Thoughts on Justin Brown.

I remember I was a first year unit leader in Almontacha and while I had a great staff but the campers were sometimes very difficult to deal with. I had picked Justin for my staff because when we had talked during orientation he seemed like a basically good kid who I thought would relate well to the campers since he was closer to their age than I was. He had told be about some trouble he had gotten in as a youth. I struck me as more naivatte than malace.

It turned out he was a great asset particularly given the tough kids we were dealing with. Justin was easily able to relate to them but was still loyal to me and helped me keep things mostly together as a unit.

The third week of camp I had some particularly difficult kids from Springfield. There were about 15 kids who came together and often pushed me at every turn. It got so bad that during a two hour hike things spiralled down to all out mutiny.

I had worked int the stables for a number of years and as I was walking out of the staff lounge that day I saw the Aquestian director walking in. In jest I cried out to him "Please take me back in the stables. I will do anything if you let me go back." Justin must have overheard this exchange and took me seriously. Later he implored me stay and he really wanted me to stay the unit leader. It was really a great lift to my spirit to know that he was so concerned about me and really wanted me to stay (even though I had no real intention of quiting). I had often had older staff that I really felt were great role models for me and for the first time I felt like I had a positive influence on a younger staff member.

The funniest story of Justin and I was when he canoed back to the unit and left the boat there for the night so that he could canoe back in the morning which aquatics staff was allowed to do. the next morning I got the kids awake and sent them off towards breakfast. I was running a little late and Justin suggested I canoe in with him. I agreed and jumped into the front of the boat. He started to climb in the back and pushed us off and as he did so he lost his balance and we both flipped off into the mucky waters of Lake Echon. Now on top of being late I was smelly and wet. We both had to rush and take showers before breakfast and of course we were much later by the time we finally arrived. I think Justin felt bad about it but I tried to make light of it as if it were no big deal.

A few years later Justin was Killed in a car accident. When I heard about it I was shocked and saddened. We had both been in Brebuff the previous year (I had returned to the Stables where I belonged) and he had become one of my closest friends at Camp. He had a great heart and and was a great guy. During orientation there was a charity auction and Justin and I had pooled our money and bought a squirt gun that we often used to surprise unsuspecting staff and campers. About a year ago I found it in my basement when I was cleaning things out. It was time to throw it out and let it go. I haven't forgotten him or the friendship we had though.

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.