Harriet Crumb’s friend Margaret Dahlem,who had also been an inaugural camper on the Loon Lake site, stopped by in 1987 to see if the camp still existed. I took notes on her memories, which included cabin inspections.

“There were no counselors in the cabins, but there was always an inspection in the morning and beds had to be made with square corners. Fingernails were also inspected. If you did not make your bed, you received a demerit. It was not a good thing to have points off.”

In 1947 a new way to inspect the huts was instituted, with excellent, good and fair ratings. Inspections were conducted, in later years, by a camp nurse. Zoe McGrath, fifties camper, found herself on the other end of cleanliness as the camp nurse in 1967. An Honor Cabin banner was hung on the outside of the cleanest cabin.

Judy MacNichol’s memory from 1946 included an attempt to have the cleanest hut and win the contest for some extra privileges. “We took some girl’s washcloth and scrubbed the entire floor with it. I cannot imagine what that mother thought when she washed it.”

“The last year we were at camp, the huts all had Indian names. I was in “Menominee”, said Helen McLogan (1972-74). “I was not a real girlie teenager, but I was a rule follower. I can still remember the excitement when our cabin won the cleanest cabin. I was screaming because I was so proud.”

Ruth Wiesen (1957-59) said the counselors stayed in her hut, but the last year there must not have been enough teens for Senior Village, so she and two other friends stayed there. “When we were at breakfast the counselor used to go to our huts and there was a pennant or home-made banner for the cleanest one and we were excited to have the cleanest one.”

Joann Kern remembered if your cabin was a mess in 1953 there was a shame flag on the door and the years following, similar awards were handed out for dirty huts, which were deemed “Pig Pens”.

A paragraph entitled “Pigs” in the July 6, 1974 edition of the “Loon” interviewed campers on this topic. When asked about the state of cabins 8 and 9, they said “Oink, Oink”, but came through with clean cabins. Only Hut Nine and Hut C were awarded Honor Cabin status.

“The cabins that got pigs, however, think of a pig as an honor cabin. To them the pig is beautiful and they enjoy messing up and scattering things around. Since this is the last day, all they have to do is pick up their stuff and shove it in a suitcase or truck. There you have it, a portable pig,” ended the story.

An article in the “Loon” from 1977 or 1978, written by “The Hilt” read, “After two and a half weeks of a messy cabin, Minnehaha is finally clean. It took hours of dangerous and hard work getting mold off the floor. After taking about 500 loads of trash to bigger trash containers, most of the junk was cleaned out. (Too bad) It really is a shame that most campers will not be able to see how nice and clean the cabin is, because tomorrow it will look like the pits once more.”

“I can still smell the old cabin wood smell” said Kim Wynne- Parry from the sixties, who also could visualize the clothes lines outside each cabin. Ilene Rogers remembered the routines and checklist of chores that rotated, including cleaning the latrine. The chores reinforced a sense of responsibility for many of the young girls, who had never had those types of chores at home.

Was your cabin more likely to be the honored one or the messy one? Were you the one who cleaned?