Indy's Camp Aharah Memories

Stumpy’s story has several variations, most of which revolve around his origin. The scary camp stories I know are not stories with deep plots or many characters. They have little or no dialogue. Instead, they are more descriptions of a scary image, something one might encounter in the dark woods. Medieval Europe had witches and goblins. Camp Aharah had Stumpy, the Ground Creature, and the Ratpike.  Taken out of the woods, none of these characters make much sense. No one tells the story of Stumpy’s trip to the big city or even an excursion to Lake Michigan. He is scary because he could be lurking in the woods, fueled only by a burning desire for revenge or general bloodlust. He is out there carrying his axe in his one good hand, looking for things to chop, doing the few things that make sense to him: to cut, to break, to kill. No matter how the story starts, it will always end the same way, missing campers or counselors; not a massacre (though I think the opportunity could be there...

Every camp needs scary stories. At least that has been my experience in meeting former camp counselors. Every lake needs a tragic spirit. There needs to be some mythic creature or bogeyman that keeps children in bunks at night. Some are general, passed around from camp to camp, akin to urban legends. There are several versions of the asylum escapee with a hook for a hand and variations on Friday the 13th’s Jason. Yet every camp seems to develop its homegrown stories of fright. Almost all of them involve an era of the camp when staff or children disappeared into the night. I suppose it seems reasonable to children that a program would be satisfied with 95% of its campers making it through the summer. It is often the rule-breakers that disappear, young counselors sneaking into the woods for a tryst, or the child who wanders into the woods without a buddy. The tale of the ratpike is a story I only heard at Camp Aharah. As an adult, it is absolutely ridiculous. As an eight-year-old first ...

As wonderful as my memories of Camp Aharah can be, I also remember the tedium that would arise after a few weeks. Keeping a camp of eighty children running involves a scheduled routine. You have to know where you are going to be and when. For the campers, especially those who came up for only one session, each day was a new adventure. For the staff, it was Capture the Flag night … again. It was the closing campfire … again. It was waterfront period … again. Boredom can be the mother of invention, and many of our unusual waterfront activities were born out of seeking alternative uses for common equipment. Here are some examples: The Great Submarine Race – There were two variations on this canoe race. Our canoes were aluminum boats with a chunk of buoyant Styrofoam built into the bow and the stern. This design meant that, even if you tipped the boat, it would not sink.  Variation one involved tipping the canoe and letting it fill with water. The full canoe would sit just under the s...