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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
The Canoe Caper of '44
When Runoia's "oldest" camper returns for a cookout, what do the other guests discover? That her camping experience has been a lifetime love, that she's sent a lot of other girls in the Runoia direction over the years, that she's gotten a lot of mileage out of those special camp memories and friendships, and that those years long ago required some tough resourcefulness when the going got rough in the outside world. Joan Williams, a.k.a. Baynie, points with pride to a rough, hand-painted sign in the Camp Runoia boathouse. "Kaiser Shipyard," it reads, but the story it tells is of five young (20-ish) ladies refinishing seven canoes, a task that is no easy feat. "The men were all in the army," Baynie explains of the 1943 undertaking. "We couldn't take any trips with automobiles (due to gas rationing)" she describes. "So we redid the canoes." Baynie's memory, one of them, of another era on Great Pond, comes to life when the simple sign is explained. But what of the hundreds of other writings and signatures on the boathouse walls from the early 1900's on? Oh, the stories they could Camp Runoia Celebrates Centennial | ||
