Camp Zoe Memories
Lights Out
Taps played at 10pm and I drifted off to sleep soon after. For many counselors, the fun began when the lights went out.
Male counselors and CITs congregated at the wash stand between Tent and Boys cabins after hours. It was within earshot of sleeping campers, but not too close as to prohibit a quiet conversation. Many bull sessions transpired there long after midnight. Campers like me didn't participate. I was required to be in my bunk. We had our own coversations in the cabin. Frequently the discussion topic was girls, especially in the afterglow of the dance. Who were the hot babes? Who did you have your eye on?
Lights from the mess hall burned after Taps for counselor's snack. Staffers walked down the hill for a soda or a dessert item as long as one remained behind with the cabin. There they also attended to other personal business like writing letters and planning their next day off. I never witnessed counselor's snack. Maybe they conducted massive orgies with chocolate sauce for all I know.
Boys cabin was the largest cabin in camp and contained a good-sized central space with table and chairs. The ceiling was gabled to a certain degree. This created rafters high above the wooden floorboards. There were air vents or screen portholes up there too. Flash back to a quiet summer night in 1977. Our senior counselor Lon Grandia held down the fort while junior counselors Kevin Dodge and Tino Trova departed for points unknown. Later I woke up when Tino returned. He spotted fellow counselor Jeff Elliott at the washstand and recounted an after hours rendezvous with his camp girlfriend. Tino was no Boy Scout and he was lamenting the fact that he had not been prepared that night.
Enter Jeff Elliott, heir to the Mrs. Allison's cookie fortune in St. Louis. Jeff was one of the funniest guys I ever met at Zoe. Among his memorable contributions that summer was the creation of the male counselor role call. In response to hearing Jeff call their name, counselors responded by giving the appropriate counter-call, "COCK"! Of course, this was a shortened version of cock-a-doodle-doo, and was usually done first thing in the morning, just like the rooster might say. Right? Right!
So Jeff joined Tino inside Boys Cabin. Kevin Dodge returned from snack and since we were all there together, Stu Hanna and I joined in the impromptu bull session. Someone, perhaps Stu, noticed a bat in our rafters. Stu tried to knock it out of mid-air with his beach towel as it swooped and darted through the central room while other campers dove for the safety of their sleeping bags.
Suddenly, Jack Peters appeared at the screen door. The Zoe owner patrolled the campgrounds after Taps to quell this kind of nonsense. No one could hide from the searing glare of his Sears search beam. That is, no one who didn't have a bunk to jump in and play possum. Jeff Elliott suddenly became a deer in Jack's flashlight. He turned into a demure Eddie Haskell, uttering a few "Yes Sirs" and "No Sirs" before being dismissed. I don't remember what happened to the bat. Maybe it flew out the air vent. Lon slept through the whole thing.
For other stories of after hours romance, see the Girls, Girls, Girls page.