Day 16 June 13

Hello Happy Trail Followers,

I hope my details about camp won’t be too boring for you to read, but it was all exciting for me. My first day at camp proved to be exhausting.

Back to last night (Sunday). As it got later, I was sure I would not have a roommate. However, as I was reading my book, snug in my bed, there was a knock on the door. In walks my roommate, Eliza, the only African-American at camp. It turns out she is a music teacher from Atlanta and had never been to camp before. After introductions, my light went out and Eliza began to put her stuff away. The next thing I know, she is removing blankets from her bed and putting some sort of a comforter down. I then hear and smell her spraying something on the bed. My first thought was that it was probably something to kill bed bugs (I’ve since come to the conclusion that it was Lysol). Eliza warned me that she would be up and jogging by 5:30, which meant I could expect some private every morning.

Breakfast was at 8:00 followed by our classes at 9:00. There was usually about 2 or 3 things to choose from so I decided to take Beginning Rudiments class which lasted most of the morning. After lunch, I attended a class on the composers of the music in the “The Sacred Harp,” one of the principal song books that have been used by shape note singers since the 1800’s. Our teacher authored an important book on the subject that I had recently read. We sang some of the songs as we studied the composers. The next class I took was on learning “the 7 modes” –a system of time keeping used by shape note singers. Finally, Buell Cobb (a composer and all-around famous person in the Sacred Harp circles) gave a hilarious lecture on the etiquette of Sacred Harp “singings” laced with many amusing anecdotes.  Mr. Cobb is a very nice person and I spent lunch talking to him about his experiences in the Sacred Harp world.

During break, I talked with a woman who was at camp with her husband and 17 year old daughter. She and her husband celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary while at camp. She told me that she left her 15 year old son with friends, after giving him a choice between attending Sacred Harp camp or wrestling camp. Dear reader, I’m sure you can guess which option he chose.

I walked back with a lodge-mate that I attended classes with today. Her name is Joyce and she is from Maine. Wonderful person…

More later,

Linda