DETAILS:

• Nationality: American
• Language: English
• Age: 53
• Residence: Berkeley, CA
• Occupation: Psychologist
• Collected on: 11/28/2024

CONTEXT:

Informant was a camp counselor at a sleepaway camp called Camp Tawonga near Yosemite. This happened during their first year as a camp counselor.

DIRECT TRANSCRIPTION:

SS: “ A  little more than three quarters of the way through the summer, and the camp always had a number of people from all over the world, this one guy, Eddie, was the lifeguard, one of the lifeguards. There were many lifeguards, one of them, and he was from the Netherlands. And he just wanted to experience a new place, and he had been picked. It was not an easy fit, but he was very well intentioned and had a huge personality. And the kids really loved him. The staff, it was a little bit of a harder connection, but he was really good. Very well loved by the kids and he did a really good job. Camp Tawonga at the time used to take kids not only on backpacking trips, but also on day trips in Yosemite. So, um, on one of the day trips he went with, I remember the two counselors, and the, so you always had a lifeguard, a wilderness leader, and then the campers and their counselors. And so there was a group of, I think they were probably like 9, 10 year old boys, and there were two counselors, and the, wilderness leader and then Eddie was the lifeguard because they were going on a day hike to specifically a lake that kids for years at Camp Tawonga had gone to to go swimming. It’s a great swimming spot. And that particular day, unfortunately, there was a really, it was just a bad luck situation where there was an avalanche of rocks of small ish to medium sized rocks that happened because a gazelle of some sort, a deer, from what they could tell, happened to cross over at the top of this mountain hillside, where the path was, and it just sent this, you know, sent a series of rocks down, and unfortunately, um, well, fortunately, none of the kids were hurt. They all started to notice it happening, and in order to save some of the little kids. He did this very heroic thing and kind of went over to push the kid out of the, one of the kids out of the way and he got hit in the head and he died instantly. It was horrible. Oh my god. Horrible, horrible, horrible. He was like 19, 20. So the kids all went to bed that night and the counselors and all the staff, and, um, they told the staff here’s what happened and Eddie has died and we have already called his family. And so as you can imagine, it was very upsetting beyond upsetting for everybody. The staff was even tighter after that, as you can imagine. And, um, and at Tawonga, you know, everyone, the staff, gets together in the evenings. And we all were talking, and, um, what was, it was maybe a week or two later, and, what became clear is everyone was talking about Eddie, of course, and we were talking about our feelings about it. And a few of us had an experience where there was this, so, camp is huge, a lot of land, and, um, there was this one section, I actually still remember it, that was this little, there was this little bridge over a creek that went from arts and crafts, I don’t know if you remember all this, arts and crafts to the nature center. And it’s not an area I went very often unless I was taking my bunk to those places or between those places. But I was there for some reason, maybe on my own, like coming to get someone or get something for my bunk. And I was by myself and I remember thinking, something’s weird here. Like it feels different. It feels weird. Like, and I got shivers, and it was, camp was hot, so like, that was notable. I got shivers, and I remember I was like, oh, this is kind of weird, like, and I thought of Eddie. So I just thought of Eddie. Now, you could say, like, everyone was thinking of Eddie, of course, all the time, and everyone was a little bit traumatized and sad. And, what became weirder was that when I went to one of these staff meetings in the dining hall, and we were all talking, several people said, you know, do any of you guys feel like you have felt Eddie’s presence? And so several people said, yeah. And what became really weird, and I still get shivers about it is everyone said the same place. That little bridge over the Creek going between the arts and crafts center and the nature center was where everyone said, that’s where I felt it. And I still get shivers from it.”

INFORMANTS OPINION:

SS: “I mean, I was 19, I do think there is something about like conceptualizing mortality and what happens and all those things, but it was noteworthy and we all kind of took a moment and were like, that’s weird. And as a result, we’re still talking about Eddie decades later. Decades later. As a result, Eddie made himself felt.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

Ghost stories are often a way of creating community and are shared between family and friends. In some instances, ghost stories are used as a way to confront grief as a part of a community. In this case, I was struck by how the counselors’ stories of “feeling” Eddie’s presence were perhaps used as a way to connect over grief, and as a way to know that no one is alone in their grief.