“How I wanted a footlocker,” said Mary Obey (1957,1966-67). “You were considered in if you had one, and I finally got one.” Andrea Gale (1970-74) never had one, but said footlockers were a “huge thing and a huge status symbol”.

Vicki Wynne-Parry (1965-68) had a green footlocker that her Dad bought her for years. She was eight and went with her sister Kim, who was three years older. “When my parents dropped me off on opening day, I was an independent girl and I remember waving goodbye to them. I was raring to go! I remember someone yelling, “Wait you left one behind– you forgot one!” They didn’t think I belonged because I was so little. I had a little pixie haircut and I was small.”

Her sister Randi (1969-73) thought the cabins were so cool with the bunk beds, but for her the best part was that her Dad bought all the sisters matching footlockers

It seemed to Kim Wynne- Parry that footlockers that sat at the end of the bed were mandatory. (They were probably never mandated, but plenty of girls wanted one!) Kim still has her and recalled the list she checked off, as she packed two weeks worth of clothes into her. She laughed as she remembered her sister only used the clothes at the top and the rest were clean when she returned home.

Caryl Abendroth (1953-54) said packing for camp was a very big deal with her footlocker and the list that was sent from the “Y”. “We had to send away for labels and everything I owned had to be labeled. Mom and I prepared my things and it built my enthusiasm.”

“ I can remember coming down that winding road. Cars were delivering the girls with duffle bags and trunks and there was a registration process. We signed in and were given a cabin. I think I was in one of the original cabins at the bottom of the hill because I remember going up hill to shower. We would move in all our stuff—flashlights, trunks, etc. Then we walked back amidst hugs and tears. Some were excited. I remember watching parents leave.”

“We were introduced to the girls in our cabin and I made friends right away. The cabin was brown inside with lots of windows and screens, and one single light bulb with a pull chain. There was only one single bed for the counselor and at the end of her bed was her trunk. There were two sets of bunk beds and opposite were the other sets and I think there were eight girls with trunks in there. Outside was a clothesline for our wet bathing suits and towels.”

.“I remember packing seven pairs of socks and seven pairs of underwear into the footlocker,” said Beth Taylor (1966). “I thought the footlocker was a pretty big deal. We would all arrive at camp, unload our suitcases and footlockers by the camp store near the lodge and all the senior girls and kitchen aides would help unload and deliver our belongings to our huts.”

Cindy Naylor also had a big trunk filled with clothes and snacks that her Mom had packed and “probably new clothes, considering I was raised well,” said 1967 camper Cindy. Julie Richardson had camped the same year and stayed six weeks one of her summers, so always had to buy more undies and socks.”

“I always had an orange trunk to go to camp with new clothes and toiletries, which meant I had my own shampoo and products to take to camp. I covered the trunk in stickers,” said Dana Foote (1974-77). “When I got to camp and into my cabin, it was always fun to find my Mom had written a little note to me and stuck it in there along with other little surprises like a new ball and jacks. I always preferred opening my trunk at camp for that very reason.”

Carrie Norris (1972-73) said her first memory was the cabin by the water below the lodge with the steps and porch and Gretchen Foss was standing with a beach towel over the railing. “I remember the first time I came up, both my parents brought me. I had a yellow footlocker and my Mom had made it all pretty with wallpaper inside.”

“I begged to have a footlocker because everyone had one,” said Holly Foss (1966-72), who finally traded her suitcase in for a trunk.

Jane Linder (1956) used her Dad’s “old, heavy-duty Army footlocker”, as did Debbie Pennington (1961) and Judy MacNichols in 1946, when her parents drove her up with her uncle’s Army footlocker and settled her into her “pretty bare and basic hut”.

Did you own a footlocker? Was it considered cool or not a big deal?