Second Row, Piano Side: Summer, Part 1

Summer Camp as a PK was not just one week a summer. We owned a cabin on the campground.  Daddy was night watchman and counselor for the Boy's Dorm so we spent 3-4 weeks there each summer.

The first week of summer break was spent getting the cabin ready.

 

The doors of the cabin were screened doors with latch locks allowing every creature imaginable to enter.  I remember the musty smell of the cabin after months of abandonment, spiders, spanish moss, sand, and gnats. 

 The coverings were taken off of the beds and furniture.  The ceiling, walls, and floors were swept and cleaned.  The porch/living area was hosed down and scrubbed with a broom.  The water ran out from under the screened-in porch.  There was no hot water, so mama boiled water to wash all the open-faced cabinets and the dishes in the cabinet. 

During the week of clean-up, lunch consisted of tomato or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with sweet tea out of aluminum glasses.  Never was tea as sweet and cold as it was out of those glasses.  I found it fascinating that each glass was a different color.  All the dishes and furniture were rejects from Mama and Daddy's first years together.  I remember the red formica table with chrome legs and red vinyl chairs.  It was like a step back in time.  The tub was aluminum (cold to the buttocks and always sandy), the porch furniture was the vintage that I love so much today. The beds were iron.  The bedspreads were chenille. 

The kitchen/dining room included a sofa bed for Doll. When Doll wasn't there my big brother got the sofa and a room for himself since he was the oldest. The bedroom was large enough for two double beds and a baby bed.  The porch was in the middle of the two rooms. Curtains separted each room and bathroom.

Mama worked during the day and Doll stayed with us while Daddy attended the meetings.  Doll always had a full meal cooked so that we didn't have to eat in the dining hall. 

Our allowances allowed us to buy bottle cokes out of the machine and have spending money for candy or snowcones at the snack shack.  My favorite drinks were Tab and Fresca. Tab was replaced by Diet Rite Cola.  Whatever happened to Fresca???

There was always a boyfriend for a week or maybe two. There were always those boys who stole your heart from a distance and never gave you the time of day. When by chance you did find that special someone, you were broken hearted to find that in only a few months, you was forgotten.  The next year, he never knew you existed.

Those were the days, my friend.  I thought they'd never end.  We'd sing and dance for ever and a day....

da, da, da, da, da, da,....(I can't remember the rest!)  I listened to my brother's albums!

To be continued..