Nearly Wonderful
The South River Chip Truck
Counsellors get four nights off total across the summer. One night a week, every week. For most staff, it is a quick escape. For the DOC and CIT Director, it’s a regular routine. Three or four nights a week, Jamesy and I would load up our cars and head into South River. This gives us a slightly different perspective on the place compared to the staff who only make the trip a few times.
South River is not a big town. It’s one main road with a gas station, grocery store, post office, Chinese restaurant, ice cream shop, hockey rink and a chip truck. There’s a small community of locals, and most people passing through are headed to Algonquin Park or the surrounding cottage country.
When we first moved to Camp Ozanam from Woodland Trails, we were concerned about how this would work. Back there, a night off meant driving into Newmarket. You had choices. You could go to the movie theatre, the Upper Canada Mall, pick from your choice of fast food. South River is quieter. But I have changed my mind about it since then. It has what we need.
A family sized poutine shared between counsellors
Mostly, we go to the chip truck. It is operated by a guy named Jeremy. The staple order for any group is the family poutine. He serves it in a shallow cardboard flat, the kind that usually holds a 24-pack of soda cans. It is incredibly cheap, and the counsellors are quick to share it and snap pictures of the mountain of fries, soggy with gravy and cheese curds. It is a great community indulgence.
When you place your order, Jeremy will ask how you are doing. You ask him back, and his answer is always the same: "nearly wonderful." I like that phrase. I choose to interpret it like things might not be perfect, but they are pretty close, and it’s best to focus on the good parts. When it is time to pay, Jeremy draws from a deck of cards and if you get the joker, your meal is free. It is really rare, happening maybe two or three times a summer. When it does happen, it’s an undeniable highlight of the week.
Jamesy pulling the joker
Those moments make me grateful for Jeremy. He is a lovely soul. I doubt he realizes it, but he has quietly contributed to the identity of our camp and the character of my own summer.
On the drive back, the car is usually much quieter. Everyone is full of poutine. The road between South River and Deer Lake is winding and hilly. We drive as the sun is setting, catching it through the trees and over the fields and meadows. It is a very calm way to end the night, watching the light change on the landscape.
Standing at that chip truck makes me think about how Camp Ozanam belongs up here. It was not like that at our old place. Camp is so often its own contained world. We spend our days entirely focused on the kids and the property, so community integration is not an often thought about part of the job. But it is nice to see how we have slowly been accepted and embraced in quiet ways by the locals of this sleepy town. They will mention hearing the camp bell drift across Deer Lake in the mornings. People in town know who we are, and they seem to genuinely appreciate the work we are doing. For a lot of the counsellors, this is the first time they have ever spent any meaningful time in this part of Ontario. The chip truck is just a small, specific detail, but it is representative of that texture. It gives you a sense of actually being part of this place, not just visiting it.
