Winter/Spring 2011: The Banquet Edition
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Welcome to this Edition!
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This is our second “Grapevine” linked to our Facebook page. Wow—how exciting! It’s been compiled by my nephew, JD Lichtman (“The Nature Guy”), who now works at camp full-time in the summer and part time in the winter. He’s also our “techie” guy, so if you have any questions, comments, or contributions, please email jd@camptapawingo.com.
My thoughts of Banquet are much like the campers and staff who wrote things below. Banquet is an exciting night, one that you can’t wait to learn more about, but that you don’t want to learn about before that evening. For me, Banquet is a bittersweet evening. The Seniors are so excited – they’ve come up with such a wonderful gift to the camp. They’ve worked so hard, so long, and put all their efforts into this evening, and they can’t wait. But for me, I know that camp will end “tomorrow”, and I’m feeling a bit sad about that. Here we have created such a wonderful community, such a supportive “team” of campers and staff, and by tomorrow it will all be “over”.
My other memories of Banquet are the messes in the Banquet bunk (yes, it’s moved from the back of Arts and Crafts to its own cabin), the large quantities of paint on the Senior’s legs, arms and clothes in the last two weeks of camp, and the titillating excitement on all the campers’ faces as they are waiting and lined up to “enter” banquet, either on their knees through a long tunnel, via a scary ladder and in through a window, on a slide into the room,or on a “train” or a whirlwind platform into the room. I can’t wait to see Banquet, and I can wait to see it because it foreshadows camp’s end for that summer.
Best wishes to all,
Jane Lichtman
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Updates: Tap Girls (and Guys) Around The World
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Cara Singer & Erica Gelb in Dublin
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Emily Naumburg, Erica Gelb and Claire Sidney in Athens
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Erica Gelb: graduated from grad school in May, and spent the summer traveling in Europe with Emily Naumburg and Claire Sidney, who she worked with at Tap in '07 (see photo). She also met up with Cara Singer in Dublin (see photo) and Lucy Hayward in England. Erica had a great time at the alumni reunion, and volunteered at Circle of Tapawingo at the end of the summer. She lives in Baltimore and works as an electrical engineer.
Jenn Levo: After attending camp in 2006, she moved out to the west coast and lives in beautiful Portland, Oregon. She loves it out there. It's pretty much as close as you can get to living at camp, without being in Sweden, Maine... that is. The mountains are close, as is the ocean. When she’s not at work as a graphic designer, she’s snowboarding, surfing, and racing her bike. Still, there is not a summer that goes by that she’s not daydreaming of being back in Maine.
Debbie Meyers (1990-1994?): lives in New York City and works in retail management.
Janie Lam Meyers 1961-65: a Grandmother of 3 and lives in Charlotte, NC. She is a Membership director or coordinator for her synagogue
Julie Meyers Pron (1984-1989) lives in West Chester, Pa. She and Steve have 3 children: Carson (7), Wesley (5) and Allie (1). Julie is a freelance writer, a parenting and lifestyle expert, and a Social Media consultant.
Shara Silverman Star (1984-87): is married and living in Buffalo. She and Rich have 1 daughter, Samantha.
Pam Meyers Trompeter (1986-1991): married Jason last spring. They relocated to Detroit. Pam is a nurse and volunteers for Make-a-Wish Foundation.
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Banquet Memories
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Banquet Memories from the 80s - Julie Meyers (Pron)
Banquet was always a thrill, as I'm sure it is now. There was so much speculation among the campers all summer long: What will Banquet be? Even before I was a camper, my mom shared stories of her banquet in 1965. The theme that year was King Neptune's Kingdom and my mom, I think, was Banquet Chair. She told stories of how the dining room was transformed into an undersea world. So you can imagine, after all the excitement and nervous guesses, my surprise when I entered the 1984 banquet: another undersea theme! To a Lo-Middler, we had entered another world! It was amazing all that those "women" had done to entertain and impress us!
In 1985, Banquet wowed everyone with The Flintstones. People still talk about that banquet today! The 1986 seniors had a tough act to follow, and surprised everyone with Sesame Street. 1987 brought Jungle Book (with their white outlined characters rather than the "normal" blac)k, and 1988 was Snow White, completed with pride by a Senior bunk of only 7 or 8 girls. Both of those banquets were moved back to the dining room, another big surprise for the campers.
My Senior year, in 1989, we decided to "wow" the campers and moved Banquet back to the Main Lodge with Looney Toons. I remember nearly every banner we worked on. And I'll never forget divvying up the banners we wanted to take home with us. Oh, how Jill cried when Jay Moores ripped her banner (after the event)! And how I cried when, just a few months later, my parents insisted that I didn't need to keep my banner. I got to keep my characters, Tweety Bird and Porky Pig (with his crazy eyes made of about 22 layers of paint!) a few years longer. When I was 15, I truly thought that I'd decorate my children's rooms with my Banquet characters. Its funny looking back and realizing just how much of my life Banquet was, and for more than 8 weeks of camp. I talked about it for months before and after. Would you believe we knew our banquet was Looney Tunes an entire year before we were Seniors?! That's a long time to keep a secret for a 15-year-old girl!
Thinking back at the Banquet part of camp, my favorite memories are the different entrances. One year the seniors created a sliding board for us to enter, another year we crawled through a tunnel. Even that was a secret until you started the entry.
Banquet was a huge part of camp. All of those years of looking forward to it and knowing that your banquet was going to be the. best. banquet. ever. 21 years after my banquet (wow! twenty one years!), thoughts of Banquet are mixed in with, and usually trumped by, memories of smiles, hugs, and laughter. And stories of competition, plays, achievement and songs. One Tapawingo story leads to another and, when I take the time to get lost in the memories, I can see them in my minds eye for hours. The entire time I'm envisioning them, I'm smiling with thoughts of my special Place of Joy.
Banquet Memories from early '00s - Jenn Levo:
OMG... I've helped out with so many banquets over my years at Tap as not only being a senior bunk counselor but also the Arts and Crafts Department Head, that I have so many good stories and memories about late late nights, large murals, and copious amounts of paint. However, one of my favorite moments was during the Jungle Book banquet a few years ago. The Seniors were having some "issues" blending the paint on the main mural to make it look like water and I volunteered to work some magic and see what I could do. Painting water is hard... and I'm not much of painter myself, but I worked all through dinner and most of the evening and it resulted in a really amazing looking main mural... (if I do say so myself). It was such a challenge. Also... because of my experience with banquet murals over the years, I had to go out and get an overhead projector of my own. My friends all thought I was crazy when it arrived at my house, but it's come in handy several times for large scale art projects.
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Song of This Edition:
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Tapawingo is not an easy thing to explain,
but love is her, an ever burning flame.
Time may pass and we will grow older,
our lives get colder still
While we're not here,
we'll spend the year and many hours each day
Remembering you
- Excerpt from Springtime Comes, Gray Team 1969 -
NOTE: to listen and see the lyrics of this Tap song and/or others cut and paste the following link, this site was developed as a gift to our community by an individual that wishes to remain anonymously in love with Tap
http://tapsongbook.weebly.com/springtime-comes.html
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From The Editor - Taps (Final Notes)
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First off, thank you to all of the contributing writers of this Banquet Edition of The Grapevine. Working on out of season projects such as this immerses me in the richness of our experience as a community - the traditions we have shared, the years we have been connected and how these are carried into the places that our community members now call home and the work that they do.
My first exposure to banquet was the spring/summer of 1991 when my sister, Colby, borrowed one of my cassette tapes, the soundtrack to - The Little Mermaid. As a younger brother, it was not until she returned home with a beautiful larger than life mural that I became curious about this event she called “Banquet”. In my second year working at Tap in 2001 I attended my first banquet - Peter Pan - and learned how big and awesome this event is.
I look forward to all the Banquets to come. What a joy to celebrate the experience(s) of our summer as a community and also the chance to be “wowed” by the accomplishments of our hosts, the seniors.
My initial intention was to unearth a novelty song on Banquet...however this appears to be a novelty song to be written in the future. Instead a song named with a name reflecting this point in time.
A final note on The Grapevine - the theme of the next addition will be Junior Camp. I look forward to receiving your updates, photos and memories of being a Junior, Lo-Middler and Hi-Middler. My e-mail is JD@camptapawingo.com
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