Community Stories: Julian Katz
Post shared by Julian Katz, camp alumnus and former staff member.
I was a camper for 9 years and worked at Camp for 5 summers, from the kitchen crew at 17 to an ill-advised half-kitchen/half-junior counselor experiment at 18 to three years as a full counselor during college. My sisters Heather and Molly were campers, my father Michael was one of the doctors (and recently began going back again now that he’s retired), and my mother Sara was occasionally the arts & crafts person.
It’s impossible for me to overstate The Bar 717 Ranch’s impact on my life; it’s as much a part of me as my childhood home or the city I grew up in.
At Camp, I met Matt Smith who has remained one of my closest friends for 30 years, as well as so many others I remained close with throughout my school years and many more with whom I have reconnected through social media.
My first year as a camper, I was only 7 years old. this was during Clyde’s expansion years, when there were 200 campers and 24 tables on the eating platform. I stayed on Pioneer Porch, fully enclosed and with electricity, with a co-ed group of 7 year-olds and both male and female counselors, a mommy and a daddy for us little ones. But I was also lucky enough to have my actual mom & dad working there at the same time; I might have been too young to do that on my own at that point.
We were introduced to Camp through my mother’s friends Diana Ford and DeeDee Bartels, both of whom sometimes worked at and sent their kids there as well.
I have so many amazing memories from camp: epic innertube battles at the swimming hole, learning to do blacksmithing from Jeff Johnson, zorching, hikes up Gates Mountain, riding a horse across the suspension bridge, Camping Trips to Emily’s and The Bar 7 and the South Fork, “kidnapping” our corresponding girls’ platform), the dances, the un-talent shows, the taffy pulls, the day to day routine of it, the amazing staff and friends I loved so much.
My cohort over the years: Matt Smith, Sam & Molly Gould, Scott Horstein, Dan Ingwersen, Tyler Daenzer, Jake Kasdan, Tenaya Lafore, Lacey Sher, Lauren Smith, Evan Rosenbluth, Ben Silverman, Mindy Tisch, Gretchen Haendel, Tracy Bartels, Julie Cederbaum, Aaron Flores, so many others. Some standout favorite counselors/staff: Dave Pirl, Bruce Pirl, Pete Napolitano, Sarah Collard, Carlos, Howie, Rick (whose last names escape me!), Marlys, Willy & Ginny Wills, Pete Wills…
I think Camp’s greatest selling point has always been that it takes mostly city kids out of their elements and grounds them in traditional values. It allows kids let down their city pretenses, to be more open with each other, and open to new experiences and adventures. It’s a magical thing when you take away kids’ normal creature comforts and habits (technology, phones, junk food), put them in an amazingly beautiful country setting and then give them freedom to decide how to spend their days, whether they want to ride a horse or silk screen a t-shirt or hammer out a piece on the blacksmith anvil or throw a pot or just hang out with friends.
No competitive sports, no “closed circles” (no cliques or couples, although some of that naturally seeped in especially in our teenage years). Learning to cherish community and teamwork (and work in general) through ranch projects and the like.
I really grew to love ranch projects. How amazing is it that I was able to help rebuild a platform (Corral) as a kid and then see the fruits of that labor every summer, and even come back to be a counselor on that very platform years later? My family and I sometimes went up in the spring to work on ranch projects when it was colder, wet and muddy and the car bridge wasn’t yet down across the river near the swimming hole and almost no one was around. Whatever the project, whether it was building a platform or baling hay or fixing a fence or working in the garden or cleaning the irrigation ditch, I always learned so much and the work left me physically exhausted and mentally satisfied.
I could go on and on about Camp. I haven’t even mentioned Vespers, or Sunday pancake breakfasts, or the Barbecues or the Harvest Festival or campfire sing-a-longs or reading recaps of days-old baseball games in the local newspaper editions in Leedy Lodge. Camp holds a huge place in my heart and my mind.
I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to be campers. I have been preparing them for that by singing all the old camp songs to them since they were babies. I hope to see you there one summer soon!
Community stories are shared by campers, counselors, alumni and friends. Have a camp story you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you.
