Dave (and Jim and Doug) Nelson
Have you ever tried to think back to your very earliest memory? I have — and my earliest memory is Skytop. I was three years old when we parked the car at the bottom of that last hill and walked up to the whiteboard gate that used to stand at the fence line. It was a challenge for my two big brothers —Doug and Jim— to climb it, and I remember I was too little so mom helped me sit on the top like the big boys.
Both mom and dad —Ken and Phyllis Nelson— were lifelong Covenanters since they were babies. So when the Conference bought Camp Wawona in 1958, my parents were on board in a big way, Dad quite literally: I think he served on every committee there was.
So three years later when Reverend Strand called up Dad and told him that Mrs. Emden who owned Skytop was looking to sell, Dad was interested. Driving home after looking the place over, he prayed, “Lord I’ve never been interested in having a summer home, but if you have this place for me, I’d love it.”
Mom was not impressed. Besides, it was a typical Swanzey morning — the lake and Monadnock completely obscured by fog. Dad kept telling mom, “Trust me, Phyl, there’s a beautiful view!” Luckily the next day cleared off and Mom was sold too.
Dad and Mom saw Skytop as a stewardship from the Lord and were always very welcoming, hospitable, and open-handed as a result. In those early years, once a week Tillie, the camp cook, would make Swedish coffee bread and mom would brew a huge percolator and anyone from the camp who wanted to come up to see the view was welcome. Once three choirs sang antiphonally: one at Pilgrim Pines, one at Squanto, and one on the deck at Skytop.
Dad cut a trail through the woods so that every morning the three of us brothers would eat breakfast, get on our bathing suits, throw a towel around our necks, and run down to the beach, wait for the lifeguard, and swim all morning.
Around noon, we’d see our station wagon come around the corner, Mom giving the horn our trademark family beep — one long, two shorts — and she would drive us back up the hill for lunch.
Dad would take long weekends all summer, coming up on Thursday night and heading back to Connecticut on Tuesday morning. We made sure his time was well spent: pulling his three enthusiastic water skiers, swimming at the beach, or playing a quick round of golf, which we referred to as “going down below to knock out a few.”
Sundays, we’d dress up for the service in the beach house, which used to be right on the edge of the sand in those days. The sound of the lapping waves made it even harder for us brothers to get very much out of the sermon.
Yes, it was about as idyllic as summers could get, and though we were typical clueless boys, my brothers and I nevertheless had an awareness of what a privilege —a genuine blessing from God— it was.
So we are especially grateful that this next era will continue my dad and mom‘s vision: that Skytop is a stewardship from the Lord, a place for hospitality, a place where family, fun, and relaxation are holy things. We’re sure Dad and Mom couldn’t be more pleased with the way things have turned out, and so are we.