Camp Bird

I was always one of the smallest kids in my class as I was growing up. Sometimes that was good and sometimes that wasn’t. I guess I will tell you a good thing about being short.

A lot of summers as a child, my sister’s and I went to church camp at Camp Bird in Crivitz. It was a very nice camp with a large main hall and cabins on either side of this hall. One side was the girl’s cabins, about five to eight of them and on the other side were the boys. Below the main hall, down a “Trillion” steps was the lake but before you got to the lake there was a fire pit where everyone met for certain events.

After having gone to this camp for a few years, one knows where everything is. Usually some of the other kids from our hometown would be there and there were a lot of wonderful strangers from all over the northern part of Wisconsin. This was in the “olden days” when people actually wrote letters and some of us wrote to people that we met at camp, all though the year. We always looked forward to going to summer camp.

I remember when we would get home, the three of us would put plays on for the family and show them what we learned. Basically my sisters and I were stage hams. We would show them the songs that we learned and some serious stuff at times too. It was fun to get home and invite the whole family over for our events.

The summer that I was about to be married, I volunteered to go as a counselor. Having been there as a camper for the last eight years, it sounded like fun. The minister that was going to marry us suggested that it would be a nice thing to do. I think he didn’t want me to get nervous before the big day.

I arrived in my father’s car and checked in. I was told that I had cabin 3 and that only four of my six kids had checked in already. So taking my bedroll and suitcase, I headed to cabin 3. I walked in and there were the four girls making their beds. They were giggling and chatting like girls are supposed to. They were friendly and include me by telling me that they planned to short sheet the counselor’s bed that night. Hey, some of these kids were a lot taller than me, so they thought I had been assigned to this cabin too. We had a great laugh. Soon the other two arrived. Everyone was meeting everyone else. Then there was all the busy work of hanging up clothes on the hooks near their beds and making sure that their clocks were wound. Lots of girl talk and chatter basically they were a great group of teens.

Soon an older lady came to our door and asked if the counselor was there. I stepped forward and watched mouths drop as I accepted the roster and rules. I read them aloud and with a big grin, told them that they could short sheet my bed but I would be checking it all the time.

It turned out to be a wonderful cabin and they melted into a great group. Early every morning, we had to go to the fire-pit for Morning Services and this crew made sure that everyone got there, awake or not.

At meals the counselors were assigned to sit at the end of tables so I found myself sitting next to two preteen boys who wanted to challenge me on everything. Their biggest challenge was about how boys were much better at everything than girls. (Very preteen) For some reason these two boys followed me from table to table all week. The challenges continued for a good part of the week. One day the challenge was that boys could catch more fish than girls could.

My Mom loved to fish and by the time I was 11, Dad had taught me how to fillet a fish so that you don’t have to gut it. I was up to this challenge. We decided to test this the next day and the boys were thrilled. The next morning at 4:00 am. I climbed out of bed, put clothes over my pajamas and headed to the lake. The three of us, two preteen boys and myself climbed into a boat and paddled out on the lake. The boys had fishing poles and worms, we were ready. We agreed that who ever caught the least amount of fish by Morning Service, had to clean all of them in the main-hall kitchen.

I caught three and they each caught one. So off to the kitchen they went. I showed them how to fillet the fish and told them that they had to cook it for my dinner that night. They agreed. I have a hunch that the cook did it for them but I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, I got caught. At the counselor’s meeting that day, I was told that no one was allowed on the lake before Morning Services. I hadn’t seen it written in anything, but it was their game so…

I did have fish for dinner, not bad for a girl.