Touring Arcadia: Elements of Discursive Simulation and Cultural Struggle at a Children's Summer Camp

Abstract

I get up and begin to walk slowlyfrom the stafftable to the center of the dining hall. It used to be called a mess hall, but several years ago a particularly civicand public relations-minded camp director decided the military connotations were bad for the camp's image. Now, these years later, the issue seems hardly worth the antagonism it caused at the time. We still owned mealtime. It's true that endless staff meetings were held to address the problem of too much rowdiness, yelling, and singing at the end of meals. It was even decided to make breakfast the mellow meal of the day. The loss of breakfast meant, however, an implicit recognition that meals were unchangeable at Camp Jack Hazard (CJH). You could scale them back, ask for some concessions, but you could never eliminate what was a reified centerpiece of the camp's spirit. You could rename the building, but we still owned mealtime.