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Muggsy Recalls
The
following are "some thoughts and memories of what Kawaga meant and
continues to mean"
to Bob 'Muggsy' Sherman, a devoted Kawaga camper and counselor during the
1940's.
The excerpts detail a typical camp season from meeting at the Union
Station the last week of June
through season's
end the second
week of August.
Bob "Muggsy" Sherman" and David Tasner
with Muggsy's leather club plaque.
UNION STATION, CHICAGO - LATE JUNE 1943 - 5:00 P.M.
We were a lively group waiting to
board the Milwaukee Road Railroad for Minocqua Wisc. The boys had gathered
primarily from four areas...Chicago, Cincinnati, Atlanta and believe it or not,
Vicksburg Mississippi! (These were the areas where Lou Ehrenreich did his
recruiting). We were going on sleeper cars since we would not arrive at the
Kawaga Station until 8 A.M. the next day. (We had a two-hour layover in
Milwaukee). There were assigned sleeping berths to use after having a box
chicken dinner but everyone was packing water guns so the "great
battle" had to take place before we would even consider lying down. All the
shades in the train were pulled down because we were in the middle of World War
II and no lights should escape from the train. Campers became reacquainted from
the last season. It was rare that the guys did not go to camp for a number of
years so we all pretty well knew each other and had many shared experiences.
ARRIVAL AT THE CAMP STATION - 8:00 A. M.
What excitement when we got off
the train! Most of us with canoe paddles hooked to tennis rackets started the
trek into the camp. I remember when we usually had track meets, the cross
country run was from the station back to the camp entrance by the caretaker's
house... home to Herb and Martha Hill...God Bless Them! We passed the Wigwam and
sign shortly before the small bridge...and then the camp. But first, a little
description of what was there.
In the 40's there were twenty-two
cabins, one little Egypt, with no hot water, between cabin 6 & 7, Chippewa
Lodge, A cement tennis court in front of the mess hall, three dirt courts in
back, one ball field, (Diamond I#2 wasn't built yet), one basketball court,
Bideawee, the Rec Hall, council ring, and Crow's nest on the hill. There were no
trunk rooms attached to the cabins yet. No window glass...just flaps. Five of us
were assigned to a cabin. The younger campers had 4 boys and a counselor in each
cabin with two cabins to a group. (Thus 8 kids, 2 counselors). The older groups
had 5 campers in one cabin and 4 plus a counselor in the other. (The group: 9
kids and one counselor).
FIRST DAY OF ARRIVAL
Line up for breakfast –We had to have a letter we already wrote to our
folks when we were on the train as a ticket in to the mess hall. We would rotate
chores at the table with a water boy who went with a bucket to the pump outside
to get water for the table and a KP who would clear the various dishes as we
used them. After breakfast, we went to the ball field by tribe (Oneida, Mohawk,
Sioux & Chippewa) and divided into Blue & Gold Teams. These teams would
stay the same for the first 4 weeks. Then we would unpack and clean the cabin.
Our trunks were taken to the trunk rooms that were below the Rec hall. The rest
of the day was spent setting up clubs, swimming assignments, etc.
A
TYPICAL DAY
REVEILLE was blown by Bobbie Emmich from Vicksburg.
He stood on the Tennis courts and blew! In the old days we didn't have a P.A.
system.
WAKING UP. For a few years I remember going to the ball field and doing
exercises and a quick dip in the lake in our "birthday suits." They
cut that out after two years. (We were convinced that it was because the female
kitchen help were spying on us)! There was a 15-minute bell rung, then a
5-minute bell and finally bugle call to come to mess. (At least twice during the
season, the large bell sitting outside the mess hall was stolen)
BREAKFAST followed by announcements of the day's activities.
CLEAN UP of the cabins and inspection. You were given points and the best
cabin in a tribe and after a seven-day period, the winning cabin would get a
plaque hung outside their front door and an extra desert at Saturday lunch.
CLUB TIME. At first everyone had to take and pass "Camping"
which taught you how to set up tents, make horseshoe packs for hiking and other
skills needed for canoe trips. How to use camping gear, etc. After you passed
that, there were a number of clubs you could choose for instruction and win
awards for baseball, basketball, tennis, canoeing, fishing, "shop" for
making things, drama, Indian lore, nature, sailing, Etc. In my early years, as
you won your award, a picture was stamped on buckskin that you brought back each
year to add more awards. This was later changed to a wooden shield with metal
badges.
ACTIVITY TIME. The various tribes entered into typical activities:
Baseball, basketball, track, touch football, shop, boating, tennis, etc. Running
totals by Blue and Gold teams were kept by tribe so we could declare a winner
after four weeks. During the second four weeks, we chose different teams.
SWIM. The goal was to get everyone first to swim around the dock and
later to swim across the bay. Until you were able to accomplish this, most of
your swim time was instructional. You had to swim the bay to qualify for canoe
trips. Otherwise you were restricted to hikes. We always managed to get 80-85%
across the bay by the end of the summer. Swim instruction was a very important
facet of camp programming. After swim period you had some free time to play
tennis, makeshift ball game, etc.
LUNCH TIME included lots of noise, singing and camp cheers, and eating.
We were hungry! Announcements on afternoon activities followed.
REST HOUR. Had to rest in your bunk for 45 minutes. I still remember a
verbal game called "Ghost" we played every day, or if we were nice,
our counselor would let us sit on two beds pushed together and I had my first
exposure on how to play poker!
CANDY LINE AFTER REST HOUR. Have you every seen 90 campers running up the
hill to get in a line for a candy and having their canteen card punched for $ -
the price of candy was .05 in 1943)
AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES. The same wide assortment of activities rotated
among the tribes. During my time, water skiing hadn't come to camp but we did
have a sailboat and various other boating activities.
AFTERNOON SWIM. Same as morning but they lightened up on the instruction
and let the non-swimmers have some playtime.
AFTERNOON FREE TIME. This is when we usually held junior and senior ball
and tennis practice. (Explained later). Some guys went fishing off the piers,
those involved in a play to be presented at a later time, went to practice.
Maybe you finished a shop project or took some extra sack time.
DINNER TIME. More noise, more eating, cheers, songs, challenges to other
tables, etc. Announcement of evening program followed.
EVENING PROGRAM. With the exception of Sunday night when the tribal
council was held, we had a variety of programs run in the Rec hall. This could
be a play put on by one of the tribes, a song fest, a "somewhat" first
run movie, prize fight with 16 inch gloves, games...do they still play "inchy
pinchy”? (Telling ghost stories...do they still tell the story of Soupy
Yenkow? I'll be happy to teach the game or tell the story when I visit the
camp.) On great nights, we might end the evening with ice cream bars which some
parent arranged for as a treat for the whole camp.
TATTOO AND TAPS. After a long day, it was time to go back to the
cabins. ‘Tattoo’ got us ready; ‘taps’ ended the day. A wonderful
tradition was Doc E (the founder) walking by each cabin shouting "everybody
In," you answered "yes sir" then "everybody all right,"
your answer..."yes sir" Finally, "goodnight
fellows"...answered "goodnight Doc E."
Lou Ehrenreich picked up this tradition when Doc E retired from camp
life, and I would hope the tradition still holds!
SPECIAL EVENTS NOT COVERED ABOVE
Now that you have the typical day, lets wind up with what still stands out in my
mind:
Camping Trips -The hikes were usually one-nighters and the shortest was
to the hermit's cabin. Then, a longer hike was to the Rantz School House. The
real long hike was to Hazelhurst. For Lunch we would have beans, sardines,
white bread, peaches out of a can and cookies. For dinner, we cooked hamburgers,
potatoes and corn. If we were in Hazelhurst, we would go to the general store
for ice cream. The next morning we had eggs, bacon, toast and cocoa.
The kid that was the most trouble on the trip wound up having to clean the cocoa
pot. For two years, they had the longest hike to Lac du Flambeau, which was 16
miles thru the woods. That almost killed half of us, so it was discontinued.
Canoe trips were to the fish hatcheries, Lake Tomahawk, Hazelhurst (with an
unusual portage machine into a beautiful channel-we camped on an island in Lake
Catherine) and the longest trip to Lac du Flambeau where a farmer would help us
with a mile portage. (We camped on Fence Lake). When I made it to Group 1, I
went on the Canadian trip, which was by station wagon to International Falls and
the Pigeon River in Canada. We were gone for four days and it was quite an
experience. All in all, we probably had 3-4 trips per summer and it was
guaranteed to rain on you one of those trips!
Tapping Ceremonies and Council Meetings - Since I am pleased to see that there have been virtually no
changes to the ceremonies, I won't spend much time here. My Sachem name is
Dancing Moccasins so I was involved in the lighting of
the fire. All the younger Chips were amazed on how the fire started at
the ultimate moment of the dance. Few knew that Herb Hill who was beating the
drum had his foot attached to a string that was attached to a safety match,
which was next to sandpaper surrounded by gasoline soaked paper. He would give
his foot a slight pull and the match would rub against the sandpaper causing it
to ignite which caught the soaked paper with flame. As I said, these ceremonies
represented the guts of the camp and they haven't changed.
Circus Day - One day each group would prepare a circus event between
their cabins or on the ball field and each camper was give a certain amount of
tickets to use at these Midway games--ring tosses, throwing a football through a
hoop, breaking records sliding down an incline (these were the days of breakable
78's) douse the louse (an elaborate set up where if you hit a target, a bucket
of water poured over one of the counselors. There were many other projects that
were elaborately built. There was a "general store" where you could
use your tickets to buy candy, bug juice and popcorn. You could win more tickets
at the group events so it was to your advantage to play the games. The name of
the store was ”GlogIn Spoggles” (spelled
phonetically).
Backwards Day - As the name implies, everything was in reverse. You
started with taps, wore your clothes backwards, were served dessert first, when
playing baseball you ran to third base after getting a hit, if
you were a righty, you batted lefty, etc.
Camper-Counselor Day - You ran the camp. The counselors were KP and water
boys. They cleaned the cabins. They had to do what ever you said, within reason,
since this lasted for only half a day and you had to live with your
counselor for the rest of the season.
Water Front Pageant - The canoes were decorated and paddled in front of
the whole camp that was watching on the shoreline. We won one year where we tied
two canoes together, draped them with leaves and branches and dressed one of our
cabin mates as a girl- with "slaves" paddling, of course, we were
Cleopatra's Barge.
Competition With Other Camps - This doesn't need much explanation since I
am sure things are the same. We competed in tennis, softball, and swimming. The
junior and senior teams alternated. One stayed at home and one went to the other
camp. We usually had two camps a year so each team did get to travel. The big
pep rally and bonfire on Friday night got everybody in the mood for Saturday.
Saturday night we all met in the Rec hall to review
the day's activities. During my days, the camps we exchanged with were
Strongheart, Tomahawk, or Horseshoe and always Ojibwa.
After
years, we finally beat Ojibwa in baseball and excuse me for remembering and
honoring the team
(since I was the pitcher):
3rd - Alvie Whitehead
SS - Jim Calwell
2nd - Stan Blumenthal
1st -Bobbie Emmich
LF- Gil Schiff
Short Center - Howie Ulman
Center -Ronnie Sokolec
RF - Barry Crown
Pitcher- Muggsy Sherman
Catcher- Marty Pilka
Coach-Tom Karpan
other team members- Mark Oshowitz, Elliot Ets-hoken, Bob Pastell, Bobby
Schrayer
(please excuse the spelling - this was more than 50 years ago)
Sunday Services- Every Sunday we had services in the Rec hall-long
pants, shirts washed and scrubbed. I remember the prayers to this day. Doc E
ran the service for many years and then various Jewish counselors or a visiting
Rabbi took over. Secretly I envied our star shortstop, Jim Calwell, and other
counselors who were not Jewish for not having to go to the services. Now, in
retrospect, I do miss those services, and those along with the Indian lore is
what made the Kawaga man.
Drawing to an end - The things I missed in this narrative but remember
fondly which rounded out the experience:
·
Benny the barber
who came up the middle of the season and cut everyone's hair.
·
Sneaking to
Crystal Shores for a beer and a chance to meet a girl from Agawak.
·
The outline of a
B-29 bomber made in chalk on the ball field as a visiting air corps
flyer visiting camp (he went to camp in the 30's) and taking us "through
the
plane" in 1943.
·
Marty Pilka being
crowned King of Egypt three years in a row.
·
Sneaking into
Minocqua over the railroad trestle, something we never
should have done and avoiding the counselors who had the night off in town.
·
The year camp was
extended a week because there was a terrible polio
epidemic in Chicago and the parents arranged for us to stay.
·
The
Belle Isle on the corner near the movie theater that had Las Vegas type gambling
and every store had slot machines. While it all was illegal, the town was loaded
with
gambling.
·
Awards night just
before we came home and the trophies were given out
·
Picking up my
plastic ring I had made in shop, which I would proudly
wear the whole next year in Chicago.
·
And finally,
singing "One more day of Vacation. Then we go to the station. Back to
civilization. We don't want to go home." Back on the train, looking forward
to the
winter reunion.
·
A lunch held at the
Chicago Beach Hotel in February. Then it was only three
more months and we would be back together again!
How! Muggsy
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