Foiled (Part 2) see below for part 1

The last of the 12 units was picking up there overnight pack outs when we discovered that the aluminum foil had been left out of all of the other units milk crates. The other 11 units were spread all around the camp at various overnight locations. Without the aluminum foil it would be very difficult for any of them to cook their hamburgers. So we know they had to have it but taking it out to them would have taken to long and besides opposite sex staff was not allowed to visit overnight sites. We did the only thing we could we put the aluminum foil in a milk crate behind the dining hall with a sign apologizing for the the mistake.
We know when the units realize that they were missing a very important part of their camp out pack they would send someone back to the main area to get it. Satisfied we had done all we could we went to town and had a good time.
The next morning we returned to work and cooked breakfast. We served breakfast as normal while unbeknownced to us the units were plotting their revenge. We decided that Kyle could handle the tray return himself because at breakfast there were only a few plates per table be returned by the waiter. The rest of us sat down at the back room to eat our own breakfast. As soon as the dining hall manager turned on the white light every table's waiter got up and brought up everything left of the table back up to the window. Empty milks, trash platters and juice containers. Kyle was overwhelmed with stuff. The rest of the kitchen staff immediately sensed there was a problem and all being team players we rushed up to the window and started sifting though and clearing the counter. In no time we had taken care of all the things that had been brought back and closed the window.
Immediately Lee called us back to the back of the kitchen and gave us strict orders that there was to be no retaliation for this act. We agreed knowing that we had only gotten what we deserved and confident that if we had retaliated we would have certainly won this tit for tat. We were after all the kitchen staff and certainly could have served up some really bad meals. Liver and brussel sprouts anyone?

Foiled

Must have been the summer of 1989 when I was working in the kitchen during girls season. It was a typical Wednesday which was normally a very busy day in the kitchen. Many of the cooks were good friends who had worked together before. There was Chris, Kyle, myself and two others I think Frank, and Lee was the Food Service director. Wed. we had to prepare breakfast then lunch for the whole camp as this was the first day during the week that half the units were not on all-day hikes. In addition to that we had to prepare the packouts for overnights and this summer we expected the truck on Wed. to bring provisions. We all decided to split up the tasks to divide and conquer. Kyle volunteered to do the overnight packouts so we split up the cooking tasks for breakfast and when the truck came in after breakfast we all dropped what were were doing to empty out the truck. after the truck was unloaded the rest of us other than Kyle started lunch.
After lunch we hurried to clean the kitchen. On Wed. Opposite season staff (boys during girls season) had the rest of the evening off and we were hurrying to get done so that we head to Marion for the evening.

On person had to stick around until the pack outs were all picked up.Kyle volunteered to stay and since we were all going into town together, we planned to come back around 4:30 to get him and leave. Normally a few units have 2 hour hikes on Wed. after noon so they can get an early start on their overnight. As usual a number of units had picked up their pack outs well before we Came back. On of the last units to pick up was Raganea and their Unit lead Liz Deurker was picking up their pack when we returned. Kyle reminded her as he had everyone else to check and make sure everything was in the pack before she left. She slowly surveyed the contents and suddenly blurted out "Were is the aluminum foil" Kyle took a look in the milk crates and realized he had forgotten to put it in. He went to the back room and found all of the foil for all the pack outs was still back on the shelf.

to be continued.

Camp 50th Anniversary Dinner.

Celebrate Camp's 50 anniversary by attending the Dinner/auction and Mass on April 18th at Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville IL. Tickets are $65 per person. See the details and and download the brochure and RSVP documents at the Camp O Website

Finding old friends

Over the past few weeks I have found a number of Camp friends on Facebook. There is a group called Camp O is the place to go. I have found an number of freinds by looking at the members of this group. You can then look at their friend list and find a number of other Camp O friends.

So If if Facebook is so useful, then Why have this site. Well I intended for this site to allow for sharing of stores, pictures and contact information without having to sign up for one of the social networks. I think that Facebook and Myspace are complementary in the purpose of connecting people by think there is a place for this site as well. Send me your stores or pictures and please enter you contact information here as well.

The flood

I believe the year was about 1990. I had worked the stable for boys season and was working in the kitchen for girls season. Joe was the kitchen director at the time and the kitchen staff were all pretty good friends and we were known to play a few pranks from time to time. Most of the victims of our fun were unlucky rotating staff who found themselves washing dishes. We were constantly putting first year staff in the dishwater or if we were really ambitious in the turtle pond.
It was all Joe's idea to set our sites higher and play a joke on Dan H. the personel director. Late one night we crept into the office and managed to get Dan's office door open. once inside we opened the outside door and took in rowboat. we set it on his desk and proceded to turn on a hose and fill it with water to make removal a more difficult process. While we were in the precess of filling it the it became obvious the that the boat was not holding the water as well as we had figured it would. We turned off the hose and decided we had done enough damage and locked up the office and got the hell out of dodge. The next morning we waited to hear what would become of the prank. We heard nothing. A few more days went by and we heard nothing more about it. We then found out that Dan had come down with a flu and had not been in the office for the past few days. We said nothing and tried to act normal. In the meantime the Camp office had been having phone problems. Calls were dropped. lines weren't working. Camp called in the phone company to find the problem. The repair man checked the main line and then went from extension to extension checking the connections. Everything check out until he got to Dan's office. Where he found a wet rusty boat had somehow shorted out the phone line.

Staff Pictures

Patti Egan email me today. They are putting together a year book to celebrate 50 years of Camp Ondessonk. As part of that they are attempting to collect staff pictures from every year. I am including a listing of all the years they currently have. If you have any staff pictures from the years that are still needed you can send them to me at djc@heepwah.com. As usual if you have other Ondessonk pictures you think others would like to see please send them to me and I will post them.

	Boys	Girls
59	X
60	X	X
61	X
62	X
63	X
64	X	X
65	X	X
66	X	X
67	*	X
68	*	N/A
69	X	X
79	X	X
71	X	*
72		X
73	X	*
74		X
75		X
76	X	X
77	X
78
79	X
80		X
81		X
82
83
84	X
85	X
86	X	X
87	*	X
88
89
90
91
92	*	*
93	*	*
94	*	*
95	*	*
96
97
98
99
2000	X	X
01	X	X
02
03	X	X
04	X	X
05	X	X
06	X	X
07	X	X
08

X = SCANNED PHOTO

* = SCANNED NEWSLETTER

Memories of Labor day.

After the long drive from St. Louis we drove the two miles down the camp road and pulled up to the check in table. I guess we were not listening to the radio during the drive or certainly we would have heard the news that was now making headlines through out the world. As we were checking in we heard the buzz. The details were still sketchy but apparently Princess Diana had been in a serious crash and may have been killed. That is my vivid memory of a labor day weekend. But I have many other memories from Labor Days past. Larry Barger jamming on the banjo at the labor day dance. Kyle refusing to sleep and hallucinating while working in the kitchen after over 40 straight hours awake. Sitting around the campfire at Couture listening to Joe drone play guitar.

These are just some of the memories I have from Labor days past. I am sure this weekend there will be more fun an memories made for past staff. I wish I could be there but I won't be attending this year. I would love to hear any stories or post any pictures that anyone is willing to send. I hope everyone had a great summer and I hope there will be many more.

The stables

Horse picture

I found this picture on line. I makes me remember some of the great times I had in At Camp. On of my most memorable times was also one of the scariest. I remember the the clouds had moved in fast as we were sending out the 11:30 ride, the last one of the morning. I don't think the ride was out for more than 20 minutes before lightning forced it to end abruptly. The stable crew worked furiously to dismount the campers as quickly as possible in the rain. After the campers dismounted were were having the CITS usher them as quickly as possible into the the barn. With only two horses and campers left to attend to Josh and I took the reigns of the last two horses and sent the kids to safety. We led the horses into the the now semi flooded barn yard. We shooed the horses in and side by side Josh and I sloshed into the coral in about 4 inches of water. Just then we heard a loud crack and saw a bright light. we looked to our left about 40 yards and could see the smoke rising off of the fence post where the lighting had just struck. realizing that we were standing in ankle deep water we glanced at each other knowing that had the strike been any closer we certainly would have been toasted. We both dash off into the barn lucky to be alive.

Ondessonk Golf tournament

Golf Tournament information from Belleville newspaper

Camp O golf tournament to be held in Okawville on Sept. 13. $ 75 per person 300 per team of 4.