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Shared by Marnie
Christiansen.....One
of my most vivid memories was the honor recognition voted every
year to some campers who were especially outstanding in all the
qualities you would expect. Then, at a special campfire at the
end of the eight week session, the names of the new honorees
were announced. It was so tense. The girls received the silver
bracelet with the turquoise setting, and that really set them
apart as special people at camp in years to come.
The name of the
Honor Group was ODANISSIMA WASAKOMA (or Wasakona). It must have
meant "Highest (something)" since -issima usually means the
highest.
Not long after I
was there. the award was discontinued because it probably caused
too many heartaches and bad feelings. If someone was expected to
be chosen and then was disappointed, you can imagine the
problems. Tears, anger-people who did not return to camp because
they had been slighted or imagined they had been slighted. Very
human reactions, but Odanissima was quietly assigned to history.
*****
The First
Camper
Story told to Dan Boone by
Mary Louise Morse c. 1990....In 1922, in Chicago,
there lived a family named Brown who wanted to send their
daughter to camp, but making the arrangements to get her there
were not entirely simple. Roads were few and mostly dirt, so
trains were the principle means of getting into the northern
wilderness. Daughter, Mary Louise, was a generation ahead of me
<Dan Boone> so was probably born c. 1910. The family made
arrangements for Mary Louise to come to camp accompanied by the
camp dietitian who, of course, had to arrive several days ahead
of the campers in order to get everything together in readiness.
Thus Mary Louse Brown became the first camper ever to set foot
in this camp_ by a matter of several days.
Whether because
of the camp connection, or before that occurred, the Browns
bought a farm with Lake frontage about three miles north. They
called it Brownwood. And, as an adult, now known as Mary Louise
Morse, that former camper founded the highly successful
assemblage of shops and restaurants known as Brownwood Acres and
the Brownwood Honey House.
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