The first session of CTY at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was in 1982. Every person associated with the camp lived in Thomas Hall, students, staff, teachers, and administration. American Pie was supposedly play at dances dating all the way back to the early eighties. In the first week of 84.1, a new rule was announced, proclaiming that no person could be on a member of the opposite sex's hall. Some students coined these the Veil Laws, claiming that the restiction of students freedom by the administration was on the same level as those religions that force female members to wear veils over their faces. The Veil Law is still in place at all CTY campuses.
In the next few summers, the first Lancaster Canon began to take shape. By 1987 it was already firmly in place, and contained the songs: Rock Lobster, Oh 'Lamore, Bizarre Love Triangle, Time Warp, Forever Young, and American Pie. Also around this time, the first group of CTYer's to go by a name was formed, calling them selves Mattababy. Even though most of the members of this group were staff members when the name was first used to describe the group at an '86 staff party, the use of a name to classify a group of CTYer's became more common in later years.
In 1991 Session 2, The Duck was first held by Grant Gould. There were also a group of students in 1992 that commonly wore bathrobes. It is unknown whether this practice has anything to do with the current wearing of bathobes on Thursdays.
In 1993, another named group formed. This time it was LLRT (Land of the Large Round Tables), during second session, this group sat in Dining Room 4. During the second session of 1994, the Digital Logic class formed into another group called the Digi's, later to become known as Digi-Clan. Many LLRTers from first session joined the Digi's. Also, during '94 the Ritual of Passionfruit was transfered to Lancaster, from Carlisle, by Andromeda Yelton. In the school year between '94 and '95, the first literal CANON CD was burned by Louis Gerbarg and Tarpy, the songs placed on it were the object of heavy discussion by the DigiClan email list, narrowed down from a list of about 50 songs. 1995 was the peak of DigiClan and LLRT. The first person to wear a bathrobe on Thursday was Dennis Clark in 1995. The last year of Digi presence was in '96.
1997 was a year of reorganization, with only a few Digi's left. Some first years began a small group called XNMPDA (Xenophobic, Narcoleptic, Multiple Personality Disorder Anonymous), though the name was coined on the second to last day of 97.2 by Conor Walsh. These students were Digi-rejects, due to the fact that one of them, Adam Feldman, and a Digi, Micheal Mishkin, got along very poorly. These first years enjoyed Discussion Group, Monty Python Flying Circus, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, and Acting Improv. Indeed, XNMPDA's name represented a list of common acting improv jokes from that session.
In 98.1, XNMPDA took on a new name, the Hard-Core Normal People, Dammit, with the name originating from a group of people randomly walking arould on a rainy day without umbrellas telling everyone that THEY were perfectly normal, and that everyone else were the weirdos. In 98.2, Micheal Mishkin and Adam Feldman got over their dispute, and Mishkin symbolically moved his tray from the "digi" table to the "llrt" table. A new group was formed, calling themselves LLRT after the original LLRT, and sitting in Dining Room 4. A less known group named EISH was formed in '99, and sat in the alcove of Dining Room 1. These two groups grew out of both the left-over Digi's and XNMPDA. In '99 the traditions continued, carried on by both of these new groups, but the rules got a lot stricter, and Papa Jack was no longer site director. 2000 marked what most people considered to be the end of both LLRT and EISH due to the large nomore population.
In 2001, something very sad happened... a great number of small square tables appeared in Dining Room 4, leaving only 6 or so round tables. In the alcove, the charecteristic U-shaped table design of EISH was replaced with three round tables. Mourn as some of us did, this change in design allowed for an easier merge between the LLRT and EISH remenants. Due to lack of a better name, the merge produced a group known simply as the Alcove.
Email: Historian/WebMaster
Gabe@ctyalcove.org
