Summertime and the living is easy

In the summer when you were old enough, I was about 9 years old, you were sent to camp for two weeks. There seemed to be two camps, that the children were sent to, one at Bellewoods Lake, near Fergus, and the other at Paradise Lake near Hiedleburg. I went to Paradise Lake for five years in a row, and it can't be overstated how much that meant to me. On learning that I would be going, a week before I couldn't get much sleep with excitement, and no sleep at all for two days, and to this day if I am going anywhere the next day, I can't sleep the night before. The camp was only about 15 miles from Waterloo, and we had to be bussed there, but it might as well have been on the moon. The camp leader was Walter [Barney] Barnes, an official with the K&W YMCA, and couldn't possibly be better suited for the job. Every year he would tell the same spooky story, around a flickering camp fire, about three guys going to the Amazon to get shrunken heads, and provide all the sound effects and scare us half to death but we enjoyed it. One year when it was raining particularly hard it was decided to tell the story inside with a big fire going in the dining hall and all the kids on tiers of wooden benches. Because we had heard the story a few times and were a little older we decided to put some folding chairs on top of two benches, which some kids were sitting on as well. At some strategic time in the story Barney lets out a big scream scaring the kids half to death, the kids sitting on the benches where we had placed the chairs and were sitting, jumped up knocking the benches over and about six of us flying and we screamed as well adding to the drama. One of the assistants to Barney my first year at the camp, was a returned service man, who took a liking to me, and bought me a fishing line, and a little hook that would roll up on a little frame. That leader was sweet on the camp nurse, and would take her out in the front of the canoe with me in the middle fishing, and that was when I first began to appreciate fishing. He had come back from Germany with a camera he had picked up as booty, and when he showed me the camera I could not have conceived of such a beautiful more complicated piece of machinery. There was Bar and a coke, or you could get ice cream as well. When it was time to go home you were given a refund which would usually be about 40 cents, which made us feel well off, At camp there were many activities, mostly related to the water like, diving, canoeing, and swimming, and some others like boxing and many other games, but the one I like most was jousting, where you would stand up on the gunwales of the canoe with a paddler and try to knock an opponent off his canoe. I wasn't a bad boxer but seemed easier than normal to get a bloody noose if I was hit on it. There was a game called Pioneers and Indians, where some people would get a secret message, and would have to get through the lines with the message, and if caught the opposing side would have to try and find the message on the person, it was similar to a game we played at Scout Camp called flag.

There was hiking, fishing, learning how to make camp fires, and to cook over them, and learning how to read a compass. One year I thin k my final year they decided to have a race around the lake, and that everyone in all the the six oldest, of the twelve cabins would have to participate. Now I had participated in all of the Camp activities, but running was not my thing. The youngest cabin would leave first with two minute intervals until all the cabins had left. As we were the youngest we were the first to leave, but a friend and myself just walked, and eventually everyone had left, and passed us. The established trail around was about four miles, and went by private cottages which were also on the lake, and on going by a cottage we noticed a guy with an outboard motor getting ready to leave his dock, and went over and talked to him, told him what was going on and asked for a ride across the lake, and to be let out near the finish line out of sight, thinking it was a good trick he gave us a ride, and we were the first over the line. The camp leaders had left people near the starting point so none could sneak back. We were congratulated on being first, and the other campers started coming in and knew they had passed us and couldn't figure out how we did it, and we never told, but everyone including the leaders knew there was something fishy, and probably figured it out for themselves. Our cabin never one anyways, we came in second and when the announcement was made they included with a little help, I actually think they liked our initiative. I took a great interest in fishing and boats as a result of my camping experience, and the encouragement from that camp leader, who took an interest in me. After and as a result of my interest in fishing, I found out how to get to the arched bridge in Bridgeport and would walk out there with my brother Max and Ivin Beare, in the summer for a little fishing, off the bridge, we would bring the fish home, clean them, and the women would cook them for us. As I said Irvine was like a brother to me, and we did many things together. Irvin's older brother Ray took great delight in tormenting him, and one day Irvin and I were in the billiard room trying to get an old door bell we had found, working with a large dry cell battery we had also found, when Ray started tormenting Irvin, I told Ray who was four years older than me to stop, and leave Irvin alone, and told him several times, finally I took the dry cell battery which was in my hand and a good size, about three inches in diameter, and six inches long with 2 spring clips on top, and threw it at Ray. Ray who was wearing shorts at the time turned because he thought it was going to hit him in the head, and it came down on his leg tearing it wide open, and he started bleeding like nobody's business, I took off figuring I was going to catch hell because his mother worked there. I came back at supper time and not a thing was said. I think his mother probably told him he deserved it so leave Irvin alone. Ray never bothered Irvin again, at least not when I was around. While there never was a serious bully problem at school as far as I remember, there were a few kids who could be mean, and the younger more vulnerable kids would walk with me, because no one ever seemed to bother them when they were with me.

We seemed to every now and then get a little money, whether picking up empty pop bottles, paper routes, or picking up scrap newspaper for some local factories that would shred it and use it as packing material. With our little money we would visit a little store on Moore St. beside the school, where we would buy 2 cent grab bags, or occasionally a coke, and shared it around, but the favorite place by far was Beezes Dairy on King St and John St. just down from the First Baptist Church, beside the Bauer skate factory. Sometimes we even withheld the collection money from the First Baptist Church, where we would go, and then buy an ice cream or if we were really flush, from time to time a malted milk shake, or double coke.