The Lutheran church in Rockford also had an affiliation with Camp Augustana in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. This meant that our church youth group would get to spend two weeks at “Auggie” every summer….boys and GIRLS! It was a blast! One camp experience, however, stands out above the rest.
The camp had a beautiful location on the shores of Lake Geneva. There was a large dining hall, an arts and crafts building, a chapel, and cabins. There were 8 cabins: 4 for boys and 4 for girls on either side of a large athletic field. My best friends, Gary Johnson, Terry Downey and I were in a cabin in which the senior boys included Ron and his friend John Cook. They took a perverse pleasure in lording over us at every opportunity, and punishing us when we screwed up….which was often. So we plotted our revenge.
We would wait until the last night of camp and then short-sheet their beds. This meant pulling the foot of their bottom sheet back up to look like it was the top sheet. They’d only discover this when went to slide in and their legs would only be able to go half way. The only way to fix it was to re-make your bed. We decided to embellish the trick by putting sawdust and some dirt in the bed at the same time……devilishly crafty!
The camp had a beautiful location on the shores of Lake Geneva. There was a large dining hall, an arts and crafts building, a chapel, and cabins. There were 8 cabins: 4 for boys and 4 for girls on either side of a large athletic field. My best friends, Gary Johnson, Terry Downey and I were in a cabin in which the senior boys included Ron and his friend John Cook. They took a perverse pleasure in lording over us at every opportunity, and punishing us when we screwed up….which was often. So we plotted our revenge.
We would wait until the last night of camp and then short-sheet their beds. This meant pulling the foot of their bottom sheet back up to look like it was the top sheet. They’d only discover this when went to slide in and their legs would only be able to go half way. The only way to fix it was to re-make your bed. We decided to embellish the trick by putting sawdust and some dirt in the bed at the same time……devilishly crafty!
So that night, after the final campfire, everyone went to their cabins. Gary, Terry and I got into our beds and were trying hard not to let anyone hear our giggles as the seniors got into beds. Suddenly, there was loud cursing and yelling, and we dug our heads beneath our pillows to squelch our body-jerking laughter. It didn’t take a Sherlock Holmes for them to figure out who did it, and they came over and literally rolled us out of our beds and tore our beds apart. Then they made us make their beds correctly. When we were almost done, they asked if we wanted to go for a little run. “What? It’s 11 o’clock at night”, we said. They told us to strip down to our underpants, and while one guarded us the other went across to the girls cabins to wake them up and tell them to watch from their porch while a couple of knuckleheads ran by.
Silhouetted by the full moon, we took off at full speed. I was fast, Terry next, but Gary was portly and slow, and took the majority of the abuse and catcalls from the girls as he lumbered by. For months, we were referred to as the “Midnight Raiders” or the “Midnight Streakers”. Ahhhh, adolescent humiliation.
Just passed Andeersonville Prison Camp en route to Michigan and they had the same photo
ReplyDeleteThere were 6 of us staying in one side of the dorm, and none of us ever wanted to be the first one out of bed in the morning. As usual with teenage boys away from home, we all wanted to stay up as long as possible, and one night we cooked up a scheme for the poor kid who had fallen asleep. It was around 2:30 in the morning and he was well into snoring when we woke him up told him that we had to get to the dining hall for breakfast at 7:30, and that we were waiting on him to shower first. We'd reset the clocks to 6:30, and he grumbled his way to the bathroom, but found the rest of us sound asleep when he came out!
ReplyDeleteOne summer a counselor - I think it was Mark Swanson, decided to make a couple cases of home-made root beer. Being a generous sort, he gave most of his brew to one of the girl counselors, who's name escapes me. She graciously accepted the beverages and placed them under her bed on the upper floor of Jesperson Hall. Bearing in mind that this was in July in the early 1970's, there was no air conditioning. When Mark found that his concoction tended to explode, he made a dash to inform his friend, but was too late. It was soon discovered that every bottle had geysered into her mattress and had become a large sticky puddle all over her floor.
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