And what is gimp really when you look at it objectively? Long pieces of plastic made into tacky bracelets. It doesn’t sound like much, but come to camp for a week and try to find one person who doesn’t have in their possession at least three yards of the stuff. I bet you can’t.

Ask any returning camper what they plan to do at camp, and the answer will be, "Gimp." Sometimes they’ll say, "Go to Ol’ Baldy," but most of the time it will be, "Gimp."

When I was a camper I bought more gimp than I now buy shoes. It was a necessity to cram as much of that stuff into your suitcase as you could by Saturday morning. If you didn’t, something bad would undoubtedly happen, or at least that’s what everybody thought. Once we left camp, there was no way to get gimp. We had to wait a whole year before we got more.

Of course there were ways to get gimp throughout the year. If you knew the right people, you could get some hot gimp. I know this because the gimp dealers met late at night at the Crystal Lake observation deck with the druggies, and I would listen out my bedroom window.

"Do ya got the stuff, man?"

"Yeah, I got it. I got it. Do you got the cash?"

"Yeah, of course. Don’t dis me. Three cents a yard. I’ve got it."

"What do ya want, homey?"

"I’ll take four yards of black and five of gold. Three green and eight red."

"How about some neon yellow?"

"I don’t know, man. It’s not my thing."

"Come on, it’s a rush."

"I don’t know. The cops---"

"Don’t worry about the cops. We’re good, man. Real good. Now do you want it or not?"

"Yeah."

"It’ll cost you."

"I’m willing to pay."

This, as far as I know, was the only way to get gimp once you left camp.

There was one time in my life that I found gimp at a store. It was in the Shop-ko craft section, back when they had a craft section. I was eleven. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw packages of gimp sitting on a shelf. I thought it was a mirage. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, but the gimp was still there. I bought a gimp kit and called my best friend who had gone to camp with me for two years. She rushed to Shop-ko and also bought a kit.

The gimp at Shop-ko wasn’t Camp Michigamme gimp quality. It was softer and more stubborn and the colors were kind of funny. But it was still gimp, and our supplies were dwindling dangerously low.

We brought our kits to school the next day and proudly sat on the big blocks of granite near the entranceway gimping. How were we to know that gimp wasn’t so cool outside camp boundaries?

"What the heck is that?"

"It’s gimp."

"Looks like a colored piece of plastic to me. What do you do with it?"

"Make stuff out of it like bracelets and crosses."

"Oh. You’re not going to wear something made out of that, are you?"

"Yeah. We do at camp all the time."

"This isn’t camp. It’s school."

Maybe this is why Shop-ko’s craft section went out of business.

Gordo is the ultimate gimpmaster. I had a kid tell me once that he wished we could nominate him for TIME magazine's man of the year award. When you’re ten years old, the eight strand round braid is beyond impressive. If you can do the eight strand gimp bracelet, you deserve a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. To a camper, it’s the Olympics of gimp. In Barcelona 1992 the world had Jackie Joyner Kersey and those Dave and Dan guys. The campers at Camp Michigamme had Gordo the Gimpmaster.

I always tell my campers, "Do you know who I learned to gimp from? Gord." Then it gets really quiet until one kid utters, "Wow!" It’s like saying you studied modern dance with Martha Graham or architecture with Frank Lloyd Wright.

What is gimp useful for after camp? I’ve brought it on baby-sitting jobs. Kids love it and spend hours trying to make something out of it. It makes a great decoration. I have a half finished bunch hanging from my reading lamp. I have an eight strand gimp loop on my key chain. People look at it and ask, "What is that?" I always answer, "Gimp," in this tone of Duh! Everyone knows what gimp is. Then one of two things happens: a) the person feels like a moron for not knowing what gimp is and changes the subject or b) the person says, "Oh. It looks like a bunch of colored plastic to me."

How does campers’ gimp get so messed up so fast? I’ll start a square braid and give it to a camper. They’ll say thank you and go on their way. I think I’ve seen the last of that unfinished gimp bracelet, but two minutes later:

"My gimp came apart."

"How? There was a knot in it."

"I dunno. It just did."

"Did you take it apart?"

"No. It just happened."

So I’ll start it again, and once more the camper thanks me and goes off to gimp. But a few minutes later:

"My gimp came apart."

"Again?"

"Yeah. Can you fix it?"

"How did it come apart?"

"I dunno. I was gimping, and all of a sudden it came apart."

"Look, little Mary, gimp cannot just come apart once two rows of a square braid has been started."

"Mine did."

"How?"

"I dunno. It just did."

I do not understand this.