny Moon, now that was a chapel! It seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere, and there was a huge wooden cross and a half dozen stumps that we used as seats. This is so weird, I said to myself, but as I'm telling you the story, I can still smell the wood burning, the warmth of the fire on that cool summer night. There was no light except for the very bright moon and stars, stars as far as the eyes could see. It was a beautiful night. The camp leader was also a youth leader and this particular night he spoke about loving our fellow man and being at peace, even with our enemies during this time of war, (this was the Vietnam era).

I remember him saying after his message that we need to love one another as brothers and sisters and as Christ loved us. So, after his message, he had us all stand in a circle as we held hands, and he began to sing these words:

"All we are saying

is give peace a chance"

We continued to repeat these words in such beautiful harmony. And if you don’t recognize these lyrics,well, those lyrics came from the Beatle’s John Lennon and Yoko Ono Give Peace a Chance.