Random Ramblings: Quaker Lake Camp

Greetings! I have been thinking so much about Quaker Lake Camp this week and going through a few hundred old slides to see what I have. Hopefully you will see them too in the days to come.  But for now, here are some random ramblings and flashbacks from QLC. I posted much of this in 2009, and it got exactly 13 page views.  Times have changed! :)

* This picture is from 1988 when I was volunteering as Camp Pastor. I am front right; with me are Jennifer Bills, Beth Phillips Massey, Scott Smith, Jason Dewar, Jay Wilkins, Anita Swaim, Rebecca Howard Jackson and lots more of my favorite people!
* When I first attended camp in 1973, there was no pool, no Jericho Road, no Rappelling Tree, no Crafts Hut (just the Quonset Hut), no paved basketball court and no Crafts and Special Activities Director. They were all there 10 years later, my last summer on staff. Thanks, Neal Thomas.
* I was the very first Crafts and Special Activities Director in 1983.
* One of the assistant cooks in the mid-70’s, Vickie Casey, was a vegetarian. One night each week we had either vegetarian lasagna (excellent) or spaghetti (BEANS=YUCK!).
* My first counselor was Richard Shimaka, a Guilford College student from Kenya.
* The most famous QLC ghost stories were Red Eye Dick, The Quaker Lake Hand, and Nancy Nurse. And no one ever told them better than Ricky Sessoms.
* Neal Thomas used to like to hide on the roof of the lodge and pour water on people as they came out the back door to the kitchen- I have pictures somewhere of him getting Gail Steelman and Susan McBane. This is a pic of Gail getting him. :)
* David Fields and Paul Routh were both in my cabin as very young campers. Between the 3 of us we have spent at least one full lifetime at QLC!
* We once sent a staffer the emergency room with a sprained ankle and an insurance form. The form asked how the injury had occurred, and the answer was “injured while being stuffed in the pot sink.”
* Assistant Cooks didn’t last very long in those days.

* Room #2 in the lodge was nicknamed The Ghetto during the years Alan Brown and I used it as our home base.
* My first year as a camper, Team Competition included individual sports like tether ball, ping pong (single and doubles) and badminton (singles and doubles). I still have my blue ribbon for going undefeated in singles badminton.
* The only bad part of being Crafts and Special Activities Director my last summer was that I had to play on the hated staff team in the Staff vs. Counselors volleyball game every Friday night.

* The skit where God interrupts a person praying the Lord’s Prayer and talks them through it has been done at Vespers since the dawn of time, along with The Giving Tree and Barrington Bunny.
* The late Doug Morse, who volunteered for years at Senior High Camp, loved to ring the bell every morning. He often would ring it 100 times or more. Several mornings he was almost the only volunteer ever assassinated by the staff.
* Building a cross of candles on the softball field was nice, but to me nothing was better than seeing everyone’s candles floating on the lake after the Campfire Circle.
* Alice Carroll wrote a lullaby she used to sing around the campfire in 1978. I can still play and sing that absolutely beautiful song.

* The greatest song ever used in a Quaker Lake slide show was Dan Fogelberg's To the Morning, which Paula Teague used in 1976. Unless memory fails me, she recorded that soundtrack on an eight track tape. Go listen to that song, think about QLC, and tell me I am wrong...
* Marshmallows, which can be so good on s'mores, are instruments of Satan in the hands of 4th and 5th grade campers on campouts.
* Lifeguards used to wash all the dishes. They needed something to do while the counselors were doing the REAL work…
* Jay Osborne once dropped my guitar off the roof of the lodge. I just can’t bring that up often enough!
* Mark Farlow built campfires so big that airplanes used them as landing lights.
* Some of the best meals I ever had in my life were potluck dinners served in small Friends Meetings after the staff would sing on Sundays at worship.
* Secret Documents was a game I brought to camp in 1983. We used to play it growing up at New Garden. The game that later campers know as Secret Documents has almost nothing in common with the original version.
* Some of my favorite memories are of washing dishes and singing in the kitchen with Martha Farlow.  Can you believe My Angel Baby is not available on I-Tunes?
* I saw all 3 of the original Star Wars movies with QLC staffers on Saturday nights in 1977, 1980 and 1983.

* The first ever Senior High Camp Banquet was in 1983, it was a Luau, and it rocked!
* QLC once owned an Earth Ball– until it crushed some campers.
* In 1983 we had the first (and as far I know only!) Mr. & Ms. Quaker Lake Pageant during Sr. High Camp. One of the female contestants (I know who, but I'm not saying!) came out in a bikini, with her body fully oiled, and the the pageant came to a stop. That was one of the times I almost lost my job...
* Terry Venable and Leigh Ann Everhart came to my house after they got engaged, hoping I would notice the ring. I did not. They had to tell me.
* One summer the lake turned red. I kid you not…
* Homemade Orange Sherbet always rocked my world.
* I will never, ever, ever drink red kool-aid again!
* Did I mention that Jay Osborne let my guitar slide down the roof of the lodge?

So there you have it. Flashbacks are a wonderful thing. Old friends are even better.  Until tomorrow...