Hear the Quiet of a Camp Ground Summer

By Yvonne Guzman

The Camp Ground cottages are shamelessly colored, in shades like lemon yellow, chocolate brown and strawberry red. Green is trimmed with blue, violet with mauve, hot pink with bubblegum pink, as if these cottages leapt from the pages of a coloring book.

But then, this is an improbable place. In the Camp Ground, houses have names and sidewalks substitute for streets. Families gather for group singalongs on July nights.

People here still go to church. Loud, late night parties aren't allowed. Neighbors know and care for one another. And life moves slowly.

The Camp Ground, unlike some landmarks, is safe from it's own popularity. That's because the Camp Meeting Association governs the Camp Ground not as a tourist attraction, but as a neighborhood with values.

These values were brought here many ago, by Methodist ministers and congregations who began coming to Oak Bluffs in the early 19th century for short summer camp retreats. They pitched tents, preached and ate picnic meals. They returned year after year, the one-week stays lengthened, and gradually, little wooden cottages began to replace the tents.

The Camp Ground has changed in many ways. Thousands of people now come for the community singalong each Wednesday night. Big concerts are conducted. Tourists come to see the lovely Victorian homes.

But it is the oldest traditions that attract many home buyers.

Residents are required to keep their cottages looking nice. No loud music after 11 p.m. is allowed. No hammering on Sunday mornings. Participation in association services and singalongs is encouraged. And no cottage is leased to nonresidents for more than six weeks a year.

Oak Bluffs, too, is invested in the Camp Ground. As usual, everyone is invited to singalongs, for the singing of American folk favorites, like Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah and You Are My Sunshine.

And as usual everyone keeps quiet about the Grand Illumination. The tradition of lighting up the Camp Ground with Chinese lanterns has become so popular that officials try to keep the date secret. Thousands of people have come to see the ornate lanterns.

In recent years, the crowds have been respectful. Many have enjoyed the beautiful Camp Ground setting for high school graduations, concerts and other events.

But they have left is as a place that can be enjoyed in quiet ways.

There is a banner hanging in the Tabernacle that says "Surely the Lord is in this place" and it's a feeling that you get when you just sit and listen.