The Roanoker - July/August 2021 - 14
the home front
A Love Letter to Summer Camp
written by Christy Rippel Sometimes you can find everything you didn't know you needed at summer camp.
A
s the saying goes, you don't
realize how much you love
something until you lose it.
And last summer, we lost a
lot of things (sports seasons,
vacations, the ability to gather with friends),
but the one that stung the most for the
Rippel family was the loss of summer camp.
When I was in middle school, smiling
through braces and fighting through the
awkwardness of adolescence, my parents
signed me up for a two-week camp in
Palmyra, Virginia, which if you've never
heard of it, is a small town in Fluvanna
County about 25 miles southeast of
Charlottesville. Camp Friendship has been
perched there for more than 50 years, in the
rolling rural hills. As a kid from suburban
Maryland, I was not excited about being
exiled to the trees, bugs and a cabin with
mountain conditioned air instead of air
conditioning.
When I arrived I gradually warmed to the
experience, thanks to a kind counselor and an
enjoyable first night around a giant, blazing
campfire. Camp Friendship has its own lake,
and I spent my days canoeing, ziplining into
the water, throwing clay on a pottery wheel,
and riding horses. Nights were spent at the
fire, at drama club, or at the weekly dance.
I slept in a bunk bed, in a cabin filled with
girls I didn't know, but who were genuine
friends after two weeks. It was everything I
didn't know I needed.
Two of my cabin mates became my pen
pals in the era before email, and with one of
CHRISTY RIPPEL is an award-winning freelance writer, covering lifestyle, design, health and parenting. A VT graduate, she likes to bike and walk local trails. When she and husband Chris
aren't watching the Hokies, they watch their four kids compete in sports. Christy is a Maryland native and lives in Roanoke County.
14 JULY/AUGUST 2021
TheRoanoker.com
COURTESY OF CAMP FRIENDSHIP
http://www.TheRoanoker.com
The Roanoker - July/August 2021
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - July/August 2021
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