Through a series of short stories and character portraits, we learn of the joys, trials and surprises that make up the life of the Director of a children’s summer camp. Arthur asserts “there are very few people who have the opportunity to create a world of their own, a world where the only two goals are the growth and the happiness of its inhabitants.” We learn that those goals are not always so easily achieved. You will learn of charismatic and colorful counselors, of fantastic sports and hikes, and of imaginative special activities. But you will also learn of a lake that turned orange overnight, of late night trouble from prowlers, of frightening athletic accidents, of counselors who mysteriously disappear, and of cleaver wielding chefs. “I once joked to a friend that if I was President, the whole country would have a general swim at 10:30 every warm morning. We would all wake up early every day, get plenty of exercise, have a rest period after lunch, and go to bed early so that we would be rested for the day to come. There would be kindly advisers and coaches available whose job it was not only to teach skills to people, but also to make them feel good about themselves. My country would be a without cell phones, electronic games and large TV screens.” “Camp was my country, and though we never quite lived up to the paradise I envisioned, we frequently came close. I can’t think of anything I would rather have done during those wonderful productive years.”

37 Summers: My Years As A Camp Director

Sharenow, Arthur

Biographies & Memoirs

Zorba Press

The background for The Summer Camp Uprising is the Vietnam War. The year is 1969. America is bogged down in a war which appears to be both bloody and pointless to college students subject to the military draft. Many have spent much of the past school year protesting American involvement in the war. Some of that protest went well beyond speeches and angry signs. Students have taken over college buildings and organized sit-down strikes in Dean's offices. The protest movement, which started with the war, evolved into clashes between young people and "the establishment" in unexpected places. One such field was Children's Summer camps, where some of the very same student protestors obtained summer jobs as camp counselors. The Summer Camp Uprising revolves around three men representing three different generations. Nelson Cohen is the camp owner and director and has been doing things his way with great success for years. Vico Leone is the new Head Counselor, in charge of camp programming as well as staff motivation and discipline. Joey Katz, group leader for the oldest boys, comes to camp after a school year in which he was an active protest leader. Joey has his own ideas on how a camp should be run and is vocal in his opposition to some of the camp's parietal rules for the Counselors. The conflict of cultures is ripe to explode and does.

The Summer Camp Uprising

Literature & Fiction

The Secret Island Lost In Time

Action & Adventure

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Books by Sharenow, Arthur