The Divisional Picnic

Every year, for a number of years, the camp held a "Divisional Picnic" on July 1st (or another day if it fell on a Sunday!).

It was open to everyone, young and old. It was 'bring your own food', but the camp supplied the activities. There were games and races for the kids, swimming, and a baseball tournament. The different corps usually organized their own team for the baseball tournament. I think there have even been "staff" teams over the years.

I was on staff for the camp's 40th anniversary year (1988). I remember we made a huge sundae in a wood 'trough' for all to share, at the flag pole.

Do you have a Divisional Picnic memory?

International Students

In my files I have this picture listed as the "International Students" who came to us via the Lion's Club each summer. It was always an interesting week, and some of them had some very European standards of dress!! At any rate we always welcomed them and they added some flavour to the early season. There were usually 14 of them, and they would come from about a dozen countries. We were the briefing stage for them so they could learn some Canadian culture, and get to know each other before heading off to different Canadian homes.


The other note of interest in this picture is the sky behind them. Remember those storms when we thought the trees would fall, or the cabins would be blown down? Remember the sheets of rain that soaked you if you took two steps from the dining room to your cabin?

The storms were not restricted to any decade. They came off the lake with fury.

Trees, or the lack thereof

The open field around the cabins and dining hall always seemed a bit bereft of trees in my humble opinion...so one day when driving from the Camp Selkirk to DHQ I noticed a house with a tree spade parked outside (just on the edge of Caledonia). I stopped and after a short conversation he agreed to meet me at the camp on a given day to move trees from the back to the front of the camp. We identified about 22 trees that we could move, and on the day we did so in 8 hours.


It was a great experience and I loved seeing the immediate changes! Mind you the phone company wasn't so happy about our cutting their line into the camp.

The other contributor to our need for trees was the Lion's Club. Each year in conjuction with the International Students (I noticed no one from the staff has mentioned them) they would plant one tree.

Along the Way

Did you have a favourite place where you liked to stop on the way to or from camp?

There's Hewitt's Dairy Bar in Hagersville. Delicious ice cream with lots of flavour choices!

Also, maybe a bit more out of the way, but still a destination for some was Port Dover, and while there, a trip to The Arbor for a hot dog and some "Glow" (their exclusive juice drink).

With people coming from all different directions, I'm sure there were a lot of places people stopped.

Let us know your favourite place to stop along the way.

My Favourite Camper

I'm writing this post in response to some comments left by Major Betty-Ann Lewis a while back...

Anyone who worked at Camp Selkirk in the 1987-88 era is sure to remember a special camper named Buford Organ. There was just something so unique about Buford and we all loved him immensely. Meal time with Buford was such a treat that the counselors all wanted him at their tables and the waitresses fought over the prilege of serving him.

My favourite memory of Buford though has nothing to do with the dining hall. The first day of camp I noticed Buford walking to the pool with a Mac's Milk t-shirt with a big rip in the sleeve. The next day he wore the same shirt without any sleeves. On the third day I nearly died when I saw him walking down to the pool with only the sleeves on his arms, no shirt!

Buford's dining room antics were legendary. He asked for marmelade at every meal and spread it on everything. He put orange juice on his pancakes. He would ask for a cheese sandwich if he didn't like what was being served. One time, as his waitress, I was serenaded with a beautiful rendition of "Jello in the Bowl" after serving him some Jello for dessert.

But the classic Buford story involves the time when we in the kitchen spied him licking the rim of the ketchup bottle at his table. We were all grossed out, especially Mrs. Lewis. Unfortunately his waitress didn't see this and she collected the ketchup bottle before we could get to it. It was placed on a table with all the other ketchup bottles, so we didn't know which one had been licked. We then had to empty, wash and re-fill every ketchup bottle in the place.

Who else remembers Buford? I wish I had a picture of him. Are there any other "special" campers who come to your memory?

Roofs over our heads

Camps are anything but buildings - they are all about people, but the buildings are central to facilitating the ministry of camping. The Dining Hall, with the bell and flag pole just outside was a central piece of the camp. My goodness that building could be noisy! And how many times was that floor washed - yes the kids loved doing that.

Then there was the washrooms. Now these washrooms are familiar to the younger crowd but I remember the old building - remember the urinal trough? Ugh.

That buiding became our drive-in shed and workshop for the maintenance worker.

I always thought the washrooms could have been located elsewhere but location was dictated a bit by the way the services were located. And finally the cabins. The old ones left the property with much history still inside them - walls, beams with notes and names inscribed on them. The new ones allowed more space and the porches provided shelter from the sun and rain.

Did you have a favourite building? One that seemed to represent camp to you?

Bermudian Invasion!

Does anyone remember the year the Hamilton Citadel youth band from Bermuda came to Senior Music Camp? I think it must have been somewhere around 1980. (I was a faculty brat at the time)

What I do remember is that the Hayward family was there, including Winslow Hayward (Kevin's father). I was so young, that the name "Winslow" did not register with me as being a first name, I kept calling him "Mr. Winslow"! We took them all to Niagara Falls on one of the days, and the Bermudian contingent even hosted a Bermudian trivia night at camp. I remember one of the questions: "What colour is the sand in Bermuda?" Can anyone tell me the answer?

Does anyone have any photos from that year? If you send them in, we'll be sure to post them!