Camp Zoe Memories
2001 Letters
11/29/01Howdeeee Fowler!!
It's me, Nancy Eberle, finally getting around to writing. I checked out the web site and the next thing I knew it was four hours later. This is my second night of strolling down memory lane...
I attended Zoe from 1971-1978 as a camper and like everyone else who has written in, they were the most influential and happiest times of my life. It was there (at the ripe age of 7) I learned where babies come from YUCK!!! by a well informed cabin-mate, and then observed Tino Trova the Cassinova attempt his love-making skills on seemingly every girl in camp.
I'm certain my penchant for shooting the moon originated during skinny dipping in sinking creek. (somehow, the boys our age always knew what time to come steal our clothes).
Does anyone remember the tether ball next to New Shelter and that old round trampoline that sagged to the ground? (one of Tino's rendezvous spots)
Remember that one hot summer we washed all the horses in the creek? And the tug of war that turned into the mud fight that turned into the manuer fight?
Remember the time that kid threw a rock at the hornets nest outside New Cabin and the hornets attacked everyone around?
Remember the handpump well outside the messhall with the really cold water? Snipe hunting? Pop tab chains? The water bugs that skated around the spring? Fanta grape soda? Dr. Scholls sandles....
I think it was Lynn Boekmann Eberle (my sister-in-law) who supplied the 45's for the dances: Best of Bread, Seals and Crofts, Bee Gees. Later, when feathered hair came into style, those old cabins couldn't handle all the blow dryers the night of a dance and the fuses would blow.
Remember when Willie started coming around, dragging his charcoal stumps of legs and scaring the hell out of all of us!!
Here are some names that might ring some bells... Robin Brown, Ester Rosenblum, Jim Plunkett, Terry and Jim Polluk, Mary Poe, Matt Wilkens, Tristin Trova, Boo Tweedy, Minna Caruthers, Holly Dyer(aka "Dusty").
Oh yeah, I think about Camp Zoe all the time- having Larry Eberle as my brother is a constant reminder.
Thanks so much Fowler for getting us all together again... Boyer, I want to hear from you!! And Craig Shoemaker, I'm sorry for stealing your box of Bugles... I only wanted you to chase me.
Love,
Nancy
To clarify, Nancy learned how babies were born while at Zoe. The babies themselves did not come from Zoe (very often).
10/29/01
Fowler,
My cousin Kent Jones told me about this site today. It's been fun going through it and remembering old times and old friends.
I was a counselor in the late 60's and still have fond memories of quiet mornings (before the kids woke up), campfires and friends found and lost.
Thanks for the memories!
Connie Conrad
Seeing the mist covered mountains looming over camp in the stillness of a full-moon night and/or early morning was a sight to behold (and still is).
10/21/01
Fowler,
I recently found the Camp Zoe link. It was an accident and it made my day. Just wanted to thank you for the memories and hard work.
I am living in Germany with my husband for the year and need all the comfort I can get in this crazy time.
I can't believe that was so long ago. I can remember you and a lot of the others listed. Again thanks for the nice memories.
Mindy Blives Reeder
Mindy and I also attended the University of Kansas during the same time in the late '80s.
10/20/01
I attended Camp Zoe for a couple of years in the 1970's. It was somewhere around 1972-1974, but I don't know which years exactly. The owners knew my great aunt, Miss Audra Lea Stone in West Plains, MO. I lived in California. The first year I was known as Carol Anne, but the next year a girl came who was named Carolanne (or something like that) so I just went by Carol. I was around 13-15 years old and had dark brown hair and was medium height and slender. I probably wore glasses.
The first year I was a regular camper, but the second year I was working on my horsemanship badge for Camp Fire Girls so I spent all of my time in the stables. I LOVED it there! I even shoveled, uh, manure for the first time and enjoyed that. ;-)
I learned so many things at Camp Zoe. The most important thing involved a young girl several years younger than myself. She was disliked by many of the other campers, and at the beginning of the second I treated her badly at first, myself, because of what others were saying and my poor memory. Then, as she talked with me, I remembered that we had formed quite a friendship the year before, and that she was really a VERY nice girl. I don't remember why the others didn't like her, but she didn't deserve their treatment. We became close friends again, and I stuck up for her.
If anyone thinks they might remember me, I would enjoy hearing from them. I enjoyed my time at Camp Zoe, and had some great experiences there that I've never had anywhere else.
Carol duBois (then Carol Anne Johns)
dubois@ma.ultranet.com
10/04/01
Wow! I can't imagine how many happy memories for old campers your website must be generating! Needless to say it blew my socks off, and I've just spent the afternoon awash in memories of people and events that I thought were long forgotten!
Almost without fail, I still think of Camp Zoe at least one time a year - always on or just before Halloween - so it's quite a coincidence that I found your website in October. I hate dressing up for Halloween, and I'm only slightly embarrassed to say, that for the last 20 years my fail-safe Halloween costume has been to put on an old pair of overalls, mark my face with freckles, get a jug of that good ol' mountain dew, and twist a coathanger into two pigtails for the classic "Lei Moncreiff hillbilly" look! People always think I'm Pippi Longstocking, and I have to explain that No - I'm an Ozark Hillbilly. No Camp Zoe'n would ever confuse the two!
Unfortunately I'm stuck living in Phoenix, Arizona right now - how wonderful the Ozarks and Current River sound to a Missourian stuck out in the desert!
Thanks so much for the website and the memories!
Sue Snetsinger
08/29/01
Yo Fowler,
Yes, I have visited the Zoe site a few times since I spoke with you last (which was a few years ago I guess.) I think it's great that you have put it together.
A month or so ago, I went with my 15 year old son and some friends on a Current River float. I pulled into Jack & Lois's place and had a great time visiting with them. As I descended the final hill into the sinkin creek valley, I felt like I was entering church. During the entire float (Pulltite to Round Spring) I was so wrapped up in memories that I didn't even notice the people around me. Every turn in the river reminded me of something or somebody from the past. It's amazing to think that a place like Zoe can hold that kind of spell over a person for so long.
I was a camper at age 7 and didn't quit working there until I was 21 or so. The time I spent there still qualifies as the best time of my life. I know that Lynn (Boeckmann, the horseback counselor and my wife) agrees.
We run a production company here in St. Louis and have 3 sons, ages 20, 17 and 15. If any plans are ever made for a get-together, Lynn and I would enjoy being a part of it and would gladly help in the planning. Thanks for keeping in touch and keeping so many people in the loop. And make sure you clean under your bunk.
Larry Eberle
A camp legend checks in! Larry also does graphic art and plays guitar in addition to being a marksman with the BB rifle. I'd say that makes him a regular Ozark renaissance man.
05/20/2001
Fowler,
Lynn "Skipper" Chipperfield sent me a link to the Zoe site. Thanks for all of your work in keeping the memories alive. I was at Zoe for three years as a counselor from 68-70.
I enjoyed the letter from Lucy Hirsch and the stories about the river. Anyone remember Buttermilk, the big white horse that always wanted to lie down in the river? How about Tarzan's swing, and man eating grass?
Counselor snacks with games of hearts and the loser eating a raw egg. The snake movie. Those great mini tramps at the swimming hole. Camping out in the old school house. Falling in love at the dance.
Trips to Alley Springs or the rodeo for "four weekers". Two john boats full of 14 year old girls drowning a whole troop of boy scouts in canoes in a water fight....you couldn't turn over those john boats if you tried.
I live in West Plains and still see Dave and John Baltz on occasion. A reunion would be great.
Dick Davidson
Man eating grass? I'm surprised he wasn't smoking it since you were there in the 60s and all.
05/05/2001
Dear Fowler,
Oh, my! My brother in Sikeston emailed me about your site, (which he found while looking for campgrounds) and I have read everything on it in the last 12 hours.....what memories!
I went to zoe from 1966 (stayed in Lodge!) through 1974 - ages 7 thru 14...every girls cabin but cabin one. Our dear family friends are the Hirsch's, and I am sure we heard about camp from them. Ellie and Lucy are probably 6-8 years older than I am, and I was between Chris and Meg, my childhood best friend. I have never gotten over their tragic deaths (Chris and Meg).
I know most of the Cape [Girardeau] folks - that's my hometown - and the folks from Kennett - fyi, i don't think Sheryl Crow ever went, but her sister Karen did - and both were sorority sisters of mine at MU. Lots from St. Louis.(Tino Trova, David French, Dewey Nicks, Patty Chalmers.)...my idols were Ellie Hirsch, Amy Butler and Patty Lasley - also remember Larry Eberle, Kent Jones and Roger Couch...gosh, this is taxing.
Being from MO and later attending MU, I ran in to several zoe-ites there - Susan Tweedie, Scottie Benson, Melinda Bullard.....and Melinda later on here in Charlotte! It was fun reading the note from her little brother Clif (hi, Clif! you probably don't remember me from camp, but I stayed at your home several times - had a big crush on your big brother Clay - another Zoe alum).
You are just awesome to resurrect this wonderful part of all of our lives. Since I left at age 14, and earlier than you were there, I don't "get" some of the stories, but it is all so much fun to remember.....the songs (hadn't thought of mountain dew song for 25 years! But how about os-scotcha-newga?), field trips, etc - oh, and the dances.
Can't believe no one has mentioned "tinkerbell" - the big enameled cast iron pot that sat on the front porch of the lodge, in case any of us little girls had to "go" in the middle of the night - after all, no counselor wanted to get up and walk us down to colonial (that's another thing no one has mentioned - the girls' flushables called colonial, with the little dispensers that held that tiny folded toilet paper!)
And I had to laugh (many times overall) about your entry on showers - when I was there, we were NOT ALLOWED to take showers unless we stayed for a MONTH! We all took soap, shampoo (yes, flex!) and washed off in Sinking creek during afternoon swim! Zoe went modern and really loosened up (music during rest hour? horrors! ) after my time! Hey - when you were there, did the counselors still hold huge cans for chewed gum at the doors of the mess hall????
It's my thought that we had dances probably six times in two weeks.....hey, jude - indiana wants me(with the siren!), cherokee nation, close to you - and the girls were as interested in you guys as you were in us!!!! I can recall at least four different romances - well, that's what I thought they were - in four different years, so I guess that means I must've started that business at age 10 - oh, my! My daughter is going to a GIRLS camp this year!
My husband grew up going to a boys camp in maine - he only left AFTER college because he had to feed and clothe himself - and we have visited there several times. I sure would love to get in on a Zoe reunion - any progress on that? Wonder how we could find more alums - probably in the St. Louis paper. We live in charlotte, with two kids ages 9 and 11.
Thanks for the very entertaining writing, and the memories.
Susan (Strom) Skilton
That's a great letter. Isn't it odd that in later years, the frequency of the dances decreased as the availability of showers increased?
04/04/2001
Hi Fowler - my sister Krista first discovered your site awhile back, it's so great that you did this. By now I've had the chance to fully explore it, including that lovely picture of me in the "flat but sexy" shirt...(what was I thinking?!! Imagine my surprise to see it posted on the internet, oh well.) I'm especially happy to see some more people are starting to write in, and that a reunion is in the making - where would it be?
Those were the days!! Keep up the good work, please keep me updated on any reunion thoughts. Let me know if you need a picture, although it looks like your using ones from the camp days and not current ones. Given a choice, can you put the one of me with Sue and Anne from Andy's shots and not the tennis court one... lol...please humour me :) Any of the old toga dance shots turn up yet? And have you tried to compile a list of the horses that were there? Many thanks again for putting this together, you did a wonderful thing bringing so many happy memories together to brighten our old days. Hard to imagine that that was a quarter century ago, where does the time go?
Have a beautiful day!
Kimberly (Reay) Campbell
Read more about Kim on the email registry page.
03/20/2001
Hi Fowler,
My name is Jennifer (Meyer) Wyatt and I visited camp for one session in 1977 as a first-grader. I was there with my aunt Cathy Holt (a counselor) and have many fond memories of camp even though I only went once. I was in the cabin nearest the tennis courts and can remember the donkey standing on the tennis courts nearly every morning braying. I also remember collecting "Spanky marbles" on the scavenger hunt, and having to steal boy's underwear off of the clothes line. Cathy and I also went down to the river before the camp dance because the showers were too crowded and we washed up in the river instead...hmmm.. we probably didn't smell too clean!! I also remember (Stu I think) wearing an ADIDAS shirt and that was the first time I heard the "all day I dream about sex" mantra. I guess that's what I get for hanging out with the counselors! I wish I could have gone back many more times. I have so many fond and clear memories of that short time at camp, I can only imagine how many more I would have had had I been older. When picking partners for the dance, I was too slow to catch any of the kids to get a partner for the dance because I was so little and no one wanted to pick me, and I remember sneaking up quietly behind one of the older (probably the tallest guy in camp) who was sitting down in the middle of the field and took his sock out of his back pocket. I think he was mortified to have a first-grader for a dance partner although I believe that we won some sort of award for being the strangest couple. Thank you for putting this site together, it brings back wonderful memories. I read in some of the other posts that there may be a reunion and I would love to be part of that if it comes to fruition.
Jennifer Wyatt
Jennifer also reports that Cathy Holt is a veterinarian practicing in California.