Back in February we published a list of “camps,” that is places where people—mostly kids—-could go during the summer months to engage in activities such as art and sports, or any other special thing that would not normally be indulged in during the school year.
Nearly 200 separate camps were listed, including art camps, day camps, residential camps, sports camps, and study and enrichment camps. By now, it’s likely that those who have decided to attend a camp this summer have already decided which one it will be. Maybe it will be even more than one.
As one who attended some kind of camp “way back when” for parts of six summers, I feel qualified to comment. In fact, in my Looking Back of April 29, I told about my experience at Camp Sheldrake on Lake Cayuga in upstate New York, the place where some of us made and used our own kayaks.
Of course, in those days if you went to a place called a “camp” it was understood that you would actually “live” there and stay overnight, and not just indulge in some special activity for a few hours and then go home. Many of what are called “camps” today are simply studios for some kind of art activity. Staying overnight and having your meals there are not included. To me, calling a place like that a “camp” is misleading.
But, back to my kind of camp. After the summer at Camp Sheldrake—when I was 11 years old—-I became old enough to join the local Boy Scout troop, Troop 77 in Brooklyn. At that time you had to be 12 years old to be a Boy Scout, instead of a Cub Scout.
Both of my older brothers had been active Boy Scouts, and I learned a lot from them about what all of the scout activities were. I also looked forward to wearing a uniform like the ones they had. For a kid who lived in the city 24 hours a day, the chance to get out into the country and even stay there overnight was very appealing. And after hearing from friends what scout camp was like, the idea that it was more “primitive” than Camp Sheldrake excited me.
Thus started my four consecutive summers at the Ten Mile River scout camp near Narrowsburg, New York. That’s on the Delaware River near Port Jervis where New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania come together. All the Boy Scout troops in New York City participated in running a huge camp complex in the Narrowsburg area. Each of the five boroughs had its own camp reservation set aside with its own lake. Each lake was equipped with rowboats, canoes, and a well marked swimming area.
Overnight accommodations for the scouts were in tents mounted on platforms above the ground. Each scout had his own canvas cot that was big enough to hold his own sleeping bag. There were eight scouts in each tent.
Clothing was kept in knapsacks under the cot, and if you had to wash something, you did it yourself in a bucket using well water. The only clothing each scout had was part of his uniform, which, in the summer included shorts.
The best part of scout camp was the opportunity it gave to work on merit badges. These were the individual stepping-stones to advancement in rank. Since many merit badges were based on subjects that involved some kind of nature study, such as bird study and reptile study, camp was the only practical place to work on them for city boys.
This was especially true of bird study, which required detailed knowledge of forty native species. Bird study was usually the final merit badge scouts acquired in the total of 21 needed to attain Eagle rank, the highest possible.
Other merit badges that were easier to acquire at camp than they were in the city were those based on water activities like rowing, canoeing, swimming and life saving. Camping, cooking and pioneering were also well suited to the camp situation.
After spending parts of four summers at Ten Mile River, my interest in baseball began to over-ride my scout-centered interests and my next and last summer camp experience was at a place that specialized in coaching teen-age boys in baseball.
Since that was in the early 1940’s when our home-town Brooklyn Dodgers were beginning to be competitive, many teen-age boys saw themselves as future major leaguers. But my own experience at the baseball camp had mixed results.
Dick Snedeker has been a resident of West Windsor for more than 50 years. A retired engineer from Aeronautical Research Associates of Princeton, Snedeker has been active in the community, including serving as president of the WW-P School Board for multiple years, and as a founding member of Friends of West Windsor Open Space.
