Overnights I HATED them! This was the thing about camp that I hated the most. I guess even back then I was a neat prissy freak. I always hated getting my hands dirty and I like comfort. So even back then I hated sleeping out and on the ground. I used to cringe when we had to sign up for overnites. I hated everything about them from going to the Pioneer Cabin and taking down the backpacks and tin water containers and sleeping bags. We would all have the campers pack their stuff at rest hour and then at afternoon activity go to the rear entrance of the kitchen to get our food and pack the backpacks. I can vividly see the bags of marshmallows, packages of Hershey bars, boxes of graham crackers, cans of peaches, loaves of bread, blocks of butter and cheese, large cans of chicken noodle soup and tomato soup, boxes of macaroni and packages of chop meat, packages of hot dogs and rolls, cans of those green beans, packages of small boxes of cereal, slabs of bacon and packages of eggs and pancake mix and syrup, and peanut butter and jelly. I can still see the Kool Aid in the large tin holders. I would line my campers up with the other counselor I was going with and their campers and start to head out. I would look at everyone staying at camp and lining up at the dining hall for dinner with envious eyes. On we would trudge with the campers at tow. Hopefully, it would be a short distance. I loved going to Tawanka, Shelter, Rock, Vesper Rock or Slate Rock. I do remember walking up the path out of camp and walking along the highway and then crossing and hiking up Windham. My first trip up Windham as a camper was memorable. It was the unknown the first time and to get us to the top, Jo Salmonson and Rita Arbia told us at the top of Windham was a Howard Johnsons and then when we got to the top we would get an icecream cone! How gullible were we? However, the sight up there was so beautiful! My most memorable overnight was when we went to Hunter. We were taken by car and dropped off. It poured out that night. There was a horrible storm. While crouched in my sleeping bag to keep out of the rain, a skunk touched my foot and when I peeked out and saw the skunk sitting next to me, I freaked out! It was lightning and thundering and the ranger came along and we were so scared and soaked that he let us into the ranger cabin overnight. The following morning when we were picked up, I was never so happy! That had to be my most memorable. When I was a senior camper and counselor, I remember my friends after they had dinner at camp, would sneak out to a close campsite and sit with us around the fire and share our peach toastites and smores. After we got back to camp the following day, I was so happy to dispose of all the stuff at the Pioneer Cabin and take a SHOWER and put on clean clothes!! My favorite spot though was always by the haunted house. I can remember one with Pam Scola, Teri Ratel, Carolyn Freno where we sat in the grass near the house and were singing to the kids when we heard noises at night and we swore there were ghosts in the house making the noises. We sat outside during the day under the trees and told stories and sang. And the best part was always the campfire and the smores and toastites. I always called that our reward! Indian Dancing When I first started at ONT as a camper, I could not understand why anyone would be interested in Indian Dancing. However, I WAS!!!!! I loved it. I was fascinated by not only the dancing but by everythig associated with Indians. I used to love taking Indian Dancing for activities. I loved the sound of the drum beating as we were dancing. I like the dancing so much that when I became a counselor, I taught Indian Dancing and became a dancer at the council fire. I remember the year I taught Indian Dancing, before the season started I went to a place that sold Indian things and bought myself a drum and outfit and headpiece. I treasured that drum! It meant so much to me. I used to love painting the campers faces for the council fire. I had bought myself special paints and my campers always looked so great at the campfire. I also loved the cabin signs. They were done up in such beautiful colred paints. The bright red, green, yellow, blue, black and white was so beautiful. I can remember in my spare time getting wood and designing copies of the signs and painting them and giving them away as gifts to my favorite counselors at the end of the season. I saw a copy of a new sign in the site and I was so disappointed. I do not like it at all. It is so un-Indianish. They used bright colrs and the new sign does not do justice. I think the old ones were in the true spirit. Just a sample of a change that should never have been. Some things are better left alone. I can remember all the counselors having their Indian dress and head dress and feathers. I loved when we all dressed up in our dresses and paints and head dress. I remember the director and assistant director dresing up as their costumes were so elaborate. Miss Bobbi had such an outstanding full head dress with such beautiful feathers. She also had the slippers and the whole outfit was so impressive! I guess what I really liked the best was the fact that ONT was so Indian geared and it just gave everyone such an insite into our roots. How simple and genuine and dedicated were the Indians. The best tribute to them were the cabins being named after tribes - Peekamoose, Kickapoo, Winnebago, Papago, Nacoma, Chinook, Onondaga, Tuscarora, Chippewa, Cherokee, Wichita, Shawnee, Tonashee and the old tents were Amadahee. I can still remember them all! That alone was a good amount of history to be learned just in knowing so many tribes. It was all the Indian geared things that impressed me - the ho ho hey after we sang songs, the signing when we sang taps, the campfires, the closing ceremony, the dances. What a wonderful tribute to the American Indian - our heritage. Haunted House I remember being in awe of the haunted house the first time I saw it. We were so excited that first time when we were on Gypsy Day and passing it to go to a campsite behind it. As a camper it was so big and held so much mystery. We were told that a family had unexpectedly had to leave there quick leaving even their dishes from the meal on the table. The first itme I went in I remember still some of the dishes on the table in the kitchen. How trepidly I walked in there, everything seemed so spooky with cobwebs and boards creeking. It was so dark in there too! When we first started going in there were still things left there - books and things. As a senior camper I remember walking in and taking an old hard covered book out. I put a field flower in the book and kept it there to press the flower. When I was getting married and left my parents house I still had the book and the flower was still in the book. I threw it out when I was moving stuff. They had told us back then that if we took anything out of the house, we would always have bad luck. I remember the large empty living room with the staircase going upstairs. There was a piano in the living room and we swore that at night, a ghost would play that piano. If we walked past it at night, we always thought we spotted someone in the upstairs window with white hair. I remember carefully walking up the stairs on a dare one year and going into a bedroom. All that was up there was a bed with an uncovered striped mattress and pink walls and a dresser. We were told that local bums would shack up there in bad weather. I remember the front porch of the house with holes in the boards and being afraid we would fall through! There was a hatch door and we never went down there as we were afraid we would be swallowed up! I remember the kitchen though vividly. A meal had been prepared and left in the dishes and the pots. The memory of that haunted house will always be one of my most vivid childhood memories. To me it held fright, fascination, wonder, awe, curiosity, imagination. Meals I vividly remember the meals: Breakfast - we would all follow in a line to breakfast after the raising of the flag. We always had hot chocolate for breakfast and toast. I loved when we had cinammon toast. As counselors, we were able to have coffee. We were all dressed in winter clothes as mornings at breakfast were frozen at ONT. We sometimes had farina, oatmeal or wheatena. I loved the scrambled eggs or the pancakes and we usually had juice. I still remember the dentyne colored hot chocolate mugs. Lunch - this was the heavy meal of the day and Mrs. Baker was the BEST! We always had cold iced water and milk. I can remember meatloaf, baked macaroni and cheese, rarebit, a cheese and rice and corn combo, stew, salisbury steak. tuna casserole, fish sticks, spaghetti and meatballs, corn beef hash,and of course desserts like apple brown betty, gingerbread cake with a lemon sauce, cornbread, icecream, chocolate pudding with whipped cream, jello Dinner - this was the light meal with sandwiches, soups, milk, and desserts so it wouldn't sit in our stomaches at night. We ate so well as Mrs. Baker was the BEST! How I wish I had taken some of her recipes down. Kitchen Girl I was in the kitchen for 2 years with 3 other girls and Mrs. Baker. It was great. We did have to wake up early to get there to prepare breakfast half-asleep as we were up all night talking. I can remember working the dishwasher and then doing the large pots. I remember making the toast on the large toaster that rotated and then dropped the toast down. We then melted it seemed like tons of butter and as the toast was ready we brushed it onto the bread and put it in the breadbaskets. My favorite though was the cinnamon toast and we would brush a combo of cinnamon and sugar on each slice. It smelled so good. We then had to get the hot chocolate all stirred up and hot and pour it into the silver pitchers. After we cleaned up after breakfast we had some free time before we came in to get ready for lunch. I can remember those tremendous bags of potatoes we had to peel and the bags of corn we had to shuck. We then had free time until dinner and then we prepared dinner. We all took our meals at the table in the kitchen between getting the food out onto the counters, running the dishwasher and cleaning up. We did have fun though and I still can remember the large storage room and the walk-in freezer. The best part of the day was after dinner when we left until the following morning. That is unless we didn't raid the kitchen, something it seemed I was always doing with my girlfriends.

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