The Legend of the Co-ed Bunkhouse

It was the Summer of Love. 1967. I was a “mature” 13 year old in my third summer at Camp Thoreau in upstate New York. In keeping with the spirit of the times, somebody had the great idea to set up the first co-ed bunkhouse and I was designated as "lead boy". In the beginning, we kept strictly segregated: the girls went to the bath house to get changed, then the boys. But as we got more comfortable with each other, I got together with the “lead girl” and we decided to drop the formality and soon we were, innocently and freely, naked in front of each other at changing times. The camp had a tradition of late night skinny dipping in our little “Walden Pond.” In previous years the bunks would skinny dip together but never co-ed. But we wanted to skinny dip as well, and we did. We felt free with each other, innocent of society’s expectations. Soon, we invited others to join and it became a “thing.” Unsure about what to do with all these shenanigans, the camp leaders decided to go with it. It was soon formalized and the morning announcement now included “archery at 3:00, dinner at 5:30, co-ed skinny dipping at 8:00.” It was a great, unforgettable summer. But that off-season, parents who had heard stories of what we did made sure that our happy experiment would never be repeated. 35 years later, my wife and I hired a nanny for our daughter. Somehow the subject of summer camp came up. We discovered that she, too, had gone to Camp Thoreau. When I told her I had been there for 3 years in the late ’60s, her eyes got big as saucers. She said, “OMG, you’re not that Keith, the one who was the leader in the first and only co-ed bunkhouse?” I said I was. Our co-ed experiment, with my name attached, had endured for decades in camp lore, and now had circled back to my home in California.