Memories of summer camp

These are reflections of my time at summer camp - not Abracadabra’s story - that will follow later.

I have many memories of Camp Ouareau which I attended for 6 summers from the age of 10 to 15.

Now this particular camp is having a 90th anniversary.

I went to an introduction to camp in Montreal before I went the first summer of 1961. I was 10 and my sister who was 7 also went. Someone asked her where she went to school and she said Lachute High School. The reply was - you are not very high! (Lachute at that time only had one school.)

I lived in various cabins and tents
- Junior Bung (Bungalow)
- Lower Birch Grove
- Hollow Log
- a couple of tents
- Couch II - a cabin

I found in some family files
- my Ouareau songbook
- badges that we got each year

I have lots of pictures from those July summers. My mom took slides and I have black and white prints.

There were a number of Ouareau campers who also went to Trafalgar. My sister and I were two of them.

When I was 10 I went off to summer camp for the first time. I was nervous and excited. We had spaghetti for dinner. It did not agree with me and for a long time after I would not eat any Italian food.

There are memories of being driven to summer camp in the Laurentians. That was quite a trip. It was sad not coming on the bus from Montreal with mostly everyone else. My dad drove us as we lived in Lachute.

We would stop in Sainte Adele for lunch at a particular restaurant.

We had trunks for our one month stay. I used a large old trunk. It was a family one from the past. Kathi being younger got a new one.

Parents appeared at Parents Day with a fine picnic and my dad might have gone in swimming with us - my mom did not swim.

I have a tray I use at my house now. I think it was made by Kathi or me.

I have always liked to read. There was a tree house library and I read many of the Nancy Drew and Bobbsey Twins books.

We had a sing song and campfire once a week. We probably cooked hot dogs and marshmallows.

We often rowed the rowboat or paddled the canoe across to Blueberry Island. We did pick blueberries there and at other places around the camp.

We walked up Lookout - the local mountain - at least once a summer. In a camp of many years before my time there was a forest fire on the mountain.

There were French speaking kids there - sent to learn English. Now the camp is officially bilingual and both languages are used regularly.

One of the counsellors helped me with my canoe skills. I was not one for sailing.

The lake was usually very cold for swimming.

I remember the Sunday services - outside or inside depending on the weather.

There were overnight canoe trips when the campers got older - either to Blueberry Island and then farther away down the lake. I still have some trip rope from those trips.

We had some tuck (candy) from time to time - a few days a week. That was sort of a treat because I did not get candy regularly at home.

What did I like best at camp?
- certainly not the swimming but I did learn how to swim
- I liked more the crafts
- boating, canoeing, archery
- I did play some tennis but not very well.

Until recently I still had my sleeping bag. I am not a camping person so I finally gave it away.

*****

These are some of my best memories of being at camp.

Singing grace at mealtimes in rounds.

Being outside in the mountains and beside the lake in the Laurentians. It is a very pretty part of the country.

As going off to boarding school this was a part of my growing up and my sister’s as well. Being with other girls in a different environment.