At the end of their weeklong sleepaway camp, a hush falls over the boisterous kids at YMCA’s Camp Kern as they prepare for a treasured annual tradition: after songs and skits around a bonfire, they write down their favorite memories on slips of paper. Most years, they toss them into the flames, and the ash that rises and then falls over their heads is meant to symbolize the joy they shared.
But this year, it was too hot for a bonfire.
Even as the sun went down, on a day when the high hit 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius) with oppressive humidity, kids wiped the sweat from their foreheads, flocked to water coolers to refill bottles, and fanned themselves to try to get a breeze going. At the end of the night, they burned their memory notes in a small bucket.
Dispatches From The Front 