Campers flocked to Cramer Park Friday, turning the beach into a lively tent village. Once again, St. Croix residents have embraced the old tradition of leaving their homes behind during the Easter season and roughing it in the wild. Well, kind of.
“Some people got TVs out here,” said Solomon Boodoosingh, with a note of disbelief.
Boodoosingh admits that part of the reason he and his family like to camp here is the access to electricity and showers. Still, in his opinion, some people are overdoing it.
“People move their mansions here,” he said. “If someone could have a swimming pool here, trust me, they would have a swimming pool.”
Luxuries aside, Boodoosingh said Cramer Park is still his favorite place to camp because of the community on the beach. A lot of their neighbors camp there as well, so they have visitors at their tent all day.
The nightlife is pretty fun as well, he adds, saying that there were plenty of dominos and card games around, as well as some simpler pleasures.
“You can lay out there on the sand and just look up at the stars, man,” he said.
One person not embracing the finer luxuries on the beach was Sen. Terrence “Positive” Nelson, who was conducting a youth camp at the park over the weekend through his charity, Positive Works.
“The idea is to get them away from their norms. No electronics,” he said.
This is Nelson’s 15th year operating the camp, making it something of a Cramer Park tradition. Some of the kids with him Friday have been attending the camp since the beginning.
“This has become a big reunion for those who have been doing it for quite some time,” he said. “We have children here who have been doing it since five or six and now they’re in high school about to graduate.”
Nelson said he entertains the kids by keeping them active. There is plenty of swimming and fishing, of course, but also hiking.
That morning Nelson led the 30 children in his camp on a grueling march around Point Udall to Grapetree Bay and back.
“The idea is to get them tired during the day, so they go to bed as early as possible, he said. “Less night watching.”
Of course Cramer Park was not the only beach to draw overnight guests. Seemingly every stretch of sand from Isaac’s Bay to Dorsch Beach had at least a few colorful tents set up by the water.
George Felix situated his family under a tree on a quiet stretch of Spratt Hall Beach. Only a few other families had set up there, and Felix liked it that way.
“After working so hard, you want to come out and get away,” he said. “So we tried to go somewhere secluded and enjoy nature.”
Secluded or not, Felix brought enough food and equipment to provide his family with a feast. The menu for that evening? Fresh lobster soup and fondue.
Like most people on St. Croix, Felix has been camping over the Easter weekend since he was a kid, but he said that lately his family hasn’t been good about keeping up the tradition. This year, however, struck him as a particularly good time to get away.
“You know, with things in the economy going bad, we decided let’s go out and de-stress out on the beach,” he said.
