You know you've been coming to a camp a long time if ...
- Your souvenier camp t-shirts are older than the staph counselors.
- You started camp as a Munchkin and your kids (grandkids?) are now Munchkins.
- When you started coming to camp you happily stayed in cabins that are now the staph cabins, or have been torn down -- and swept the dirt through the gaps between the floorboards.
- When you started coming to camp you took the train from the Bay Area and the steamboat across the lake.
- You can recite all the Dave Bunett legends:
- Dave towing an overturned sailboat back to the dock by holding the rope in his teeth.
- Dave jogging to the top of Mt. Tallac and carrying a disabled camper back to camp.
- Dave's staph 'room' was a matress up under a tree overlooking Witch's Pond.
- When he was known as Captain Boatdock.
- You remember him in the first water ballet.
- ???
- You can remember camp costing less than $1000 for a family of 4 for the week.
- You will be in the Bye-Bye lottery because you started coming before the camp had a computer system for reservations.
- You know the way into camp from U.S. 50 by Sawmill Road.
- You can remember when the road by the General Store went between the store and the lake (and before the store moved up the hill).
- You stopped at the Nut Tree restaurant off I80/US50 to/from camp.
- You can remember when there was a large pine tree coming up through the outside dining deck.
- You remember when staph was staff.
- You brought sleeping bags to put on top of the army cot mattresses.
- You remember Dirty Dan (Cole) presiding over the old fountain!
- You got your name written on the old fountain wall or ceiling for drinking a "suicide."
- There were no bears in camp.
- You bought a Stanford Indian tee-shirt from Huntley Castner.
- You can recite verbatim Tommy Cole's lion hunt (and/or your family still answers the phone, "Lion, is you dere?")
- You know who Mr. Moto is.
- You remember guests/campers in the talent show -- or for that matter, you
remember when the talent show had talent.
- You remember when the water ballet was beautiful, graceful and funny.
- You saw DOPO sing "I Wish I Were a Staffer" at the talent show.
- You had to go across the road to the group showers to use the toilet or shower because your cabin either didn't have a bathroom, or it was pretty non-functional.
- You arrived at dinner every night to find a fresh loaf of bread and a tureen of soup on the table, and then were actually waited on by helpful staffers.
- You remember the noise and camaraderie of the old dining room.
- You knew the camp before sewers -- and lived through the dirt and dust of the installation of the sewer system.
- You saw Nixon's resignation speech on a 19" black and white TV brought into camp by Frank Hildreth, the camp director, and watched it in the old "rec room" with all of the campers and staff trying to see it!
- You remember purple playaks, and/or remember the yellow playaks.
- You remember when they added 'the boom' to the ski boats to help you get started water skiing.
inputs from lsmith, sherylk