When I was a kid I went to summer camp at Phantom Lake YMCA Camp. It was just down the road from our summer cottage so it didn’t feel like too far away. Once you were in the bounds of the camp, including the long road, you felt transported to another place. It could have been anywhere but it was my camp. Every morning we would slowly wake up to the sound of Reveille playing on a bugle and we would drag ourselves out of our bunk beds and out of the platform tent and into the dewy, chilled morning. We would rub our eyes as the American flag raised up the flagpole. At breakfast we would sit at a round table and pass the milk to each other as we continued to wake up. After breakfast they would turn on a song to get us up and moving. Some counselors would encourage you to dance. The songs where some kind of pop song or another, and everyone would shout “One more please” after the song that played.
Flash forward to 2020 and a national stay at home order due to a pandemic that hit in March. My friends organized a remote morning music and invited past camp alumni to participate from their homes. Every day, except for Sunday, a new DJ would spin about six songs until the free Zoom account timed out and shut down, sometimes cutting us off mid-sentence or mid-song. There were loyal followers who tuned in every day. There were weekenders that just tuned in on Saturday. And there were the occasional surprise guests who you hadn’t seen in ages. People tuned in across time zones from New York, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Colorado, California, Seattle, Alaska and even England. Some people would dance. Some were already at work, jamming out with headphones. We would reminisce at the end of a few songs and swap stories. There were also non-camp people with many people joining from Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin; Bubba’s neighbor, Mary from Denver, Kris Delmhorst, Aunt Sue and Susan Brightbill Dahlseid (who almost certainly was a camper).
I got to be a DJ about 22 times. Sometimes the playlists would have a theme. COVID played a part in the theme often. Holidays or other topical subjects like the election made their way into playlists. The first song I played was Lovely Day by Bill Withers who had just passed away. We had different generations of camp alumni spanning from the 60s to the early 00s and favorite songs of each generation would spin. Other times the theme was just ‘dance’ with the most danceable tunes. At the start, the organizers, Cynthia “Cha Cha” and Jeremy “Guzo”, would promote it with “mystery DJs” and reveal the person after a song or two. I must have missed their “Guess Who?” post, and I immediately ruined the surprise and promoted myself on facebook. Cynthia and Jeremy promoted every DJ, tagging them on facebook, and they ran it for a year. At one point, a friend of my mom’s called her up and said, “I see your son is a DJ now.”
A Beautiful Morning by the Rascals was the first song ever played at summer camp morning music in the 1970s. The DJ was Riley Cooper, Program Director, and he needed something to fill the time between the end of breakfast and announcements. It grew in popularity and people wanted more songs and they would shout “One more please! One more please! One more please!” until they played another one. Some smart aleck boys would always yell “No more please!” because they still weren’t awake. And in a gonzo spirit, a chant of “Eat more cheese!” could be heard. They had to set a limit of three songs maximum otherwise the whole schedule could be derailed.
One morning, I was surprised to see Riley Cooper as the DJ on Zoom with smiles in every glowing digital box and of course he opened his set with A Beautiful Morning by the Rascals. Each DJ had their own style. After a while you could just hear the music and know who the DJ was. Bubba always had a grungy 90s edge. Flossie always picked the coolest rock-n-roll. DJ Guzzo WolfmanHorse, aka Jeremy, had a club vibe. Pudd might toss in a Weird Al song in-between Hamilton songs. Mark had an indie vibe. Foz had an eclectic mix of “yesterday & today”. And if I were to describe my style it was probably soul, nineties hip-hop with a sprinkle of wedding reception songs and camp favorites like I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).
I often found that after the 40 minute virtual meeting would end I would continue to create playlists and play music. With not much to do, staying at home mostly, it was fun to tinker with my music and it kept me occupied. Other DJs would inspire new song discoveries. Mari helped me to discover the Gipsy Kings.
The first time I ever tuned in it took a few text prompts and direct messages from Cynthia to get me up and logged in. It started at 8:30 am Central Time, but being an hour earlier for me it was 7:30 am Mountain Time and I was just waking up. After I found the link on facebook and got in I was won over by everyone dancing with wild abandon. And when the music stopped, I was won over again by the community of it—the coming together. My friend Pudd, who had comedy theater in common with me, called a few times outside of Zoom to talk “show business”. And there were new faces too from an earlier generation—A woman named Vickie who sat in a tall-backed chair and nodded her head while her cats walked by. Now we are facebook friends and I can’t wait to meet her in real life someday. I got to get to know my friends’ kids too. Sarene’s kids, Enzo and Noli, are the same age as my nephews and I just got them. They tuned in from their rec room with mattresses on the floor, ropes from the ceiling for swinging, and a climbing wall built into the angled wall. They would change their name on Zoom to Big Butt. They would randomly type gibberish in the chat. The first time they ever got to DJ they accidentally picked a few songs with explicit lyrics and shocked everyone. Occasionally, they would set up a Goat Cam to get a view of the real goats in their pen. Everyone shared their animals—dogs, cats, horses, and chickens. Jean had a cockatiel that could whistle the Andy Griffith Show theme. We saw a few babies—Brandon’s Ross, Tony’s newborn, Goo and Kathleen’s newborn and Megan’s bundle in the Babybjörn that was fascinated with the screen. One time, I tuned in and my friend Heather was leading the group in aerobics!
We processed and mourned the loss of a dear friend, Mountain Mike, through music that he liked such as Friends with You by John Denver and well, anything by John Denver. I tag-teamed with his partner Foz to play the songs she picked out and it was so healing to connect with her in this way. As the songs played, Foz held up old photos on the screen like an analog slide show.
On Halloween, I was scheduled to DJ and I logged on early to find one other participant already there. A silent clown with the name Pennywise starred back at me. It really freaked me out. They didn’t reveal themselves until the next time we were on. Ruth Olsen said “It was me” with a giggle.
On Christmas, an old camp tradition was to take out your candle from the closing ceremony from your week at camp and light it. Cynthia organized a special Christmas evening music event where I played carols and recordings of slow songs from camp and we lit our candles. The version of Barges that I found was too slow and Flossie took out her guitar and played it again, as an encore, at the correct tempo. It was a magical evening with misty eyes and the shared joy of being together.
Over the year there were many highlights: Pam Partington had a killer playlist when she guest DJed with the perfect song choices of Dancing On My Own by Robyn and Danger! High Voltage by Electric Six. Tainted Love by Soft Cell, I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Huston and Kodachrome by Simon and Garfunkle had new life and meaning. One of the many shows I binge watched during the pandemic was Russian Doll and to my surprise the music was by camp alum Joe Wong. So I played Gotta Get Up by Harry Nilsson and Joe’s trippy Dreams Wash Away in my signature pre-show music. Some songs felt timely like Prince’s 1999 after protests started in Minneapolis and spread around the globe in support of social justice. This Land Is Your Land rendition by Chicano Batman breathed new life into this protest song around election time. Playing Crow Hop by Black Lodge gave me chills around Thanksgiving. Discovering that disco was in fact not dead. Hearing the origin story from JB about how Tunak Tunak Tun by Daler Mehndi became a camp favorite and how the entire dining hall would break into the dance, Bollywood style, after learning it from a YouTube video. Laura Peck on her morning bike ride. Beth dancing in nature. Laurel and her cat and dog at a low angle. Bubba’s creepy baby doll. A playlist honoring Cynthia on her big birthday with many Cha Cha themed songs. Jon Orum themed songs even though he never logged on. Sherry, “Splash”, in her scrubs joining us from the hospital. Ruthanne and Ruth traveling all over the globe. My parents were staying with me for about five months and would make their appearances on camera—sometimes unknowingly. They would cross the frame to the bathroom, be spotted brushing their teeth, be spotted on the floor doing their morning exercises and be spotted in the occasional dance break. On Halloween, they dressed up in costume, my mom in a Lego costume with a green bob wig and my dad in a skeleton costume. Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliot brought out some freaky good moves in my mom. My last playlist had a race car theme for no reason at all other than I felt like going fast (after COVID-19 forced us to go slow)—Speed Racer theme song, Radar Love, Jerry Was a Race Car Driver, Highway Star, The Distance and Mustang Sally. Put it into your Spotify and tell me that isn’t an awesome mix tape.
Once the vaccines became more readily available there was talk about stopping the regular meetings. On March 27th, 2021, Cynthia and Jeremy hosted the last regular morning music online. After one year of tuning in at the start of my day, the following week I noticed the void. But you never know when a surprise morning music will blink to life, so just watch for it and remember, don’t stop believing.
Sample playlist:
Morning theme from morning music.