The girls either learned to have an appreciation for snakes or they left camp still hating them. Maureen Moore (1968-70) learned to appreciate snakes during her trips to the nature hut, but, some girls played with them at camp and later developed a fear, like Karen Magidsohn (1965) or Barb Krohn (1970-72), who just avoided the nature activities.
In Valerie Monto’s (1964-68) neighborhood, there were many empty lots that were not developed, filled with bees and garter snakes. “We were city kids, but not inexperienced with nature. I would pick up garter snakes by the tail and was not afraid. I remember one girl was so freaked out by even seeing them.”
Diane Dudley (1957-63) learned her lesson when she wanted to see what was down inside a log, so she stuck her hand in and came up with a snake bite, featuring three holes on her finger! Carla Wilhelm (1945-49) was taken by surprise when a garter snake bit her, because she had no idea snakes could bite!
Cindy Rose (1968-70) had a vivid memory of standing on a path at Maqua watching a snake eat a frog and that very same scene was a bad memory for Jan Mosier (1947-52). She watched a counselor feed frogs to the snakes and was horrified as the frog slithered down inside the snake’s body.
“We had a great nature director, Joanne McKinney, and she was real hands on, “said Chris Lambert (1958-65). “She brought this huge South American lizard and a boa constrictor called “God”. Of course, we called it “G.D.” for short. She would feed the snake mice and the kids could watch and it was warm blooded, so on cold days we would all hold this eight- foot snake in front of the fireplace to keep it warm. Well, they both escaped and we looked and looked for them, but we knew the first freeze or cold night, they would be dead. It was pretty interesting.”
Susan Prieskorn (1966-72) heard about the pet boa, even before she arrived at camp. One the first night of camp, all the girls were introduced to the counselor and signed up for their activities. “I hovered in the corner, deathly afraid of that snake and JoJo had the snake wrapped around her shoulders and wanted me to touch it. She told me if I had paranoia, that wasn’t going to work, but I was terrified it would get loose the entire time I was at camp. The snake lived in a cage for the first week and then it came up missing and was never found. I did not sign up to take the science hut classes. Today, I think, it would be considered child abuse.”
One of Debbie Robson’s favorite stories, which she described as traumatic at first, involved “JoJo” McKinney and her lizard in the early seventies. “JoJo had a collie named “Lucky” and a lizard or iguana. We had been on a hike and one of her friends, “Spacey” discovered the lizard was under the cabin, so she reached under and pulled it out by the tail. She pulled the tail right off! She looked like she had seen a ghost,” laughed Debbie. “Poor “Spacey” kept saying, oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh, I am so sorry. Then JoJo told her the tail would grow back.”
‘We were in a cabin with some girls that had been coming for awhile,” wrote Lindy White (1970-73). “My counselor, to the best of my recollection, was “Biaf”. This was the cabin that decided during rest period that we should bring another counselor’s boa constrictor in to stay with us. The snake’s lunch apparently didn’t agree with it and he barfed all over “Biaf’s” cot! It was sick! Debbie and I, being the new girls, had the privilege of cleaning it, even thought it wasn’t our idea to bring it in. Oh, well, I guess that was part of our initiation.
Debbie Tweedie (1965-72) also remembered the lizard tail incident and the snake, as did Kimela Peck (1966-74), who said it was the first time she had ever touched a snake. What was your snake or lizard encounter while at camp?