My heart breaks for the families who have lost loved ones in the central Texas flash floods. We are so familiar with all those areas. Dude ranch vacation when we were kids, went to college in San Marcos, when Roy was in law school this is where we would take our limited funds vacation days, and my parents lived in Georgetown TX for several years. So many friends live in that area now and it is good to have FB to keep up with their situations. All are safe so far. The pictures are too familiar because Helene left WNC in that same torn up condition and the aftermath that continues on nearing the year anniversary. Camps in the Hill Country are like the camps held here in Montreat and Black Mountain area. I never went to Camp Mystic or Waldemar or Heart of the Hills. We were firmly invested in camps through the church, GA and junior camp. Well, invested is not the term I would have used but those were my camp opportunities. I wasn't too fond of those week long camps held at Peach Creek Baptist Assembly which now goes by another name with no Southern Baptist affiliation...I think. Just looked it up and that land is part of a state park. Comments were interesting so many talking about attending camp there over the years in the 1960s. I started enjoying camp while in high school. I started going to church where my friends attended and had a blast. Making friends at Westbury Baptist was difficult for me. Our family attended the off time Sunday School and service, so when there were youth group activities that my father forced me to go to, I didn't really have anyone to hang out with. Also, I was a strange and offbeat type of kid so even if we went to the popular time for Sunday School, I don't think that would have helped. Oops, I kind of got off track but these hill country camps have been life-changing for generations of girls. The introduction of those who you'll meet later on in college etc...is the foundation that networks, alliances and sororities that will come later on in life have provided an advantage because of the chance opportunity to meet beginning at age 7 in the hill country at camp. I am praying for those families and for all who have lost so much over the July 4th weekend.
I found the link to Texas Monthly that I read a long time ago. Published in 1975 and written by Prudence McIntosh. I might still have one of her books on the Dallas area.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/the-greatest-experience-of-your-life/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLYBHdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHq_WiXNHavXDXb_FPEFch1YS2Pm1LeZKZOUSsG90yC6X3tsh7GNfY1ep2MH_aem_v5Sr2issopUtPuGgBTjV7w
The link may or may not work but you can go to the Texas Monthly website and look through the archives. It is worth the read if you like stories, traditions and the like. I remember a family that lived on our street while growing up. The dad was an architect, home filled with children, and always covered in chaos. It was a loud home and it was so interesting to experience this because our home was quiet, little rowdiness tolerated and our mom didn't shut her bedroom door on the mess happening in the rest of the house nor did our mom drink to ease the edge of her nerves of a house in pandemonium. My mom didn't drink although I fear her two kiddos might have made her think about a drink. Ha! This home of what some neighbors called, the "itinerate Catholics" was a main topic of neighborhood gossip. Then, this dad put the house up for sale because he had bought a home in Memorial (wealthy part of Houston) and now the kids could go to a better class of parochial schools. My dad at our dinner table one night said, well, they'll be house poor living there and they won't be able to furnish their home like they ought. He continued that he and mom had decided they would rather have nice furniture than live in a fancy house. Okay, y'all, there is so much wrong with that statement. Even as a kid who spoke her mind, I knew not to contradict what he believed, first of all because we didn't have "nice" furniture. Well, it was nice but it wasn't Ethan Allen nice and that is what he was referring to. The living room furniture didn't match being a hodge podge of early American. With the exception of our parent's bedroom furniture which now would be called mid century modern, we were a hodge podge , what was on sale, home. When the architect family moved, the daughters began going to camp in Kerrville but don't remember which camp. I had heard through friends they had loved going to camp but felt they needed to upgrade themselves before the next year. Funny how things come to mind from the long ago while keeping up with coverage of the recent tragedy.
Through the years I've known many women who are the results of going to camps in Kerrville. Even the most edgy woman who didn't quite fit in the mold that maybe grandparents and parents wanted to instill in her to consolidate her comfortable future; they carry themselves differently than from the rest. One such friend made some very poor decisions in marriage partners. Last I heard she was on marriage number four, but each time...except maybe for the third one, she married well and while selective in her "requirements" to others she was able to withstand her wayward dreams and mostly lived a dilettante existence. Like I said at the beginning of this post, camps in Kerrville were not on any list of what would I like to do kind of thing. Nothing like attending Baylor or anything.
The scenes along the river and throughout the hill country are so reminiscent of the damage and destruction of Helene. Because I was so sick during all that time I knew it was bad but I didn't know how bad until later. Clean up is moving along in Texas and it took some time for that to begin here. I just saw the number of missing people has risen to 161. Be so close to Texas, Lord.
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