My dad was a camp counselor at Camp Miller at Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota, in 1943. He was just 16 years old and had been hired to be the camp bugler, but soon after he arrived, one of the other counselors had to cancel out of his commitment, so Dad took on the extra responsibility of camp counselor as well. Here’s one of his stories:
Because I was the youngest counselor that summer, I was given the youngest boys to take care of. Most of the time that made sense, but I soon discovered that young boys could be very unpredictable.
One the first day of each camping period we always took our new boys on a tour of the camp. On one such occasion my group of new boys included a chubby ten-year-old named Bobby. It didn’t take very long to find out that Bobby liked to brag about his many accomplishments. When I showed the boys where our sailboats were moored, Bobby informed us that he had sailed a lot. When we went out to the paddock to see the horses, Bobby said he had ridden horses a lot. Then we stopped at the archer range and the boys all laughed when Bobby told us that he had arched a lot.
The last place we stopped was a small patch of poison ivy. I warned the boys to stay away from this plant because it could cause a painful rash. “Oh, poison ivy doesn’t bother me,” said Bobby, “I’ve touched it a lot.” Then he grabbed some poison ivy leaves and proceeded to rub them all over his hands and face. “See?” he said, “I’m tough. Poison ivy can’t hurt me.”
When I told Mac [the camp director] what Bobby had done with the poison ivy, he just sighed and said, “Well, maybe he’s immune to it. Keep an eye on him though, and let me know if you see any signs of a rash.”
Early the next morning I was awakened by the sound of someone crying. It was Bobby, and when I reached his bed I could see why. His hands were all puffed up and his face was so swollen he couldn’t open his eyes. I wouldn’t have recognized him if I hadn’t known who it was.
As soon as Mac saw the condition Bobby was in, he called his parents and asked them to come out to camp and take Bobby home. I guess you could say that, in addition to all the other things Bobby had done a lot, he had also bragged a lot and that’s what got him in trouble at Camp Miller.
This has been Tuesday True Stories with Lynniebeemuseoday.
I’ll probably delete this in the morning… wait, I’m feeling kinda itchy and puffed up. Might have to delete it sooner than later.
Lynniebeemuseoday 