Shiloh

When I was around 6 years old my parents decided to move out of our little suburban town to East Bridgewater, Massachusetts where they became the caretakers of a Christian Campground called "Shiloh".  I was a young boy, but lately I have been drawing upon some of the good memories from my childhood and Shiloh holds some of the most vivid and fond memories of my childhood.  

Shiloh was a located on 17 acres in rural Massachusetts.  The land was flanked by cranberry bogs and corn fields with a lake to the south and a long dirt road leading to the main road to the North (at least that's how I remember it).  There were a few cabins on the property and there was a big outdoor church which we called the "Tabernacle" which held services in the summer when families came from all around to camp or youth came for their summer camps.  There was a big old house on the property, which we lived in and life was very simple.

As I said, my first experiences at Shiloh I was only about six years old, my brother 2 or 3, my sister was yet to be born.  We spent our days frolicking around the property, picking corn and snatching butterflies we fished and generally we were just boys, innocent.  On Sundays we would have church service in a little building made of block, which also doubled as the shower house and little store for the campground during the summer.  My dad would lead the music, there were maybe 10 people in church for most of the year, until the summer time when travelling Evangelists came and erected tents for church services.

I was home schooled during this time, I had yet to go to a traditional school and out life was very simple.  I miss those days all of the time.

Eventually we moved away from the campground and into a house in Carver, Massachusetts and time would go on, we would grow, but Shiloh would remain a part of our life into my pre-teen years.  I can remember camping in the cabins with 6 or 8 buddies and spending the days playing softball and canoeing out to the little island across the lake. We used to sneak out at night to meet girls and chase each other.  I have wonderful memories of camping with my family in a little tent trailer and going to vacation bible school.  There are so many memories of this place throughout my childhood and I am grateful to have had this wholesome time as a child setting a foundation for me before the difficult times in my life so that I would have good memories to look back on and hold on to.  

Shiloh had a lot of firsts for me, my first camping trips without my parents, my first canoe trip without an adult, my first kiss.  I am grateful to have memories of such a simple time in my life to draw on, to remind me of innocence which helped me draw out of my rebellious and painful teenage years and have helped me to strive to become a better person, no matter how hard it is.  Someday I will have children of my own and I want them to experience the things that I did at that age, without those positive experiences as a child, I don't know where I would be.

~tilly