Mama had a good eye for opportunities to get her students, and me, out of Mississippi. My freshman year of college, she tossed a Better Homes & Gardens magazine at me. In the back, there was a classified ad for “Counselors Wanted at Camp Fernwood in Oxford, Maine”, followed by a phone number circled in back Sharpie and a note, “You should apply.”
Uncle David’s shooting lessons are what landed me a summer job as a certified NRA Rifle Instructor at Camp Fernwood. I was 18 years old. My Mississippi accent was so thick, no one could understand a thing I said. I couldn’t understand what they said because of their Maine accents.
I was homesick that first week. Tried to call Mama all the time but she’d gone to Art Camp at Penland School of Crafts. When I did finally hear from her, she said she was having a “Life Changing Experience” I just wouldn’t “get”, like the way she said I wouldn’t “get” Northern Exposure.
Excerpt from Care & Feeding by Chela Gutierrez
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