Summer lasted forever when I was a kid. Growing up in the northeast, we didn’t get out of school for summer break until the end of June. You could smell summer by Memorial Day, but that was just a marker in time letting us know that we still had three more weeks of school. And then, we were free. We played outside a lot, since there were no video games keeping us glued to the couch. Most of the kids I played with, including myself, had to be home by the time the street lights came on. If you weren’t, the moms started calling all the other moms to find out where you were. It never ended well when the mom phone tree began.
During the long summer days we went to camp at a place, I kid you not, called “Skyline Cabana Club.” It sounds fancy, but let me explain how you got there. Back then, most of the mom’s weren’t working so during the week they would drive us kids to the club. Stay with me now. We would drive through a run down neighborhood, onto the New Jersey Turnpike ramp, but instead of veering left through the tollbooth, you drove straight into an industrial park. You’re still with me right? At the end of a dusty road, your mom would pull the car into a gravel parking lot, there were no lines or indications of where to park, kind of a free-for-all. At the end of each day the trick was to remember where the car was parked. Sometimes you got it right on the first try, other times we would roam around until we found the car.
Once you were parked you walked up to a small office with a turnstile. You’d show your ID, everyone had one, it didn’t matter how young or old you were, and boom! You were in a magical place. There were rows and rows of cabanas, some small, some large, all had grass and chairs and umbrellas. We would run to drop off our stuff and it was game on. Camp was Tuesday-Sunday, 1-5 p.m. but you usually went early for swim or tennis lessons and lunch in an enormous cafeteria style room that opened up onto a patio that could fit the entire membership. Camp was grouped boys and girls by age and we played for a solid four hours; volleyball, dodgeball, kickball, baseball, basketball, theater, arts and crafts, singing and swimming. The fields were enormous, probably on top of a landfill. There were 3 pools, one was a Olympic-sized pool for the older kids, with a low and high diving board. The campers used one side of the pool, while the moms waded in at the other end, not to splash their newly sprayed hairdos. The moms would come up for a dip in the pool between mahjong or canasta rounds, or when it got too hot to sit around a card table in the sun. I don’t think I ever saw a mom get wet past her neck.
Camp Director Hal Young
Hal Young, the camp director, was straight out of a Bill Murray movie. During the year he was a teacher, but when summer rolled around, he was the man. He often walked around the camp grounds with a whistle and keys around his neck and a cigar in his hand. He would do rounds checking up on the groups, and at the end of the day, when all the kids would congregate for a final song, he would award a star for the best girl and boy group. When camp was over for the summer, the group with the most stars got an ice cream party. By the time we hit pre-teen age the star thing wore off and we were more interested in getting in trouble than playing by the rules.
The weekends at Skyline was a whole different world as the dads would come to the club and set up some high stakes poker games. There would be live bands on the patio, dancing and I am assuming a large amount of alcohol was consumed. Sometimes we would stay late for movie night or a special dance, always a treat. But why the name Skyline Cabana Club? Well, when you climbed up to the very high diving board you had the most amazing view of the New York City skyline. I would climb up there just for the view. The trip down into the water was never my favorite, but the view was spectacular. Here is where I watched the World Trade Centers being built. If you got a twilight swim in, the lights in the buildings looked like diamonds shining in the distance. I really didn’t like jumping into the water when it was dark!
New York skyline, seen from the high dive, from the Skyline FB page.
So here we were, kids from the city, 2 months out of the year, living our best lives in an industrial park site turned into a paradise playground for both the kids and parents. Did I mention Color War? Orange, Blue and White. (Is white really a color?) Maybe that is another column.
Summer really did last forever when you were a kid! If you’re curious about the camp song, let me give you a little taste of what the Skyline Cabana Club felt like:
Skyline Cabana Club Camp Song
Skyline we love you true
We’re loyal only to you
Everyday is so much fun
Laughing and playing in the sun
Da da da
Counselors and buddies all on one team
Makes the summer pass like a dream
Rain or shine we all agree
Skyline is the place to be
Cha cha cha
(and the older kids would add BO cha cha cha. That would get a star taken away)
Penny and her family moved to Chapel Hill in 1998. She soon joined the Town of Chapel Hill’s Telecommunications and Technology advisory board and was appointed by the town to the OWASA board of directors where she served 6 years and held the Vice Chair position. In 2009 she ran and was elected to the town council in Chapel Hill, and in 2012 ran and was elected to the BOCC where she served 8 years, the last two as chair of the board. Penny owns and operates a personal chef and catering company and has been published in Cary Magazine, Gourmet Magazine, INDY Week, Southern Neighbor and News14. She lives in Carrboro with her mom Jersey Jacky. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram
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