When I was a little girl, I loved to go to camp. I went to church camps, YWCA camps, and girl scout camps. Sometimes my friends would go with me, but they would cry and miss their parents. I would always get home after a week or two at camp and feel "hungover", except I obviously didn't know what being hung over felt like back then. But I would do my crying after I got home. I missed camp that much.
I'm home now, and getting ready to report on my last day, but feeling hung over from the 9 hour drive and the missing of my friends and life at Chautauqua. My body is here at the computer, but my heart is still up there.
As I suspected, the wonderful home in which I spent my last night did not have a computer connection that allowed me to blog last night without appearing rude. So I have saved the last full day at Chautauqua for reporting tonight.
Besides the opportunity to sing in one final church service, staying over allowed me to experience Independence Day at Chautauqua, and to avoid traveling on that day. It was a day I won't forget. Again. . . . .like being held prisoner in a Norman Rockwell calendar. It was so idyllic I had to keep pinching myself. Maybe it's not the "real" world, but it is a wonderful world and a privilege to be in it.
I had to get up and pack up my room and be out of there by 10:00 AM. Part of living in the denomination houses is that you leave your room clean and ready for the next person. But that was not difficult given the simplicity of the surroundings. I have decided that I will adopt a new style of living here in my own house. I'm going to operate like I did in Chautauqua. I'm going to get out one plate, one bowl, one set of silverware and wash it right after each meal. No more stacking up 6 or 7 bowls in the sink. The simplicity and ease with which I had to operated in that communal setting had many lessons to teach me and I hope to put many of them into practice.
So here I was, at 10 AM without a home. I transferred my car loaded with all my stuff to Juanita Jackson's lovely home on the north end. But this is a 15-20 minute walk to town center, so I had to travel all day with one tote bag. I got to Bestor Plaza and proceeded to watch Americana play itself out. Around 11:00 people and families began to gather on their blankets and lawn chairs to stake out the community band concert scheduled for 12:15. The weather could not have been better. . . .finally. . . .bright sunshine but still cool temperatures. So cool in fact that I had to go to the bookstore and buy yet another Chautauqua jacket to get me through the day and evening. I bought a sandwich for lunch and then found a rocking chair on the porch of the St. Elmo to watch the crowds and listen to the band. This concert included a patriotic sing-along. People in Chautauqua really know how to sing along! Also I watched kids running a lemonade stand, children throwing coins into the fountains, children IN the fountains, upper elementary-aged boys blowing up long balloons (the kind that when you blow, the bottom of the balloon blows up first) and then letting the balloons go to see how high they would fly into the air, people dressed in red, white, and blue, houses draped in red.white, and blue buntings, and a couple of girls with a booth selling patriotic hair ribbons. I saw almost NO cell phones, and not one single hand-held video game. The kids were too busy riding bikes and playing frisbee! It was amazing!
After the concert I went down to the Bell Tower and caught the Chautauqua Belle steam boat that gives tours up and down Lake Chautauqua. The lake is 2-3 miles across, and about 20 miles long. The tour was terrific. It was so much fun to see Chautauqua from the water, and to see hundreds of boats, many of them sail boats, out on the water. It was pretty windy and cool, but sunny for a change. The lake was covered with all manner of boats, and it was wonderful to be out there among them for two hours. When we got back to the Chautauqua Bell Tower to disembark, we interrupted a wedding taking place on the shore! They seemed surprised when the boat with it's million decibel whistle pulled up to the grass and let off all the passengers!
I found a great bench and sat in the sun reading my book and enjoying watching everyone. I went to a restaurant I had not been to in St. Elmo's and had a light dinner of clam chowder and a salad. Then I ordered a glass of wine since I had been wine-free all week. It was great.
Met my new friend Sandy at the theater and we saw Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia which was great. It's pretty intellectual, and the cast was superb. Only downfall is that towards the end (when you REALLY had to be paying attention) a couple of bats got in and flew around the theater, eventually dive bombing the audience. The audience, including me, were incapable of staying in character, but the players on stage were the consummate professionals. I think the bat should have been able to take a curtain call at the end!!!
Then Sandy and I walked down to the shore. This was the coolest thing. Chautauqua does not shoot off fireworks. But as we stood down on the shore of the lake, with hundreds of other people I might add, you could look around and see at least 10 fireworks displays all around the lake. And to make it better, people all around this huge lake had put out red flares on the shore, so that the whole lake was outlined in red. And to make that even better, the bell tower featured a patriotic recital while we were watching the fireworks. It was sensational!!!!
I then walked the 20 minutes in the dark back to the home where I was staying. What a gift to be staying in a place where you can walk around in the dark and feel absolutely no fear at all! Maybe the best 4th of July ever.
In finishing up, I awoke after a great night's sleep last night. I walked the 20 minutes to the Amphitheater and sang in the Sunday service, walked back to Juanita's house where my car was, and quietly left the grounds. I had an uneventful trip home, except for one place where traffic was backed up for about a half hour. Finished my book on tape. And now am trying to re-enter my life. I'm looking forward to starting my volunteer job up at the Wintergreen music festival for the month of July, continuing my workouts at the new gym I joined, continuing to tutor Robbie, seeing two musical plays at the Kennedy Center this month, having my Choral Arts audition on Wednesday, and looking forward to my return to Chautauqua for the first week of August.
I will continue the blog when I go back up there. All new people to see, classes to take, etc. Thanks for following. See you in August! RP
