One Community

One community I’d have to return to consistently was French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, located in the Catskill Mountains, a mere two hours from where I grew up in upstate NY. As the ‘mailman’ for seven summers (preceded by eight summers as a camper and a CIT, starting at age 12) I have made being Joe the Mailman my alter ego—or primary ego, depending on your opinion.

A position I had where I commanded respect, enjoyed serving as a mentor to campers, and happily received the toasts of a grateful staff.

I had my own fiefdom. I ran the department true to my own design, had total autonomy in my management style, which had always sat well with the administration…or so I had thought. If there were any complaints, at least I never heard them. But I always did fear the day would come when I just might.

One might say, it was the one job I’ve had where, all my physical and mental handicaps aside, I was damn good at it. I was my own boss. I shaped the mailroom not only by work habits, but my idiosyncrasies.

I could make my image an icon, with my “Priority Male”—not “mail”—T-shirt, with its sleeves cut off. With my olive drab sun hat and my shades.

I could hop across the campus to my distinctive skip. The signs of my cerebral palsy-affected gait were not viewed as freakishness, but as awesomeness. (Anywhere else but French Woods I display my trotting and skipping, heads turn as though surprised and disturbed). One friend has gone as far as to dub my hop, “the Mailman Hop.” I imagine singing “Let’s Mailman Hop” to the tune of the Cookies’ classic “Let’s Turkey Trot!”

Eli Wiesel has said:

“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”

I am naturally an obsessive man. So the concept of love is indeed a struggle. But friendships are very real. I feel that I will carry the longest-lasting friendships from French Woods. So many, I have met through the camp, at one time or another.

At the age of 20, I first became counselor to campers at age 10. So I feel a special bond in that we continue our friendship ten years apart.