Austin and Rob: A Greystone and Falling Creek Love Story
While the love between friends is the real thing we celebrate this time of year, if you’ve heard our Main Campers request a “proposal story” at any of our concerts, you know we’re suckers for the other kind too!
Camp love stories come in all forms. We’ve heard of couples who met working on staff together or through their camp friends, but when Main Camper Lilly told us her parents grew up going to Greystone and Falling Creek dances together, we had to know more!
Alumna Austin is here today to tell us her love story, which is really the story of family connections and how summer camp can be influential throughout the generations. It’s a sweet one, and we know you’re going to love hearing it as much as we did!
Do you have a Greystone love story to share? We want to hear about it too! Camp can be an amazing connector, no matter where in the world you are, and we’ll never get tired of hearing how God uses this place in small (and large!) ways. Take it away, Austin!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your connection to Greystone!
I started going to Greystone in 1988 - my first year I went to June Camp and was in Tentalow Lower 1. Starting my second year, I attended Main Camp. We discovered Greystone through the video parties that people had in the 80’s when you would go to someone’s house to watch the camp promotional video.
My sister continued going to camp through high school, but I left in 1993 to attend a horseback riding camp in Virginia. Horse camp was a shock to my system for sure. After enjoying Greystone, with its beautiful grounds, nice cabins, delicious food, and warm counselors, it was a shock to go to a more “normal” summer camp!
Let’s get into the love story! Give us all the details. What role did camp play in it?
My grandparents had a home in Cashiers, and we would stay with them before and after camp. I also remember they could come visit on Sundays and even take us to lunch in Hendersonville. Interestingly, Rob’s grandparents had a house in Cashiers right down the street from my grandparents. As a result, I attended many a cocktail party at his grandparents on Halsted Road (not necessarily something we kids looked forward to at the time - haha), and we would also see each other on the local church hikes.
Though Rob and I never wrote letters to each other at camp, his was a familiar face when I would see him at the camp dances. It’s always nice to see someone you recognize from home, especially as a fairly shy child. I remember the boys and girls pretty much standing on opposite sides of the Pavilion or Falling Creek tennis courts until the ice had been broken!
We didn’t start dating until much later, though our lives continued to have many parallels. We attended the same elementary school in Jacksonville, then somewhat rival high schools. After that, we both attended college in North Carolina, him at Wake Forest and me at UNC Chapel Hill. He graduated a year ahead of me and took a job with Lehman Brothers in Los Angeles. I returned to Jacksonville after college and worked in communications for an insurance company.
We reconnected when Wake Forest played in the ACC Championship football game in Jacksonville in December 2006. Rob was planning to attend the game with his family and friends from Wake Forest, and his grandmother decided he should have a date, and that it should be me! I think this idea developed during her regular bridge game with my grandmother.
So, the grandmothers called the mothers, and the wheels were set in motion. Neither of us particularly wanted to go on a blind date to the football game, but who can say no to their grandmother? Thus, we went to the game as a part of a large group on a rainy Saturday in Jacksonville. Wake Forest won the game, and then his mother invited me to attend grandmother Nancy’s birthday dinner that evening. When we arrived (straight from the game), there was already a place card with my name, so I think she had planned this part in advance. We got married one year to the day of that first date. I had been accepted to attend business school, but instead of getting my MBA, I moved cross-country to Los Angeles and started my life with Rob.
Having attended Greystone and his attending Falling Creek definitely gave us a shared experience to reminisce upon during our courtship. We talked about the Falling Creek boys singing so loudly once that we could hear it across the lake at Greystone. And we talked about having attended those dances many years ago.
When it came time to send our daughter Lilly to camp (as soon as she’d finished first grade and was eligible!), Greystone was an easy choice for us given the positive experience I had there. My niece was also a camper at Greystone, and nephews were campers at Falling Creek. Even though we lived in Colorado (having moved from LA in 2015), we still felt a very close connection to summer camp in Western North Carolina and wanted Lilly to have the same experience we’d enjoyed as kids.
Lilly went to August Camp the summer after 1st grade, and she absolutely loved it. Driving through the camp gates still makes me teary every year thanks to all of the memories there. It’s a very special feeling dropping her off in a place where I spent many summers knowing she is having so many of the same experiences.
The following year she attended June Camp, and she has been at Main since she was eligible after 3rd grade. This summer will be her sixth summer. Lilly continues to thrive at camp and loves spreading the word about how much she loves it. Here in Colorado (and the West in general), our experience has been that people are far less likely to consider sleepaway camps for their children. However, with Lilly’s glowing reviews, she has convinced three families (and their six combined children) to join the Greystone family this coming summer!
