The Camp Series was written about my experiences at Camp Hostýn in 1961 & 1962.  Camp Hostýn was about 50 miles outside of Montreal – the closest town was St. Calixte du Nord.  It was founded in 1954 by Father Bohuslav Janicek, a Czech Jesuit, for children of Czech and Slovak descent.  I almost didn’t get to go to camp in 1961 as I tried to swing on a clothesline and cracked my collarbone about a week before we (my younger brother and I) took Greyhound buses from Chicago to Montreal. 

The very first ‘publication’ of my poetry was in the official camp ‘pamphlet’ in 1962 (I was 11, the poems were in Czech).  Both poems were republished in the 1979 25^th anniversary issue.  I was the first (perhaps the only?) former camper to send her children to Camp Hostýn.    The poem, ‘The Legend’ was inspired by my re-climbing the Big Pine the year we picked up my younger son, and after listening to his recounting of camp lore, I realized he was talking about my exploits totally unaware that he was talking about his mother.   I really should add a poem about my pet leech to the series and about the fact that I was the only girl allowed in the boys’ camp (all recounted in camp lore stories by my son that year) – but my muse isn’t quite ready yet or is he?

Sadly, the Big Pine is no more.  Someone said it had been struck by lightning.