Dining Hall

Dining Hall

The Dining hall at camp was the hub. Nine long tables and two square tables--the Staff Table was pretty exclusively for Irv and Edna and other staff/quests/family, the rest were free setting, staff at the heads and campers along the sides. The food can out the kitchen window and KP folks, cabin groups who had set tables, brought the food to the tables.

One of the ideas of camp was to have campers involved in the work that made camp happen, KP, Chores (pulling irrigation pipes was my favorite), even scheduling your day was part of the roles for campers.

Food at camp was simple and substantial. I really liked the water glasses—metal holders for conical paper cups--I’ve never seen anything like this before or since. Some of the tableware, western-style plates and bowls, was clearly from previous resort days; other was more utilitarian. Camp was family style with the staff member at the head of the table taking the role of “head”. I was obvious how your staff skills were perceived as the more distance you were form the staff table, the more you were a “control counselor.” Each to their own strengths.

The dining hall itself was a beautiful building with great expansive views of the Anderson Valley, of the pastures below, and on to the river. In the early days there was a porch off the dining hall towards the downhill side—later enclosed as the program office (Cole’s retreat.) The end of the room away from the kitchen was dominated by an amazing river-stone fireplace with an early version of a “heat-a-lator” arrangement designed to extract more heat from the flue and send it into the room. Also on either side of the fireplace were books and two large fans—it could get warm on summer days although not bad. The building was somewhat shaded and had great cross ventilation. There was also a “Swamp cooler” near the kitchen that, when working, cooled the building some. (There were great philosophical debates about the best building management strategy around cooling.)

As the meal wound down there were PSA’s (Public Service Announcements), songs, serious announcements (Irving Newman and or Colbert Davis Time and/or preceded along with:
“Announcements, announcements, announcements.
The worst is yet to come; the worst is yet to come.
It’s a horrible thing to be talked to death, the worst is yet to come...
Announcements, Pronouncements, Denouncements!”

And then songs—silly songs, serious songs (I’m still working on the Dona, Dona story...this is a really depressing song) and skits. Oh and the birthday song, which I still sing. There were a couple of adults males whose voices had a unique quality and they a dirge version of Happy Birthday...slow and really dreary
“Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
Tears and sorrow fill the air,
People crying/dying with/of despair,
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday”

One of my personal favorites was “Peanut Butter and Jelly”, a really silly song- there are lots of versions, ours was best. And Showboat’s version of “Love Potion Number Nine”—one of the few songs I can sing all the way through.

In another life I would like to study the flow of songs and traditions at camps, youth groups over time. I would love to know who wrote and how Three Chartreuse Buzzards changed to three sharp-toothed buzzards and the great oral and aural traditions. I wish I had kept my camp songbook from many years ago and could embark on an anthology degree in campfire songs—best PhD in the world!

Thanks