'Alfred E.'

I was dragged to Shiloh in 1964 by my uncle and aunt. I’d heard local ‘church kids’ like me were outnumbered by tough kids from bad neighborhoods and, as an 80-pound 12-year-old ‘nerd’ with alcoholic parents I kept hidden from all comers, I wanted no part of it. I couldn’t imagine why my own kin thought it would ‘do me good’.

The ‘Big House’ didn’t faze me. My counselor Bob looked like Tarzan, in a blinding-white T-shirt, jeans and Cons; I was sure he must be dumb as rocks. My cabin-mates terrified me: all bigger, more athletic and confident than I. And the charms of cabins, bathhouse, birdbath and unplumbed Kybo were lost on me. Nor did the lake win me: naturally I couldn’t swim, and expected nothing but trouble in the water with my gigantic fellow-campers. Cabin 12, who stayed out on Campout Hill, didn’t just look tough enough to be in the Army, but tough enough to beat up the Army.

So, before the big bell rang for dinner I ran away, and my counselor and other staff had to come find me; most of the way to Mendham.

My attitude may have begun to change as early as that first meal. Who could forget the endless bug juice, the heaped baskets and platters of food and dessert? Or being accepted at table, after such a beginning.

At rec, Bob and I took a walk to talk things out. I wonder, now, what he saw; I saw that this muscle man stayed calm, asked good questions about my fears, and spoke gently to them.It was at evening devotional that the place began to cast its spell: sunset streaking a sapphire sky deepening to azure; fireflies; rippling, slowly-stilling water, cabin groups gathered; a spirit bond I sensed but for which I had no name as yet; and singing, like I had never heard, nor ever hope to – infectiously-joyful and even silly songs, and solemn soaring ones like ‘My God And I’ that stir my heart still.

And then canteen, cabin, devo, and bed. I slept sweet, on a plywood bunk with an old mattress – beside a screen through which the wind whispered, all night long.

I learned Bible, and what true Christian spirit looks like, from Wayne Willis, who taught college Bible – and my counselor, who, it proved, was one of his best students, 4.0 in Bible and overall. In Arts and Crafts I joined an ‘arms race’ of lanyard-making (4 strands! 8! 12! 16! Where would it end?). I couldn’t sing, but helped make the Music Room walls ring. Nature Study was too soggy for me but some, from asphalt streets, cherished it. I remember the overnight on campout hill, Talent Night (Wayne brought down the house with Leroy Van Dyke’s “Auctioneer”), greased-watermelon races, the big swing over the lake, and cabin awards.

Shiloh held delicious mysteries for campers: were the ghost stories real? Did a ghost walk the boards in the Big House attic? What was the secret of the chapel by the lake? What was this ‘green light’ the counselors whispered about so secretively?

I lost all my comics learning pinochle from Reggie Brandevine and Jeff Dawkins, who were neither dumb, nor as terrifying as I’d thought. They told life-stories that stood my hair on end, and opened the door for first-time telling of my stories in return. My cabin nickname, ‘Alfred E.’, was only fair; the resemblance was remarkable.

My session ended as it began: I ran away, hoping my uncle would just leave me. Going home, I begged for TWO sessions the next year. I started, like Jeff and some other campers, to pray, secretly, that one day (beyond hope) perhaps (if we were good enough) we could be Shiloh staff, a prayer God granted us. But that is another story.

Tom Wheeler was a camper (’64-’66), dishwasher (’67), cabin 4 counselor (’69), Bible teacher (’70-’72), year-round staffer in Dover, ENY Brooklyn and Newark (’69-’72) and jackleg PR writer / photographer / printer (’72). After Shiloh Tom completed a BA in Psychology, attended seminary, but then, like so many, was absorbed by the I/T revolution, and has been a systems developer from 1978 to the present. He likes to tell stories. He and his wife Sondra live in Rockville, Maryland and are blessed with children Sarah, Jessica, and Tim.