Working

"Did anyone at camp build a career out of it? That is, how many people there worked in camp with no other means of supporting themselves? Is that possible? What happens to the camp when it isn't summer? Still operational? Do the employers spend all that time preparing for the following year?"

The only ones who come close to having made a career out of Camp are the Directors, particularly the older Directors. There are two sets, the Older Directors include the boss and his wife, the younger ones include the boss's daughter and her husband. The boss started at camp in the late fifties and has returned every summer bar one. In the eighties he and his wife took over as Directors. In addition to this though both had off-season jobs, as does everyone who works at Camp. The boss and his wife are now retired and spend more time, I'd imagine, planning long term things like new-builds, repairs etc., or liaising between staff, customers and the share-holders. It's not a full time job for anyone apart from them.

The young Directors handle all the high energy stuff during Camp's eight week duration. Both the boss and his younger male counterpart were/are teachers, so that's what they did/do during the off-season. Ultimately the boss will fully retire, I'd imagine, but I can only see that happening when he's physically incapable of doing the job anymore. He really loves Camp.

There is a caretaker who lives at the site all year around, his job is to look after the books for the logistical stuff - making sure everything's stocked up, for example. One of the things he does is go to bed at around seven in the evening and wake up at four in the morning to go and get fresh fruit and veg every day. The other domestic staff either live in the surrounding area, like the cleaners, or they travel up for the summer - the doctors and domestic nurses etc. The site itself closes down for the winter. The area actually gets a stupid amount of snowfall every winter, so the whole place changes dramatically in the off-season (it would be interesting to do a winter camp there, seeing as you could do ice skating on the lake and snow mobile fun and games - I doubt they'd ever want to actually do that though). Also, during the winter, that's when big things get done - they do a lot of subtle changes and upgrades each year and one big cosmetic one for the kids - for example, last year they added a new building and changed the basketball hoops for the kids. The undeniably adult staff (people who aren't like me, people with dependents/families/lives in the world beyond) who have worked there for years come from far and wide. Some come from Israel, most others come from out of state, all see camp as a part of their lives as opposed to jobs.