Chapter 252

8/26/2010

Camp life

we are all fiddlers on the roof  

Grandpa Kasemir Kanchas came from Eastern Europe at the turn of the last century just like Marc Chagall. It was his painting "The Fiddler", that epitomized the precarious balancing act the Jewish population undertook just to survive in a life of uncertainty. It was likewise the symbol for the book, play and movie, Fiddler on the Roof . In that story, the family patriarch attempts to maintain traditions even though family members are attempting to become independent and go their own ways.

Dave Kanches, perched up on the camp roof here, acts in a similar manner attempting to keep things together by knocking down the chimney. Each of the family members has a different perspective of the way things should be done. You may ask, why do we remove the water pump from the camp each year rather than draining it and leaving it in place like everyone else? Tradition. Without traditions our lives would be as precarious as a fiddler on the roof  , or a Cedar Waxwing on his perch over a swamp.

Have rearranged this years camp photos, into 3 albums. This third one includes the Bald Eagle, close-ups of Osprey, Geese, Heron, and very especially the marvelous Cedar Waxwings of the Jessup River Wild Forest. (Mirable and I tented in this primitive forest back in his chopper motorcycle days after boozing at the Jammer.)