Sports at camp consisted of tennis, archery, riflery and games. In the sixties, the archery field was located directly east of the main lodge; the badminton and volleyball field were to the left of the drive that led to the Infirmary; the baseball field and riding ring were located up the road from the archery. The tennis courts were located past the Infirmary, and the rifle range was past the tennis courts, but in other years, activities could have been located elsewhere.

Linda Lee Harp, who was the sports director in 1969, left a detailed report at the end of the summer. Her staff included Barb Grey in archery, Chris Lambert in tennis, Sue Wiegand in riflery and Jeanne Kiltie in games.

The west porch of the lodge was considered the ping-pong porch and a diagram of the lodge showed a small green cupboard on the east porch, along with the sports cupboard, with the riflery and archery equipment on the east porch. The shuffleboard equipment was in a long brown bench to the right of the fireplace, with the tennis racquets hung on the wall above the bench. The green benches were at the lakeside east wall, and stored badminton raquets and ping-pong equipment.

Stored in the archery cabinet were bows, arrows, targets, arm guards and finger gloves. The riflery cabiniet held the rifles and cleaning equipment. A small cupboard held badminton birdies, tennis balls, bases, first aid kit, extra riflery targets and the award sheets for archery and riflery.

The first week of camp, the campers came to sports by cabin groups and the younger and older campers came together. During the second week, the girls were able to choose what activities they wanted and the ages were mixed, but the age requirement was twelve for archery and riflery. The games classes were held on the badminton/volleyball field.

Tennis had a week of instruction, rules and basic strokes and a second week of games. If it rained, strategy, rules and mental aspects of the game were explained by the instuctors in 1969. Many of the girls felt like the heat prevented them from playing, or the racquet was too heavy, but Cara Prieskorn (1966-71) found it challenging for a different reason.

“And then there was the tennis racquet Mom sent to camp with me—it was an old wooden thing with a press and it was ancient and geeky. Plus, my tennis balls kept falling out of the can during my lessons,” said Cara, who said she never progressed. (No one seemed to be thrilled with the condition of any of the tennis equipment in the lodge, according to notes!)

The rules were always explained on the first day, but there were also porch rules. They included such things as coming through the screen door, wearing tennis shoes and shorts in hot weather, reporting injuries, not leaving the porch until the bell rang and other rules for conflicts.

Sharon Williams was the riflery instructor in the early seventies. “On rainy days some of the sports would be on the porches in the lodge. I remember the big cabinet held the rifles and sat on the wall of the west side facing the kitchen. There were also metal cabinets that held the bows and arrows.”

The archery field was to the left of the lodge as you faced the lodge in the seventies and she had a memory of the entire camp in sleeping bags camped out on that property.

The activity reports always included suggestions for improvements, and although some pages were missing from Linda Harp’s report, she asked for wider safety margins (ten yards) of mowing around the archery field to make it easier to find lost arrows; the brush to be cut back around the tennis courts, (for the same reason); an additional sports cabinet and new ping-pong tables and nets to be purchased. She also listed more rainy day board games, five more tennis racquets and the reinstallation of the backboard for tennis.

What was your favorite sport while at camp?