Attending Camp Hagan for ten years as a Camper, Junior Counselor, Senior I Counselor, and Entertainment Department Head was undoubtedly the biggest influence in my life, although I must admit as a Junior Five Camper my first year, I was pretty naïve……When told at dinner that we had to don our “birthday suit” for the evening entertainment, I tearfully told my counselor that I didn’t have one because it wasn’t on the list of things to bring to camp! I also wrote home that the yellow bug juice was made from yellow jacket bees, but that it was really good, in addition to my favorite meal…..chicken chow main on Thursdays! Winning awards at “Impersonation Night” all through my camping years, brought out the “ham in me” that ultimately gave me the confidence to do some amateur theater later in life and serve my final year at Hagan as the Entertainment Department Head. I know that managing a staff of two entertainment counselors, planning a different entertainment program every night, in addition to challenging entertainment classes, and presenting a “musical” for every camp session, gave me the confidence early on in my career that I could manage a staff of 14 at the Boston College Career Center, where I was the Director of the Career Center and Alumni Career Services for twenty years.
To this day, I still think that my proudest moments have been winning the citizenship award and being named a junior counselor right after my second year in Senior 8, without having to be a CIT. I gained the confidence to go into teaching as a result of being a nature and pioneering counselor, but little did the campers know that I continued to replant the fossils that we found on the first hike so that we could find those same fossils during subsequent hikes for the rest of the season. I never did locate “Hidden Lake” either!
I still play my ukulele, but never as well as Directoress Janey Endres’ version of “Scarlet Ribbons.” My friends from my home town remember how much they loved learning the camp songs that I taught them when I returned from camp. And even now, Rosemary Wenzler Milgate, a J.C. with me, and I always sing camp songs when we get together, even on the streets of NYC!
I can still hear the sound of the shutters slamming down when a thunder storm was threatening, the crackle of the Council Fire, muffled sniffling when “It’s Time to Leave” was sung by the counselors, the shuffling sound of campers’ boots while walking to the Outdoor Chapel (I still can’t understand why we had to wear boots in the throes of summer heat!) and “Taps” being sounded at the end of the day.