What a Difference a Decade (or Two) Makes
March 3, 2011 by Herzl Camp Admin, under General Posts, Letters from Staff, Where Are They Now.
By: Anna “Neener” Simon and Flip “Flip” Frisch
Ghostwriter: Stacy (Kaplan) Simon
Editor’s Note: Anna Simon and Flip Frisch became friends in the mid-’80s when they discovered they were the only girls their age who actually wore their tie-dye shirts at home. If you don’t know the names of these legends of legends, you were either born in the 1960s or earlier, or the 1990s or later. That, or you need to lay off the lem-lem.
Anna was a longtime camper, Ozo, Staff Member, Mama Ozo, Head Counselor (thrice, I believe), and as of recently, a full time staff member for Herzl. Her last summer at camp was 1997, as Camp Director. In short, there aren’t many people with a stronger tie to camp than Anna.
Flip was at camp for 19 summers. From Amanutie Cutie, to her most prominent role as Song Director, nobody had a bigger impact on camp for the last quarter of its existence than Flip. Her last summer was in 2002 as Teva Director.
When 20 and 30 somethings think of Camp, they invariably picture Flip on her guitar Friday Night. If you ask Flip about her most memorable time at camp, she’ll tell you that it was when she was live-in for the best N’Divim Group in the history of camp (1993).
Stacy the ghostwriter was Mama Ozo for the finest Ozo Group in the history of camp. She and her husband Jesse met at camp and have three future Chartreuse Buzzards.
This summer, along with Anna’s son Zach and Flip’s daughter Scout, they will both return to camp – Anna will be in charge of Community Relations, and Flip will serve as a Scholar-in-Residence. They hope to bunk together. If Anna requests Zach and Flip, Flip requests Anna and Scout, and Scout requests Flip and Zach, do you think they’ll end up in the same cabin?
When we compare their conversations from the last time these two worked at camp together to today, it might sound like this:
Anna then: “If we both bring up 4 white outfits for Shabbat, we can switch sometime during the summer and then we won’t ever have to wear the same thing twice.”
Anna now: “No one will notice if I wear the same outfit every Shabbat, right?
_______________
Anna then: “I’m tired, but I don’t want to go to sleep and miss anything.”
Flip then: “Can’t we just sleep when camp is over?”
Anna now: “I’m tired. Let’s go to sleep.”
Flip now: “Let’s just try to stay awake until 8 this time, okay?”
_______________
Flip then: “Marlene and Shelley are fun, but they’re so old! They’ve got to be at least, what, 30?
Flip now: “Hi, new Shelley.”
Anna now: “Hi, new Marlene.”
_______________
Flip then: “Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow, don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
Flip now: “Go ahead and walk in front of me. I have no idea where this caravan is supposed to go.”
_______________
Anna now: “Hey, the new doctor is my old camper!”
_______________
Flip then: “Can I borrow your boom box to use during our flag song?”
Flip now: “Can I borrow Zach’s old high chair for Scout to use at camp?”
_______________
Anna then: “Cabin 9 is so great – it’s small and cozy, and just 88 steps from the Central Haks. You can sleep late and run to flag-raising just in time for Oh Canada.”
Anna now: “Whoa.”
_______________
Flip then: “I wonder if I should use Sun-In to make my hair look cool.”
Flip now: “I wonder if I should wash that grey right out of my hair.”
_______________
Anna then: “I hope there’s a cute boy in Amanut!”
Anna now: “Boy, it’s cute how Zach enjoys Amanut.”
_______________
Flip then: “Let’s swim the lake! Let’s see who can jump farther off the floating dock! Let’s try the new rock climbing wall and then ride our bikes around in the woods!”
Flip now: “Ow. My back.”
_______________
Anna then: “I cannot believe we get to spend another summer together at Camp! It’s the best place on the planet! Let’s sign up to sit together for Shabbat. And go star gazing! And eat grilled cheese and tomato soup! Oh, and just so you know, I’m going to go to great lengths to avoid taking the swim test.”
Flip then: “I know. And I don’t ever want to grow up and leave camp and have to get a real job.”
Anna now: “Some things never change.”
_______________
Flip’s packing list then:
baby bottle for Kool-Aid
flashlight
baby oil
two-piece bathing suit
alarm clock
shorts I can wear on a bike
book of favorite poems and quotes
Flip’s packing list now:
baby bottle for actual baby
nightlight
SPF 30
skirted bathing suit
two year-old
shorts i can wear in a golfcart
goodnight moon
Editor’s Note: For those who read the blog who are lucky enough to be at camp this summer, make it a point to introduce yourselves to these old ladies. I hope I’m going to that one!
Shabbat Shalom!
6 Comments
A Mama and Papa Ozo Challenge
September 9, 2010 by Herzl Camp Admin, under Letters from Alumni.
By Alex Locke
In trying to decide what I wanted my latest blog post to be about, I realized I like when they are interactive. And what gets people excited…. Ozos! And what do we all thrive on… competitions! So… let’s all collaborate and see how well we can do. The challenge: Let’s see how many Mama and Papa pairings we can come up with. I will start with as many as I can name. All you have to do is add any newer or older pairs by leaving a comment. Good luck to all of us… cannot wait to see how many we can come up with.
1987
Paul Schraber
Rondah Mutchnik
1988
Danny Kaplan
Lauren Berman
1989
Tommy Hoffman
Randi Bernstein
1990
Barry Golob
Tzivia Stein
1991
Barry Golob
Naomi Heller
1992
Josh Sohn
Annie Fischer
1993
Matt Lipschultz
Anna Simon
1994
Adam Chall
Ann Fiterman
1995
Corey Firedman
Stacy Kaplan
1996
Jesse Simon
Hope Frisch
1997
Alex Locke (That’s me!!!)
Mira Levie
1998
Danya Kornblum
Kevin Scharfe
1999
Danny Soshnik
Robyn Friedman
2000
Aaron Cukier
Jenny Javitch
And that’s all I can do. A pretty impressive list, if I do say so myself. So… can you add to the list?