“Things ended up as any Sunday would, and I am thoroughly exhausted,” wrote an anonymous girl in an article in the “Loon” in 1947. “As I lay on my bunk, it is quiet except for the kids bellowing; it’s dark except for the flashing flashlights; and it’s peaceful, except for the individual under me, who is bouncing me.”

Dawn Kober (1977), who was in a cabin with all her friends, had the loudest cabin in 1977. “We were supposed to settle down at night, and we got in trouble for making so much noise.” The bunk beds with springs may not have been the most comfortable in the world, but at the end of an activity filled day, the girls should have cared only about sleep. (Well, nighttime foolishness with girls? Pranks and talking? Maybe not)

Kim Hartwig (1976) must have been in with Dawn in the cabin renamed “Potawatami” at the bottom of the hill as you headed to the lake. “We were loud in that cabin and when the counselors left us to go down to the campfire, we were close enough they could hear us and they would yell “Shut Up Potawatami”, she laughed.

There was a quiet time after lunch, when girls would rest from their morning activities and staff would have a break from giggling gaggles of girls. The rest period began in the early years, encouraging an hour to rest before swimming. “I heard all my growing up years that we had to wait a half hour at least after eating before we could go back in the water or we would get cramps and drown,” said Mary Jo Rawlings, who loved swimming in the fifties.

Gail Schultheiss had distinct memories of rest period after lunch in 1966, where the girls were instructed to stay on their bunks and read, write letters home or nap. “Our counselors knew if we were up to any shenanigans,” she laughed. Many girls, like Minette Jacques (1955-57), always had a book in her hand during rest time.

“I can still remember how we had to have quiet time and not fool around with the other girls, which was very hard to do,” said Carol Requadt (1945),” but I loved getting to know the girls, especially since I was the only girl in the family. We were well taken care of there. You had to be in your hut at a certain time, but it never felt restrictive. I never felt like I was locked into any one activity. It was never like school.”

Many counselors read stories to the young ones to settle them at night and Carla Wilhelm (1945-49) remembered milk and graham crackers. Other years, food was discouraged in the huts due to mice, chipmunk and insect infestation.

Harriet Crumb, an early twenties camper who wrote a letter to me in 1989 had this to say about the evening quiet time. ”One small recollection came to me quite clearly not long ago. It was that each night about 9:00 p.m. when we all had gone to our huts for the night, after singing Taps, but before the bell rang “lights out”—-each counselor brought a white enamel pitcher of milk and a plate of graham crackers to our hut, for it was a long time between meals and we were all hungry by then. This helped hold off starvation overnight, and to face crawling into a cold, wet swimsuit in the a.m.”

What traditions do remember associated with rest time and quiet time in your cabin?