If you’re lucky, you have a place where you feel completely comfortable, where you’re free to be exactly who you are. Some people find that place in their own home; for others, it’s a shade tree in their neighborhood park or a beach on the ocean. It doesn’t really matter where this place exists as long as you’ve found it. I feel especially lucky because I found my place when I was just a kid—eight years old, to be exact, when I spent my first summer at Camp Hollis.
Established on the shores of Lake Ontario in the town of Oswego, Camp Hollis has served children in Oswego County since 1946 and I’ve spent the last two years writing a book about its history. I’ll publish the book next year, when the camp celebrates its 75th year of providing boys and girls fun in the sun. It’s been a pleasure to write about Camp Hollis, especially since I’m honoring my special place, my “Place in the Sun.”
You may not be familiar with Stevie Wonder’s song “A Place in the Sun.” When he recorded it in 1966, it didn’t spend much time on the music charts. Maybe that’s because the song wasn’t particularly flashy and didn’t come with a killer chorus, but Stevie was saying something important when he sang it. Take a listen.
Wonder was 16 years old when Motown, his record company, released “A Place in the Sun.” He was just shedding his “Little Stevie Wonder” image that made him a star, but no one could have predicted the groundbreaking music—most of it self-composed—he would soon be creating. But even in his youth, when others supplied the songs he recorded, Stevie often had a message to share. He had an unlikely hit with Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” deepening the song’s meaning when sung by a Black teenager. Motown’s in-house composers gave him “Heaven Help Us All,” a song about our country’s failing social conditions, and Stevie’s impassioned singing asked us to pray for soldiers dying in war and drug addicts dying in the streets.
With the same yearning in his voice, Stevie sang “A Place in the Sun.” Using nature as a metaphor for hope, he addressed the social and cultural problems erupting in the 1960s.
“Like a long lonely stream
I keep runnin' towards a dream,
movin' on, movin' on.
Like a branch on a tree
I keep reachin' to be free,
movin' on, movin' on...”
I first heard “A Place in the Sun” around the time I first attended Camp Hollis, but I didn’t associate the fun I had there with Stevie’s hopeful place; it was as an adult that I connected those dots. But something about the feeling I got from the song reminded me of camp. After all, Hollis was the place where I felt free and began to believe in myself. I often refer to the camp as “the place where I hit the only homerun of my life” and that’s true. I was an uncoordinated kid and terrible at sports, but the counselors at Hollis didn’t know that about me and they gave me the same chance to succeed that they gave every kid under their care. I also made self-discoveries in arts & crafts and on nature trails. And I made lots of friends, making my camp experience one of the thousands of success stories Camp Hollis claims.
I got extra lucky with Hollis, ending up on its summer staff during my college years. As a 19-year-old, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but after a few summers at the camp, where I worked alongside others who had chosen careers in teaching or social work, I decided I wanted to help people. By my junior year, I’d switched my college major to education.
While I enjoyed the challenges of teaching—I taught for seven years right out of college—I often found myself nostalgic about my place in the sun. Imagine my excitement in 1989, when I learned that Camp Hollis now had a fulltime position which oversaw the camp, and that the job was currently open. For the next 21 years, my place in the sun was my main responsibility, which gave me lots of opportunities to meet others who considered the camp their special place.
When the time came for me to retire from that job, I knew I wasn’t ready to fully let Camp Hollis go. Fortunately, along with the camp being a great place for children and adults, Hollis is also a beautiful place. Overlooking Lake Ontario, with its incredible sunsets, the camp has inspired staff members and volunteers to create a series of gardens and it’s now my pleasure to take care of them. Nowadays I stop by the camp once a week during the growing season to water and pull weeds. While doing so I listen to the sounds of happy children, many who are finding, for the first time, their place in the sun.
Though the camp program only runs for eight weeks each summer, it has a way of staying in the hearts of anyone who’s enjoyed their time there. Through the other three seasons, when the weather or life’s challenges can get me down, I reflect on the camp. Which brings me to my favorite part of “A Place in the Sun.” It comes at the end of the song, when Stevie offers one more reason why it’s important to find your special place. I like to sing it just like Stevie does, loud and confidently:
“You know when times are bad
and you're feeling sad
I want you to always remember
Yes, there's a place in the sun…”
