What is Bean Soup? If you have any connection to Pemi, chances are you know the answer; if you’re brand new to the community, you’re almost certainly scratching your head and saying “Huh?” Bean Soup is one of Pemi’s oldest and most cherished traditions, dating back to the summer of 1910, meaning that 2025’s serving of The Soup – as it’s affectionately known – will be the 116^th volume. The name comes, we think, from the copious amounts of actual bean soup that were served in the Mess Hall in Pemi’s early days and was meant as a subtle dig. But what is it? (Coincidentally, “What-Is-It?” is another favorite Pemi tradition).

Bean Soup consists of roughly equal parts Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update,” 60 Minutes, and SportsCenter. At times it’s humorous recountings of the goings-on around camp that are only occasionally bogged down by pesky things like “facts” and “what actually happened.” At other times it includes genuine, real-deal news articles – often written by campers themselves – that detail a recent overnight hiking experience, a trip to the Palermo Mine, or a mundane moment from the day that felt necessary to capture for posterity. At yet other times, it’s a detailed accounting of the week’s sporting events, with articles written by coaches who take the time to preserve Pemi history so that their campers can go back 10, 25, 50, or 75 years down the road and remember the time they poked a single to right field that scored the winning run against Tecumseh in 11s baseball.  

Campers’ participation in writing Bean Soup and chronicling the summer serves as one of the key aspects of the whole endeavor. Boys can tap into their creative sides, develop their writing skills, and share their own highlights. It doesn’t get much better than seeing a 9-year-old with a beaming smile as his words are read aloud to over 200 people and then roundly applauded. When the physical copy arrives (see below), boys have a permanent, printed record of their work and hold proof of their claim as published authors. 

Bean Soup takes place on Monday nights in the Senior Lodge, when we all gather together to hear the week’s awards (more on these below) and articles. Presenting The Soup are the editors, who sit in the front of the room, perched on a table, looking down on their captive audience. The editors are veteran counselors or staff who take on the responsibility of writing a large amount of the content we hear. After having their ear to the ground throughout the week, they retreat to a secret location – they often claim it’s a lair on the bottom of Lower Baker Pond, but we have yet to confirm this – to write their own material and sift through the articles that campers and staff have submitted. By 7:15pm Monday evening, they’ve emerged and made their way to the Lodge where they’re greeted with a crescendo of chants and cheers to usher them on stage.

Each week’s reading begins with a series of “awards” that recognize “accomplishments” by various members of the Pemi community: Director-, Staff Member-, Counselor-, and Camper-of-the-Week. Rather than being earned by acts of kindness or character, however, these awards serve as an opportunity for us to laugh at ourselves. When a director tosses a bag of Inspection-winner Skittles too hard for the counselor to catch, Bean Soup is there to point it out. When our head of archery misses a target placed in the lake to kick off the Pemi Olympics, Bean Soup makes sure we all know about it. When a counselor leading the Allagash canoe trip falls out of his canoe within the first minutes on the water, Bean Soup tells us all about it. And when a camper dangles his leg out in the Mess Hall and Kenny almost trips on it during announcements, Bean Soup recognizes that camper for his “efforts.” The above examples are all actual “of-the-week” awards given out by Bean Soup in 2024.

While the Senior Lodge rings out with laughter and applause every Monday, the editors inevitably have more material each week than they can get to in the allotted time. Fortunately, every Bean Soup article submission, whether read out loud or not, gets bound and printed in the physical copy of Bean Soup that’s shipped out in the winter. Each member of the Pemi community receives a physical copy of The Soup around the end of the calendar year, allowing an opportunity to curl up under a blanket and relive highlights and hilarity from the previous summer. The physical edition of Bean Soup has no parallel at any other summer camp that we know of and, along with the pure longevity of this tradition, helps to set Bean Soup apart in the pantheon of Pemi traditions.

Amidst its humor and historical documentation, Bean Soup does find time to acknowledge examples of great character and kindness too. Between its light-hearted humor and moments of candid appreciation, it serves to bring the Pemi family closer together each week. We’re never too serious to laugh at ourselves, we collectively applaud accomplishments, and we spend time in close proximity to share in these moments. The joy and laughter that echo through the rafters of the Senior Lodge each Monday represent the very best of what Pemi offers, and we cannot wait to be gathered again on June 23, 2025 for the first serving of Bean Soup, Volume 116. We hope to see you there!