i'll play along

I’ve discovered the staff photo from my first summer as a junior counselor in 1981 (here's the link to the photo. It's larger and you can zoom). It was a gloriously long season at YMCA Camp Foster on East Okoboji during the heyday of smoking cool haircuts and great AM music. I was but a 16 year-old and vividly remember earning a whopping $200 for the 11-week overnight camp: we got paid $67 every three weeks. I’d been a camper for two years prior to my decision to spend my summer managing, wrangling, and corralling 8-16 year-old overnight campers (if you must know 8 and 16 year-olds were the easiest...10 year-old the worst). I also spent the summer of 1982 at the camp and was grateful for the $50 raise I got as a returning counselor. This was the summer before my sophomore year in high school and I vaguely remember somehow sneaking onto the staff even though I was actually a year too young to be a junior counselor. My older sister was also working on staff as a (real) counselor and she earned a massive $600 for the summer – you know, older, wiser, soon-to-be college student. In fact, she'd been there in 1980 and put in a good word for me. What amazes me is that I can remember most of the names and ‘personalities’ of just about every single person in the photo: eleven weeks of living together will do that to you. I can link up every ‘couple’ that hooked up over the summer – sometimes with more than one other staff member…it’s a long summer – and all the messy break-ups that seemed to rear their ugly heads on our only off nights: Saturdays spent in Arnolds Park and Spirit Lake. I don’t want to worry my mother too much but every Saturday consisted primarily of heading into town to do a week’s worth of laundry, eat dinner, and generally drinking beer and play Cardinal Puff. Hey, the drinking age back then was only 18…wait, never mind. Occasionally we’d slip over into the Park for the rollercoaster or Fun House but often didn’t have enough time or the money to spend on fees. Sometimes we’d crash at the house of another staffer who lived in the area - I don't remember where we slept the when that didn't happen. On rare occasions we’d catch a band (Three Dog Night, 1982) at the legendary Roof Garden at the Park. The Okoboji area of the 1980s was something to see – straight out of a movie about a small town and the summer tourists that completely overrun it. I was thinking that my night would ruined while I searched the dusty files trying to think of the two bars we always hung out at, but it won’t happen this evening: the one in Spirit Lake for Cardinal Puff (and hanging in around while our laundry rolled about in the laundr-o-mat was Sportsman’s Pub…It's still there;


and the Regal Beagle was the dance place in Arnolds Park. Just think about all the great 1981 hits you could dance to at the Beagle:

Top Ten of 1981

1. Bette Davis Eyes, Kim Carnes
2. Endless Love, Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
3. Lady, Kenny Rogers
4. (Just Like) Starting Over, John Lennon
5. Jessie's Girl, Rick Springfield
6. Celebration, Kool and The Gang
7. Kiss on My List, Daryl Hall and John Oates
8. I Love a Rainy Night, Eddie Rabbitt
9. 9 To 5, Dolly Parton
10. Keep On Loving You, REO Speedwagon

I’m getting a little teary-eyed thinking about the whole thing.

I guess I should also point out, not using actual names since I’ve been caught out by Google on that before, I met my first girlfriend that summer of 1981. If you know me, you’ll find me. If you knew her, you’ll find her.

I’m going to listen to some Rick Springfield and rip on my air guitar tonight.

t