Category Archives: camp

Deer Camp

Leave a reply

Written during the pandemic as an example for a poetry project I assigned my middle school students. They needed to take a line from a favorite song and then use that line to begin a poem.

There are places I remember
Places that hold memories long forgotten
Long shadows, witnesses to the past
Smells that immediately transport me back

Back to a simpler time when we could gather freely
Children could be kids
Adults accepted responsibility
A time when freedom reigned and the republic lived

A black and white portrait here,
Kerosene lanterns afixed to the wall
Polished glass overlooking the cedar swamp
The coziness of a Franklin stove

My sister and I, in curls, smocked dressed, and bows
Polished patent leather shoes and all smiles
Helping mom and grandma prepare Thanksgiving
Waiting for hunters to return and string a buck up on the pole

Living as pioneers until nightfall, the generator roaring to life
The bustle and business of extended family
Cards, laughter, and love
Cousins, forts, and leaves

Memories long buried, decades past
Rising each fall with the smoke from burning leaves

Goodbye, November

1 Reply

Where did November go?  Seriously?  It seems as though we just went back to school, and now, we are well past the halfway mark for first semester.  I have to say, my November was packed with lots of fun.  So many new memories made!

At the beginning of the month, I attended a Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) game with my siblings and their families.  Go Cards!  After the game, we all spent time hanging out at my parents’ house watching even more football and eating pizza.  I think it has to become a new tradition.  Even though I don’t hunt, I enjoyed everyone else discussing and making plans for opening day (November 15th for firearm deer season here in Michigan).  I love that the tradition continues, even if Camp Russell is long gone.

The following Friday night, John and I attended the Barenaked Ladies (BNL) concert at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  It did not go as planned, to say the least.  Somehow, we did not have the seats we thought we had.  I still have no idea how, why, where, or when the mixup happened, but it did.  First, let me start with the opening band, Toad the Wet Sprocket.  While not quite a one-hit wonder, Toad the Wet Sprocket had a couple of hits with “All I Want” and “Walk on the Ocean” in the 90s.  Honestly, pretty forgettable and comparable to dad yacht rock of the late 70s and early 80s.  Way, way too mellow, even for me.  The aesthetic of the set worked well, but if things were going to start off this slow, we were in for a long night.

Now before I discuss BNL, you have to understand that I waited 20 years to see them in concert.  BNL is a huge part of the soundtrack of both my high school and college years.  In 2004, during my senior year at Michigan State, I had the opportunity to see them at the Breslin Center.  Unfortunately, my firstborn intuitive sense of responsibility kicked in.  I had too much to do.  I shouldn’t spend the money.  It goes on and on.  As I have proven time and time again, I am my own worst enemy.  Buy the damn concert tickets!  Just go!

As much as I tried to lower my expectations for the BNL concert, it didn’t work.  Instead, I left disappointed.  In fact, we left after the first song.  It just wasn’t what we were expecting at all.  We’d looked up set lists from earlier concerts on the tour, and it looked great.  As one would expect, they opened with one of their monster hits and continued to mix their hits with their new, super mellow album “In Flight.”  I’d listened to the new album before the concert and enjoyed it for what it was.  Looking at the supposed setlist, I thought it would work well.  Wrong!

Mt. Pleasant happened to be the last concert on their tour, and for whatever reason, they completely changed up the set list.  They started with the new songs and continued the dad yacht rock vibe with a vengeance.  No telling when they would get to their back catalog.  Also, what really worried me is the fact that their hits could have been played in a more mellow, stripped down, acoustic version a la MTV Unplugged.  I enjoy that type of music at times, but that is the exact opposite reason why I wanted to see BNL.  I wanted the crazy energy of “One Week,” “The Old Apartment,” and the “Big Bang Theory Theme.”  Add in a BNL superfan who insisted on talking to me throughout the entire break between acts, in addition to continually bumping her purse in John’s side, we were over it.  We left.  Again, lesson learned.

Fortunately, the weekend wasn’t ruined.  We spent time at Michigan State on Saturday.  I showed John all my old favorite haunts.  It is surreal though.  In East Lansing, I constantly felt simultaneously back at home and flabbergasted on how much had changed.  I’m just glad that Crunchies, the Peanut Barrel, and the Pita Pit are still there.  Fun note:  Barstool Sports sponsored a pub crawl throughout East Lansing that Saturday.  We were trying to figure out why we were seeing groups of students dressed up as bananas all over campus and East Lansing.  At first, we thought it might be some crazy type of protest.

Now that Thanksgiving and deer season are behind us, bring on Christmas!  December, of course, never disappoints.  Advent starts tomorrow.  I hope to slow down and enjoy it!

Russell Canoe Livery and Campgrounds Promo Video

Leave a reply

I thought that I would share the latest version of our Russell Canoe Livery promo video.  Put together by Garrett Russell, much, if not all, of the footage was created by him as well.  I’d love for him to create more!  Due to copyright and music editing issues, it is best to watch the video without sound.

Camp

Leave a reply
Camp Russell – Thanksgiving 1982

Ah.  Camp!  Such a loaded small word.  First and foremost, there is camping with family and friends.  Even though my parents owned and operated two campgrounds and a canoe livery, I didn’t grow up camping much in the traditional sense.  Even if we didn’t camp much, the overnight canoe trips we took with Dad (Mom was one and done!) were legendary.  I think about the planning that went into our trips and how we broke the “rules” and threw a tube in with our gear – Erica and I taking turns tubing for a bit; Dad pretending to leave me in the dust when it was my turn, waiting for me around the next bend.  Mrs. Taylor would be waiting for us at Cedar Springs with ice cream cones.

Over the years, I attended the National Turner Syndrome Camp, memorized Bible verses at church camp, spent endless hours playing with cousins at deer camp(s) (there were deer camps on each side of my family), helped run 4-H day camps for elementary students, and ended up with my picture in the paper participating in a local Vacation Bible School day camp.  I also attended Camp Oak Hills as a Brownie, my first time away from home aside from spending the night at my grandparents’ house, and the Broad Business Student Camp (BBSC) at Michigan State, which led to my decision to attend the Eli Broad College of Business (hence the name) at Michigan State University to study supply chain management.  Quite simply, much of my life as a child and young adult – indeed, some of my best memories – involved camp in some way, shape, or form.  I would not be the same person without it.

Each August, Grandma and Grandpa Buttrick would take us grandkids to Kenton in the Upper Peninsula (almost to Watersmeet) for a week, the site of a hunting camp passed down on Grandpa’s side for generations, the land originally homesteaded by my Forward ancestors.  We spent the week visiting waterfalls, riding the hills around camp, swimming in and hiking around Tippy Lake, traveling into the tiny village of Kenton itself to visit the grocery store/library/post office, and holding target practice with Grandpa using a pellet gun.  At night, there were hot games of Uno and Spoons around the living room table.  As a kid, there is nothing better than sharing a bunk room with your siblings and cousins!

So many camp memories stand out.  As a child attending church camp at Bayshore Camp in Michigan’s Thumb, I first experienced tipping over in a canoe.  As a tween, I paired up with a boy I didn’t know well.  In spite of explaining that I had years of canoeing experience as my parents’ owned a campground and canoe livery, he insisted on steering.  Inevitably, we ended up in the lake, the coolness of the lake hopefully camouflaging my rising anger.  I have never forgotten.

My friend Brenna and I outside of King Mountain Ranch in Estes Park, Colorado.
The 2nd Annual National Turner Syndrome Camp 1996.

Years later, as a teen, I attended the National Turner Syndrome Camp at King Mountain Ranch in Estes Park, Colorado.  I met other teen girls who faced the same physical, emotional, and social challenges as me for the first time.  Words fail me other than to say that those experiences at King Mountain Ranch filled me with a confidence that I would not have had otherwise.  One of my favorite memories is of how my friends and I scared ourselves silly watching The Shining after learning that the movie was filmed nearby.  It is still my favorite horror movie and my favorite Stephen King novel.  Those two years attending the National Turner Syndrome Camp still mean so much decades later. Most of all, I hope children of all ages have the opportunity to experience camp in all its forms.  Those varied experiences not only added to my education in invaluable ways, but they shaped the person I am today in countless ways.