August 15
Camping: the art of getting closer to nature while getting farther away from the nearest cold beverage, hot shower, and flush toilet. ~ Unknown [Editor’s Note: Actually, in Rappaport, we had cold beverages, hot showers, and a flush toilet . . . ]
[This Edward Hopper’s 1940 “Office at Night”. This has nothing to do with camp – I was just looking for a grabber for the FB posting. Within 10 years of finishing what is now one of his most recognizable and provocative paintings, Edward Hopper sold “Office at Night” (1940) to the Walker Art Center (walkerart.org) . . . ]
If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ~ Michael Crichton
July 31
Give me a museum and I’ll fill it. ~ Pablo Picasso
[Still in the Kohler Art Museum, the “hands” have it . . . ]
[Creator of the “hands” . . . ]
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. ~ T. S. Eliot
Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course. ~ George Bernard Shaw
Art is limitation. The essence of every picture is the frame. ~ G. K. Chesterton
I want to make of Impressionism an art as solid as that of the museums. ~ Paul Cézanne
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. ~ Michelangelo
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once you we grow up. ~ Pablo Picasso
The best introduction to art is to stroll through a museum. The more art you see, the more you’ll learn to define your own taste. ~ Jeanne Frank
Painter, you are not a speaker! Paint so and be silent! ~ Salvador Dali
[Rita leads me through the “hands” exhibit . . . ]
[Well, I tried . . . ]
A visit to a museum is a search for beauty, truth, and meaning in our lives. Go to museums as often as you can. ~ Maira Kalman
[The Super proves you can indeed play peekaboo with art . . . ]
I paint flowers so they will not die. ~ Frida Kahlo
Whatever else art is good for, its chief effectiveness lies in propagating more art. ~ Leo Steinberg
[Parting the museum until next time . . . ]
Midwest kids got to summer camp. There is something very special about being away from your parents for the first time, sleeping under the stars, hiking and canoeing. ~ Jami Gertz
[We left the museum in Sheboygan for our next stop at the Tiki Bar in Elkhart Lake. The Super is purchasing adult beverages for our group. This is always our last stop before checking into camp at 1:00 on Sunday . . . ]
[The view of Elkhart Lake from the Tiki Bar. Camp Brosius is at the exact opposite side of the lake from here . . . ]
Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. ~ Wallace Stevens
[Sunfish races . . . ]
I’m an old-fashioned guy… I want to be an old man with a beer belly sitting on a porch, looking at a lake or something. ~ Johnny Depp
Lake Wobegon, the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve. ~ Garrison Keillor
[COVID cancelled camp the previous two years. That yielded a turnover of the management and staff in charge of camp operations. This year instead of the usual 30-ish number of camp counselors (college students), there were only 11. Nevertheless, those who were available gave the arriving campers the usual greeting . . . ]
In a well-ordered universe… camping would take place indoors. ~ Morgan Matson
[Our view of our front yard from Rappaport cottage . . . ]
[The two-year absence of campers allowed for some serious makeovers – like the patio which was suffering the death pangs of crumbling flagstones. The building is the mess hall where we received three meals a day, almost all eaten outside in the beautiful weather . . . ]
[The boat dock and roundhouse, where coffee was available everyday at 7:00 am . . . ]
[A new house was built across the lake in the two years we were gone . . . ]
[Looking back from the dock at the patio which was set up for new camper introductions . . . ]
You don’t have to say everything to be a light. Sometimes a fire built on a hill will bring interested people to your campfire. ~ Shannon L. Alder
[And as will be discussed further as we roll along, the is a one degree of separation for three people at camp. Crossing in the foreground is Dan Spiro, whose dad worked in the same agency as me at the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. . . . ]
August 1
[Down for 8:00 breakfast the following morning . . . ]
[The inn, across the patio from the mess hall, with a game room, showers, and rooms for campers on the 2nd and 3rd floors . . . ]
[The waterfront with four Hobie Cats . . . ]
[After breakfast discussions with old friends we may not have seen for three years. Here are Scott and Vicki from Ft. Wayne (campers for over 40 years) with Rita (camper for almost 40 years) in the middle . . . ]
[And other long timers . . . ]
[Back up top, starting the day with the “birdie” song for all the kids at flag raising . . . ]
If you can survive camping with someone, you should marry them on the way home. ~ Yvonne Prinz
[Our porch – hang out for card playing, reading, imbibing, napping, and BSing . . . ]
The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter. ~ Henry David Thoreau
[Those are the “cabins on the hill” in the background . . . ]
All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
[The following photo indicated how far we were from the water tower for this shot . . . ]
[Can you still see the water tower?]
[Another beautiful evening suitable for a picnic . . . ]
[As older people, we rent a golf cart for the week so don’t have to deal with the stairways to heaven before and after the three meals a day and any other time you want to visit the lake front and can survive the driving habits of the Super . . . ]
You always are changed when you come back from summer camp. ~ Emma Stone
[The playground view from our front yard . . . ]
[The photos are of Ruthie with her new close personal friend, John Laskowski – the first taken at camp in 2000, the latter last week. John played for the Indiana Hoosiers from 1971 to 1975 as the team’s 6th man – he was known as the Super Sub who averaged 11 points a game in his IU career. In his career the Hoosiers never lost a home game. Similarly, in Ruthie’s IU career from 1963 to 1967 she never missed a home game!]
If you’re not in New York, you’re camping out. ~ Thomas E. Dewey
August 2
Summer camp: the second worst camp for Jews. ~ Sarah Silverman
[And this is why we prefer to take the golf cart . . . ]
[And this is why we prefer to take the golf cart, part 2 . . . ]
Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. ~ John Muir
[All the little chidrun are going for a pontoon ride – or why camp works of adults . . . ]
And at the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy and your eyes sparkling. ~ Shanti
[And here they are . . . ]
Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about. ~ John Mayer
If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn’t worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it’s life or death. ~ Morgan Freeman
I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship. ~ Louisa May Alcott
[The Biddies are out on the bounding main . . . ]
There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm. ~ Willa Cather
There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. ~ Kenneth Grahame
There is a rule in sailing where the more maneuverable ship should give way to the less maneuverable craft. I think this is sometimes a good rule to follow in human relationships as well. ~ Joyce Brothers
Are we having fun, or what? ~ The Biddies
Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit. ~ Brooks Atkinson
[A beautiful day (well, mostly the whole week), everything was just ducky . . . ]
My idea of heaven used to be relaxing at home with a cheese plate and champagne. ~ Lea Michele
[This was a road trip to Henning’s Cheese in Kiel, Wisconsin. Ed and Elke display the proper headgear for the occasion . . . ]
How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? ~ Charles de Gaulle
[Years ago Henning’s offered full tours of the factory, but no longer. Here through the class are many large cheese presses all in a row . . . ]
Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese. ~ Billie Burke
Cheese is milk’s leap toward immortality. ~ Clifton Fadiman
The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
Nothing says holidays, like a cheese log. ~ Ellen DeGeneres
[OK, I zeroed in on this because our family group included Elke, Ed, and Chris Hatch . . . ]
People should always have a good bottle of extra virgin olive oil, a packet of pasta, tinned tomatoes and a good cheese somewhere in their fridge. ~ Gino D’Acampo
[The farm across the road from the cheese factory . . . ]
My old modus operandi was, if you’re going to have a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, don’t have one, have two. If you’re going to have vanilla wafers, you have the whole box. ~ Al Roker
[It has an All-American farm look – Elke thought a photo thereof would make a fine computer background . . . ]
Grilled cheese and tomato soup is the ultimate comfort meal. ~ Ina Garten
Mooooo!!
[Back to camp for adult dinner night . . . ]
[Ruthie with Beth, people are asked to wear their finest clothes out of their backpacks . . . ]
L.A. is great, but it’s a completely different beast. I go back to Minnesota, and I borrow a bike from my neighbor and go around Lake Harriet saying ‘Hi’ to people. Some of that is missing in L.A. ~ Yara Shahidi
If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do all the rest have to drown too? ~ Steven Wright.
Up Next: Part 3 . . .
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