"Every time I turn around, I am always here." -- Gail C., during the summer of 1960
And so it was for me, during the summers of 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962. I was sent off to a summer camp on Martha's Vineyard that was owned and managed by the dance instructor of The Chapin School in NYC. Her name was Kathleen Hinni and she was well admired and a force to be reckoned with. She was formidable.
Margaret Bourke-White spent a few summers with us in her own cabin by the cliff. But KT, as we called her, had a dark side and she managed the camp in strict ways and the result was that many of the girls there longed to go home. Some took drastic measures to find alternate ways to get out. I have never known a time when I was surrounded by so many others and felt such loneliness.
I can still feel the hot air as I stood by the long staircase that led down to the water. I can still hear that sound of nothing as the breeze passed and made me feel so hopeless. I looked up to the blue sky and saw a plane high above and that sight created in me a desperation and a longing to go home.
My parents visited one summer and I have a picture of me with my mother at the Martha's Vineyard airport that was taken so long ago. It is displayed above.
I wrote this poem in 2009 and it appears in my book. The photo above does not.
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