There is a summer camp in Central Oregon owned by the Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), called Camp Hancock. It started back in the 50s, and after six decades the camp has developed its own culture and traditions. Kids who went there in the 50s as campers, returned in the 60s as counselors, who then sent their kids to be campers, who then became counsellors, who are now at the age to start sending their kids to be campers. The stories, the songs, the rites of passage are handed down. And what is summer camp, really, besides a rite of passage?
There is one spot on the river where the counselors take the campers every day to swim. Temperatures can easily hit 100 in the summer, so during the afternoon heat, swimming has become a camp staple. But recent years, as the camp has become more professional and regulated, the swimming has changed with the times. Now the staff have to put out ropes with floaters to mark the shallow water and no camper is allowed to go in over their head. But one tradition has remained: each year, before the camp begins, the new counsellors are taken to the river where they are instructed by the senior counselors to strip and run into to the water as a group. It's an initiation ceremony, a camp baptism, and--in 100 degree weather--a lot of fun. No one forgets their first plunge, and it bonds the group not only for the summer, but for life.
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