Camp friends forever

Steve Heller remembers feeling insecure and anxious about leaving home for the first time when he went to summer camp at age 15. That all changed the day he met Bonnie Victor, a precocious 13-year-old with a brown pixie haircut and mouthful of braces

The details from the first date are foggy at best, but her dusty blue diary with an entry dated Aug. 7, 1958, helps fill in the blanks.

"She wrote about going on a hay ride and meeting my friend, who was much taller than I and much more handsome," Steve recalled. "And then at the end of the page, it said, 'Oh, and I met Steve Heller, too.' I guess it wasn't the flashiest of entrances for me."

But it worked. The next day, Bonnie and Steve, who also wore braces, shared their first kiss after an evening walk.

Across the country, kids are beginning to experience the magic of summer camp. After stumbling off their buses -- away from home for perhaps the first time -- and getting that awkward first meeting out of the way, many will go on to forge lasting friendships with a counselor they admire or a bunkmate who's experiencing the same adolescent strifes.

Some may even find lasting love.

This summer, the Hellers will celebrate 45 years of marriage on the exact day that they met at Herzl Camp in Webster, Wis.

JJ Joseph and Scott Johnson began dating shortly after arriving at camp in 1996, JJ worked at Camp Lake Hubert for girls near Brainerd, while Scott was across the lake at Camp Lincoln for boys. After meeting at a staff training session, Scott sent a letter to JJ through camp mail, asking for a date.

JJ remembers that first date like it was yesterday. It was June 21, summer solstice. JJ wore khaki pants and a blue shirt; Scott, a purple North Face fleece that he still wears to this day. The couple had California burgers at Bar Harbor Supper Club, before picking up a six-pack of Sam Adams for an evening boat cruise on Gull Lake.

"At the end of the night he asked if he could kiss me," JJ said. "It happened in the staff parking lot, in his car."

At the end of the three-month summer romance, the two went their separate ways. Three years later, they met up again at a camp reunion. They've been married since 2002 and have three little campers.

Bunking with Bob Dylan

Waldman's longtime camp friendships inspired him to organize a 50-year reunion of staff members from the 1960s that's scheduled for next summer.

"You spend literally 24 hours a day for nine or 10 weeks hanging out and you're in an atmosphere that's very intense," Waldman said of his time as a counselor. "You spend all that time together, day and night. ... It's very powerful."

"Oh, by the way, my bunkmate was Bob Dylan," he said matter-of-factly. "He pounded on the piano in those days. We didn't think he had that great a voice, but he was a great guy."

A sneaky kind of love

Summertime crushes sometimes happen on the sly during a walk through the woods, then pretty soon the entire camp knows who's sitting in a tree with who. When you're a counselor, however, it's best to keep your romances a secret.

The campers couldn't know that the two were a couple -- that could be a distraction -- so their relationship became a game of hide-and-seek with a look here and there, and sneaking away together during their off time.

"Camp romances don't operate like romances in the real world," Jesse said. "Camp is a very magical place."

The longing glances worked, because Jesse and Stacy will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary on Saturday, the same day they began dating at camp 16 years ago.

The boys of the '80s

Alan Einisman stepped off a school bus and stood in line with hundreds of campers anxiously awaiting their cabin assignments. Once the dust settled, a boys club of 12- to 14-year-olds was formed; tight-rolled jeans, popped collars and hair gel weren't required, but certainly preferred.

The years passed and camp gave way to college, jeans to business suits. But the memories of camp and friendships remain.

"To say these guys are acquaintances is a major understatement," Einisman said of "his boys," a group of seven scattered across the country who stay in touch via phone, e-mail and Facebook. "These are guys that stood up at my wedding."

There's no telling what it is about camp that creates such lasting relationships.

For Einisman, it was a time of exploration -- being a teenager and trying to figure "it all" out. Instead of going it alone, he had friends going through the same things and reconnecting every summer. They learned what it was like to be away from home, try new things, be a leader and, of course, experience "young love."

"Ah, it's the best. It's young and pure and exciting," Einisman said. "I think every kid falls in love at camp. The question is, what happens when camp is over?"