Summertime, and the livin' is easy ... up in the mountains, down by the sea (05/04/97)

Summertime, and the livin' is easy ... up in the mountains, down by the sea

by Irene Jarosewich

Some may head to the Hamptons ... we head for Hunter. Others lounge in Nantucket ... we loll around in Narrowsburg. And to those who head to the Cape, we say - to the Cape, hey! Never mind that some choose Cod and we choose May.

Sweet, sweet, summertime - promises of tranquility and relaxation. The haziness and intimacies of summer make for lifelong memories and lifelong friends. In one of his poems, Ivan Drach wrote about the slow sensuality of August in Ukraine, claiming that this was the month most kind to love and romance.

For years Ukrainians throughout North America have been sending their children to sports camps, and dance camps, and bandura camps, and camps run by the youth organizations Plast, and ODUM and SUM-A. They visit "babtsia" and "dido" at their summer home, join their friends for long holiday weekends at Ukrainian resorts and party at Ukrainian festivals. They study at Ukrainian summer courses, organize academic and professional conferences, dance at weddings, hug at reunions, and make promises to meet again.

The heart of this summer flow is the feeling of annual ritual that weaves the informal network that connects Ukrainians. While Ukrainians in Canada have developed a tradition of festivals, Ukrainians in America prefer summer destinations.

Nestled in the Delaware Valley region, atop the Appalachian Plateau, at the tri-state crossroads of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, the Ukrainian Fraternal Association's scenic resort, Verkhovyna, at Glen Spey, N.Y., is a 142-acre site that is described by all who have been there as "beautiful." Verkhovyna is surrounded by mountains, with the Poconos of Pennsylvania a few miles to the west, the Catskills of New York a bit further to the north, the Shawangunk Mountains (locally known as the "Gunks") to the east, and a bit of the Appalachian Trail to the south. One young girl, whose parents and grandparents have been coming to Verkhovyna for more than 30 years simply calls all the surrounding mountains "the Karpaty." Five or six dozen families own homes in the area and vacationers can stay in the resort's reasonably priced rooms. Verkhovyna hosts several camps for children, and the resort boasts a pool, as well as a lake with excellent fishing. Students hike on nearby trails and canoe in nearby waters. The two local Ukrainian churches, as well as entertainment and cultural programs are at the core of community life.

Winding north of Glen Spey through the valley to Narrowsburg, N.Y., one can cross the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and slip away from the hurried world to a former retreat camp owned by the Order of St. Basil the Great. Though longtime vacationers refer to the spot as Narrowsburg, the camp is actually located on the shore of Barclay Lake, in the village of Beach Lake, Pa. According to the Rev. Christopher Voityna, decades ago, families that vacationed at the site traveled by train across the river to Narrowsburg to pick up groceries, send mail and call home, hence the name. Bought in 1946 by the Basilian Fathers to serve as a site for spiritual retreats, the quiet, scenic location also served as a site for Plast camps in the late 1940s and early 1950s and as a destination for vacationing families for the past 50 years. More than two generations of families have been coming to the 60 bungalows that encircle the 54-acre lake. It's a rustic spot, with no running water - but Narrowsburg loyalists would not have it any other way.

Traveling northeast on Route 209 from Verkhovyna, a vacationer would find, between the SUM-A and ODUM camps, another fraternal resort - Soyuzivka - the Ukrainian National Association's 400-acre resort in Kerhonkson, N.Y. Two hours north of New York City, in the heart of the Catskills, Soyuzivka, or "Suzy-Q," has been home to UNA members and their guests for 45 years. A bubbling creek runs through the resort campus and the numerous guest rooms overlook beautiful mountain views. The summer program is filled with dances and entertainment, children's camps and tennis camps and celebrations that go on for days. Offering the seclusion of separate guesthouses, Soyuzivka is nonetheless the place one travels to be seen. Hanging out by the tennis courts, lounging by the pool, sunning on the veranda - people wander the shaded paths in search of family and old friends. Chance encounters on these paths can result in conversations that go on for hours, as the conversants remain rooted in one spot, oblivious to the strollers around them. The end of summer brings the largest parties, with a singles' week and the crowning of Miss Soyuzivka in August and Suzy-Q's end-of-summer, "see-you-next-year" Labor Day finale.

Further north in the Catskills, one arrives at Hunter, a quiet hamlet in the summer and a bustling ski resort in the winter. Like Verkhovyna, the mountains around Hunter also remind many older vacationers of their beloved Carpathians in Ukraine. In the 1960s and '70s, Ukrainian poets, writers and artists gathered in Hunter at the Xenia Motel, owned by the Kobziar family. Known as "Kobziarivka," it was the heart of Ukrainian life in Hunter for years. Those who remember going to Hunter as children, have begun to return and buy homes in the area. More than a hundred Ukrainian families now live in Hunter during summer. For those wishing to stay for shorter periods, there are several hotels, or a room in a home, or a house that can be rented. A hand-carved, wooden church, St. John the Baptist, built in the Hutsul tradition stands majestically on a hillside overlooking Hunter's main road, Route 23A. At a site donated by longtime residents of Hunter Mykhailo and Lubomyra Pezansky, the youth organization Plast holds its annual training camps for counselors. The church and the programs at the Music and Arts Center of Greene County are at the center of summer community life for this close-knit group of residents. Each summer Dr. Ihor Sonevytsky, founder and director of the center, organizes a music series, as well as workshops in folk arts.

Since not all Ukrainians live near mountains, some travel to lakes. In the Midwest, Chicagoland Ukrainians travel to "Kruhle Ozero," or Round Lake, Ill., about an hour's drive northwest of the city center. Since there is no place to spend the night, Round Lake is really a hangout, a day trip to play beach volleyball on the lake's shore or a couple of sets on the tennis courts, or relax in the gazebo with some snacks from the "kukhnia." Ukrainian community groups organize picnics on weekends throughout the summer.

For more water, one can travel to the ocean and meet up with Ukrainians in Wildwood. Once the boardwalk in this New Jersey shore town was packed so tightly with people in the summer months that after a day in the beach, vacationers would go to sleep for several hours and not even begin to stroll the planks until 9 or 10 at night. But the development of Atlantic City to the north, the gentrification of Cape May to the south, and competition from other vacation spots means this shore town has shifted into low gear. Though this beach location is known simply as "Wildwood" to Ukrainians, to be exact, of the three New Jersey Wildwoods - North Wildwood, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest - it's really to the small sliver of beach known as Wildwood Crest to which Ukrainians travel. To be exactly exact, Ukrainians travel to a specific spot on this sliver of beach: 50 yards in front of the Pan Am Hotel - give or take a dozen beach blankets to the right and a dozen to the left. The Wildwood routine is pretty simple: in August, after the "tabory" end, families come to Wildwood. The third week in August, dubbed "Ukie Week" by Joe, the owner of the Park Lane Hotel, who keeps the same rooms for his regulars from year to year, is the main week. Then everyone goes home for a week - to start college classes or get ready for school - only to meet again for the final summer good-bye at Suzy-Q on Labor Day. Since the celebration of Ukraine's independence on August 24 always falls within the third week, Wildwood regulars have developed a tradition: in lieu of an auditorium, they gather in a circle on the beach in the late afternoon on August 24 to commemorate Ukraine's independence; in lieu of a flag, they use a blue-and-yellow beach umbrella.

It's Ukraine's independence that has brought the biggest change to how and where Ukrainians summer in recent years. Since that fateful day in August 1991, the newest place for Ukrainians to spend their summer is, well, in Ukraine. Hey, go figure.

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