Bonnie Kessler loved the sounds of the loons at night, which were “spooky”, but they would start the ghost stories in the huts, especially when the moon hung over the lake on those dark nights. She could not wait to be in Cabin Eight. “I don’ know why”, said this forties camper, who finally got in. “I guess I thought it was desirable because it was high, on a rise, with a long path nearby.”

Kathy Sullivan (1961) remembered the three wooden huts in Senior Village with the double bunks as being fairly large. “There were braces between the studs, where I could put my treasures on the shelf”, said Kathy, who was happy to be in the area where there were three cabins together close to the “Brownie”.

Senior Village was built in 1959, with three new cabins on a larger scale. Notes from the Department of Social Services in 1960 list the size as larger than the originals, with racks for suitcases and clothing, and a building sub-committee report in 1959 listed the new ones as 16 feet by 20 feet, with the total cost around $4,000.

“There was no Senior Village when I first went there,” said Jane Linder, who attended in the fifties, “ but I was one of the first to be in Senior Village and two of my friends went with me. It was a special time.”

“I was always excited to go off to camp” said seventies camper Michele Patterson, whose requirements for cabins included rooming with Missy Butsch, Mardi Jo Link, Lois Neering and Beth Hickner—preferably by the bathroom. “My trunk was packed. I knew what friends were going and what cabins they were in. I looked forward to being in Senior Village, because it always looked like they were having so much fun. The younger cabins, we were like ducks in a row, but it was a feeling of total safety with laughing, fun and structure for each day.”

‘I didn’t have any sisters, so this felt like home to have all these girls around,” said Pam Hartz of her years in the cabins from 1966-75. “I was an introvert. I had to have a little quiet time to myself, but I was good in social settings. I needed some down time to rejuvenate, so coming back to my cabin was the place I could come into my little world, even though I enjoyed sharing the small space. I had trouble sharing, but it was not an issue at camp.”

Were you at camp the year Senior Village was built? If not, did you ever spend time there? What was different about the setting with three huts?