A Reflection on The Lanyard
By Margaret Hagey
Camp Marymount is a Catholic overnight summer camp located just outside Nashville. We provide acres and acres of fun to children ages 6-16 (including 4th-generation campers!). CLICK HERE to view our dates and rates for next summer.
Former Camp Marymount camper, staff member, and current Summer Director Margaret Hagey reflects on the finer points of the lanyard. Is this a tradition worth reviving?
Some things can take you straight to a memory you had not thought of for years. It might be a picture, a smell, or a song that sends you on a journey back in time.
The thing for me was a poem titled “The Lanyard” by Billy Collins (you’ll find it at the end of this post). When I read it, two things popped into my head. One is the obvious: we can never repay our mother for what she did, was, and gave to us. Since this is a camp blog, and not a tribute to mothers, I will instead focus on the memory that “The Lanyard” sparked so powerfully.
It was the 1970s at Camp Marymount. I sat in the Arts and Crafts hut as a small, shy, Cabin 1- camper, trying to weave some plastic strips just right to make a key chain. Contrary to the poem, the purpose for my lanyard was not to give to the woman who gave birth to me.
I’d decided this lanyard would hold the key to my trunk, even though we were not allowed to lock our trunks. There was no risk of stolen goods, and locking the trunk only resulted in a maintenance guy using pliers to rip the lock open, since the keys were always lost at some point… which is why I needed the lanyard keychain… but I digress.
Oh, the lanyard…if my teens heard this word, they would immediately think of the string that holds their school ID or key fob. But anyone who went to summer camp in the 70’s can visualize a real lanyard. As explained in the poem, it was “made from long, thin plastic strips” that we would craft into some sort of item to wear proudly or to gift a lucky recipient.
When I started coming to Marymount as a 7-year-old in the mid ‘70s, there were only two options for the length of time you stayed. There were two 3-week sessions (First or Second Session), or you could attend both, in which case you were known as a 6-weeker (much like our 5-weekers are known today).
I mention this because I was just a measly 3-weeker until I was 11, when they changed the sessions to 3- and 2 ½-weeks, and I was allowed to stay both. Back in the day, the 6-weekers got to do special projects in the Arts and Crafts hut. Their projects took a little longer, and perhaps their supplies cost a little more. But the lanyard? That was something everyone did, 3- and 6-weekers alike.
Why does the lanyard hold such a vivid camp memory? Why was it so popular for camps everywhere? What does it represent now to us old camp folks? I have a few ideas… practical, simple, and traditional.
First, the lanyard was practical. The material was sturdy. It resisted water damage and must have been an economical choice. Using a more durable (i.e. stiff) material meant that it was easier for little fingers to maneuver and that mistakes were easy to see and fix.
This one concept could be a whole other blog post, but it simply meant that a twisted or out-of-order braid could easily be made “right” by looking at it to find where you made a mistake. While “undoing” the braid or weave was annoying, it was a doable task. It also led to the development of grit, that characteristic so necessary for children to grow into independent, confident, and reliable adults.
When you finally got to the end of the strands, whether it be for a little keychain or long lanyard to which you could attach a whistle, it was time to wrap up the project. A counselor with the patience of Job would expertly knot the strands, tuck them in, and “finish” the lanyard, over and over for dozens of campers each summer. Another lesson learned… there are times when all of us will need help, and that is OK.
Lanyards were an exercise in simplicity. Even the youngest campers were able to weave, braid, or otherwise manipulate the strands to create something eye-catching. As a young camper, I was proud to be doing the “same” project as the older girls, albeit with simpler patterns. I never recognized that my little 4-strand creation lacked the complexity of the 6+-strands that the Senior Campers were making. To me, we were doing the same thing, and that was pretty cool.
Finally, making lanyards at summer camp was a tradition. Having spent many summers at Camp Marymount, I have seen some traditions come and go, and I have experienced some almost-identical traditions year after year. Occasionally, the location or timing of the tradition may change, but these “customs” that have been passed down are important for the continuity of Camp Marymount’s one-of-a-kind program. They are the special things that call back the “spirit” of Marymount that campers talk about so fondly. The Marymount Spirit follows each of them back into the “real world” at the end of every summer.
I am not really sure when the lanyard left the Arts and Crafts hut, but I can tell you that it has been a while since I’ve seen anyone work those unmistakable plastic strands into a personal masterpiece. The “friendship bracelet,” with its softer, more forgiving thread, is the craft today that most closely resembles the old lanyard.
Friendship bracelets and lanyards do contain similar elements. The bracelet is a simple, inexpensive craft, and it is most definitely a summer camp tradition. It is a little easier to hide mistakes and not so easy to “undo.” I have seen the campers work hard and long on many of these creations, so I believe they still require the determination and grit that are an important part of our program. The bracelets also foster unity. I see the younger and older campers, as well as the staff, braiding and weaving together. This connection is what Marymount is all about.
That brings us to the summer ahead (which is always the best summer of all!). I think we’ll bring back old-fashioned lanyard making. Don’t worry! We will still have friendship bracelets galore, but I think some old-school, plastic-strand braiding will be just the thing for reflecting on tradition.
On that note, we’re introducing a program where alumni can “apply” to return to camp and help during the summer sessions. After the standard background checks and safety training that accompany the hiring of all our staff, you’ll be able to take part in activities, kitchen duties, laundry, the infirmary, or other areas where you feel you can contribute. You will get “time off” too…when you can enjoy camp, go for a swim or hike, paddle a canoe or shoot at the archery range. Imagine that… you get to come back to camp!
Please see the information below if you are Camp Marymount alum who would like to spend a few days with us this summer.
We’ll save some lanyard string just for you.
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Email Margaret to learn more about joining us to work as a camp alum: margaret@campmarymount.com
Below is the poem that prompted this memory for Margaret Hagey.
You might want to have some tissues handy.
The Lanyard
By Billy Collins, Reprinted from The Poetry Foundation
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.
I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.
Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth
that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
Copyright Credit: “The Lanyard” from The Trouble With Poetry: and Other Poems by Billy Collins, copyright © 2005 by Billy Collins.
REGISTER FOR CAMP
JOIN OUR STAFF
INQUIRE ABOUT WORKING AS AN ALUM
Email Margaret to learn more about joining us to work as a camp alum: margaret@campmarymount.com