Boni's Memories

Love your blog. Here are some memories for you. The pictures of Pudgy (Neppies mascot) and Joey are from '64. Pudgy went canoeing regularly and always jumped into my canoe when she was ready to throw up. She earned her beginning swimmer card also.
Our girls planned an overnight at a nearby Girl Scout camp and they forgot to pack eating utensils and were forced to eat with what was available, hence the eggbeater.
The birch bark place card had a rosette of pine cones, but they didn't survive. I don't know who painted the lake, but it's really neat. What I liked best about singing at Quid was when a bunch of counselors would circle through camp serenading the girls at bedtime. We only sang the really pretty ones. Boni

Painting of Kanawaukee 1, Eva Wittlinger, 1994

Kanawaukee 1

Words to Songs

It was suggested in an earlier comment that we make available words to some of the songs we learned at camp.

I have been making clickable links to many of the songs that I had listed on an earlier blog posting (February 07)

On some of the songs, you can click on a player and hear the song.

Now, if you click on the name of the song, the words come up.
I have also found some good websites to look up Camp Songs on.

This site below is very comprehensive and the link relates to Girl Scout songs.

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=77412

Ellen

Camp Quidnunc 1963 and 64
by Ellen Forman Muraskin (borrowed from the Camp Reunion Website)

I went to and absolutely adored Camp Quidnunc when I was 10 and 11, in the summers of 1964 and 65. I stayed in Sky Blue the first year and Sherwood Forest the next.

I had a counselor from Texas named Char.

I hiked to Bald Rock. I slept outside in a bedroll one night.

I washed my hair in the lake with Prell. Fish bit me. Spiders bit me. Mosquitoes covered my arms and legs with bites. If I hadn't looked so happy when I met my mother after two weeks, she probably would have been alarmed at all those bites.

I made a friend (Audrey Seidman) that I have to this day. The day we met, she dropped her footlocker on my foot.

I wrote poems and burnished copper and learned to make campfires and washed dishes in buckets that were brought to every table in the dining room. We sang

"Mandy was a little Bahama Girl..." and "I Won't Grow Up" while we washed dishes.
I peed in the "la" which did not flush. The faucets were rabbit-ear devices you had to squeeze together. They only ran cold water. I washed my clothes with a washboard.

I had a black tent mate named Gwynn, who was a good friend. I noted this in a letter home, describing her as "Negro."

I wrote letters home to my bathroom. Also my family. My mother has kept them; they are so excited and enthusiastic. I still have the Q spiderweb pin and the little charm bracelet with the fir tree.

And you?

Ellen Forman Muraskin, from Troop 612 (I think) in Middle Village, Queens, circa 1963-64

Wendy's Recollections

...quite a few of the people mentioned in the blog I do remember. I remember being very upset the first time Pam went to camp and I was too young to go – I think I drove my mother nuts the whole time see was gone. I think I was 7 my first summer and having an older sister in camp was a definite asset. My time at Quid included Sleepy Hollow, HAW, Sky Blue, Cricket Hill, Gypsy Skies & Caravan. The summer of ’71 I followed my sister’s footsteps and was the Dining Hall Supervisor – I remember I tore the ligaments in my foot that summer, and lived on Hershey Bars and apples (seeing how the food was made definitely wasn’t very appetizing.) The summer of ’72 I worked on the waterfront.

I remember hiking through the deserted boys camp and the counselors telling us scary stories. I wonder what kind of stories were told to campers in later years that hiked through Quidnunc. Did you hear of “Irving the Pervert?” I think he appeared the last year I was a camper in Caravan.

Some of my other memories were the canoe regattas and trying to beat Camp Mahetu, hiking to the Red Apple Rest, and backpacking parts of the Appalachian Trail, canoe trips, sneaking into DD at night, the final banquets, campfires – s'mores and singing, lots & lots of singing . One summer there was a big storm predicted and we all got our bedrolls or sleeping bags and crammed into the Troop House. I remember that someone talking in their sleep was quite a source of amusement. There were always tears at the end of the summer. I was supposed to work at either Brady or Kaufmann ( can’t remember which) the summer after Quidnunc closed but I just couldn’t do it – it would have never been the same.

Flag Ceremony and Postcard

Old Postcard purchased on Ebay by Cindy Cleveland

1953 Flag Ceremony
Ellie Alf, in red shirt and red hair

Memories by Lisa

Camplife was difficult for me because I was sent so young (6 years old) and had trouble adjusting. Like everyone, I've got lots of memories but what really stands out is what I learned.

I learned how to make smores, how to collect kindling and build a campfire, how to make a bedroll, how to pack a duffle bag, how to make "hospital corners", how to roll up tent flaps, how to fold a flag, how to swim, how to paddle a canoe (bow and stern), how to tip a canoe, get back in it, bail it out (with our bathing caps) and continue home.

I vividly recall going on a ridiculously long hike and sleep over where I stepped in a next of yellow jackets and had to spend the night in the woods, feeling just horrible. Last summer when my daughter stepped in a nest of caught 16 stings, I was truly able to sympathize!

My favorite part of camp were those nights when we would have a sing. We would form a giant circle. I always wondered where these songs came from and how everyone knew all the words. It was very comforting to me to hear the music and harmony. I learned how to sing in a round. Today I am a musician and I teach music to pre-schoolers in Manhattan.

I attended Quidnunc until 8th grade when I decided to hang out with my friends in New York but what I learned at Quidnunc has truly endured.

Lisa Ellex

Deni Speaks

Lynn Jeffries, HAW 1965
(Thanks to Denise Maynard)
More new pictures in Quidnunc #2 file

Thanks for putting together the Quidnunc page with photos.
I really got teary eyed when I saw the Double Decker, Waterfront, the camp bridge and Neppies Nook. I remember some of the girls in the photos such as Belle and Saadia; they were with me in Neppies.
In the photo of 2 counselors tying a canoe to the camp truck, the gal in the plaid shirt was my swimming instructor "Flip" in '65.
In the photo of the 4 counselors in their "greenies" the short blonde
is Donna Jeffries as her sister Lynn was one of my previous counselors.

I attended Quidnunc as follows:

1965, Hundred Acre Wood: counselors were Pokey, Kathy, Lynn and someone else
1966: Gypsy Skies, counselors were Kathy, Skipper and Lee
1967: Trails End: counselor were Davey and ???
1968: Neppies Nook: Brenda, ME (Mary Ellen) and Kathy Giffin
1969-70: Caravan: Splint, Inga and "Mouse"
1971: Kitchen Aide living in Hilltop
1972: Counselor in Sleepy Hollow

Ellie was our director for my 1st 2 years, then Smitty and later some other women took over.

Some of my camper friends were: Wendy Crabtree, Robin Fields, Gayle Goldfarb, Lorraine Collazzo, Jody Krissiloff, a girl called "Rex", a girl called "Irving"(Marie Kallmeyer) who packed a trunk of mixed drinks in baby food jars, a girl called "Mushy" and a host of other girls who's faces I can just remember but not their names.

I will try and dig out some photographs over the summer. Please keep me on your mailing list and blog.

If there is a reunion or a pilgrimage to the Quidnunc site, I would definitely be interested. I still reside in the NY metro area.
Thanks for sharing these wonderful memories.

Best regards,
Denise (Deni)