Kaitlyn had a fun time at CoCo Keys for Cheer camp.
Jaime has been to Girl Scout Twilight camp at Camp Naish. Tonight's the overnight and it ends tomorrow at 1:30. She came home early Wednesday after she got sick and wanted to leave. They camped out at Camp Naish last year.
I love camp, I adore camp. I was in Camp Fire and I went to Camp Towanyak in Shawnee, Kansas. I loved that camp I went 4 years it was one of the best experienced I had. We did archery,swimming, hiking, one year we went horseback riding. I knew the trails like the back of my hand. Singing in the mess hall after meals and around the camp fire at night and I still know half the songs we learned back then. The first year I went I think I was 9 I threw up the first day. I was a picky eater and you were suppose to take a spoonful of everything. I ate an egg salad sandwich which had celery in it.(yuck) After I got sick my couselor fixed me PB&J sandwiches each meal that I wouldn't eat and I had Total cereal for breakfast. That only worked the first year. The second year I stuck what I didn't like on my lap and than threw it away. The next year we slept in tents on a wooden platform. I shared a tent with three girls whose first name and last name started with the same letters something like BB,SS and can't remember the other one. The last year we were working on our Gypsy badge and we only stayed two days at Camp Towanyak and the other days we were at Camp Tawasee which was the day camp but we had to cook all our own food, dig a hole for the potty, and worked on other things I know longer remember. We did sneak away to use the on site toilets which were a little better than squatting over our wonderful potty. I made a friend that year and we wrote back and forth for a couple of years. My mom was the Camp Fire Leader for a few years and we had a stayed a couple times overnight there as a group.
One day I decided to look for Camp Towanyak and drove up the street I remember my mom taking and about cried when all I found was $300-$400 thousand dollar houses.
I stopped at a garage sale and I just had this feeling like I was home(weird I know)and I asked the lady if she knew what happened to Camp Towanyak and she said this is where it was, we have some of the markers from the trails in our backyard. If we could afford it I would love to live there okay actually I would have loved to own the camp.
My husband went to Camp Santosage in Missouri. His dad worked for the YMCA in KCK so he grew up going to camp too. You would think we would be these big campers but we have never camped out as a family. I would like to change that soon.
When Kaitlyn was eight I was a Brownie Leader and she went to day camp and than I went for the overnight on the last day with my group. I was also 7 months pregnant with Jaime. That's an experience I'll never forget, sleeping on these little cots listening to the hoot owls, You know what it's like needing to pee in the middle of the dark night the outhouse was down a little ways from the tents. The first time I went to the outhouse the second time that wasn't happening.
Anyway I miss camp!!
3 comments:
I was a Kitchen Aide for 2 years and a Counselor for 2 years at Camp Towanyak. I love it and miss like you said you did. My mom was also a Leader for the Camp Fire Girls. I always tell people that Camp Towanyak was one of the best experiences of my life. I was a counselor in Cabin 2 my first time and Cabin 8 my second time. I also knew the camp like the back of my hand since I began going there when I was about 9 years old until my last time as a counselor in 1979. I get very sad knowing they tore it down and there are homes on the site now, but I still have pictures and my memories, which will never fade. "Remember, the times we had here, remember when you're away, remember the friends you've made here, and don't forget to come back some day . . . " :)
Thanks for your story!
My grandma was the nurse at camp towanyak for many years. I used to go stay the weekend with her once a summer. So fun.
I wonder if your grandma was nurse Pat. I loved Camp Towayak! I remember Randy boy playing the guitar and his repel tower. Connie was in charge of crafts. I went there for years up until the last year it was open. It was so sad. I remember the bad storm that we had one year when the wish tree became the wishing stump. We worked so hard to keep the trails clear. There was also copper top hill that we would climb. So much fun! I wish I would have taken more pictures.
Post a Comment