Dear Campers,

 Greetings from the Bell Tower! Yes, it’s me, Billy the Brown Bat. I’m still in residence and keeping a watchful eye on the goings on at Chippewa Trail Camp for Girls, the Finest Camp in Michigan.

 I must say it’s been a tad quiet since the last campers drove out of the gates in 1984. While I can certainly understand Shorty and Susan’s desire to enjoy a life apart from camp, I still miss you campers and your wacky exploits. It seems like just yesterday I would cull through a week of embarrassing moments and put them all down in a letter to be read each Friday night at Log.

 I’m sure I put many of you on the spot over the years – telling tales of the short-sheeted beds, the inside-out bathing suits, the sprint to the outhouse in nothing but your skivvies. The bug-juice squirting out your nose, the candy bars you weren’t supposed to have, the spit-pit wars that turned ugly, the bellyflops you didn’t think I saw, the kitchen raids you didn’t think I knew about.

 Which isn’t to say that it’s been entirely dull around here. The shores of Elk Lake have been touched by corporate scandal.  It seems the man who bought the property from Shorty was the president of Exide Battery. Charming fellow. He LOVED camp and vowed to keep the spirit of CTC in tact. Unfortunately, this former Boy Scout concocted an ill-conceived plan to sell defective car batteries to a little retail outfit called Sears. Alas, he had to pack his trunk and send his duffle bag along … to a minimum-security prison.

 The current property owners seem like a swell bunch. They kept Shorty and Susan’s old house, my bell tower condo is in great shape, the tennis courts are in working order, and as you can see, the Lodge has been turned into a lovely home. It just seems fitting that people can still ‘face the lake’ from the deck of our beloved lodge.

 But there have been some changes on the property. How many of you remember the old red barn behind the tennis backboard? How many of you remember when it was built? How many of you think construction standards in the 1970s were kinda crummy? You see, the old red barn fell over, collapsed in a heap in a strong wind. As they say in the building biz…oops.

 Elsewhere, without little girls making piles and piles of pancakes, Dutch Oven has turned into piles and piles of rubble. And did you guys see that big boulder in the middle of what used to be Senior Circle? Did we have an ice age and I missed it?

 Wakiconza is still back in the creepy part of the woods and still looks like something out of the Blair Witch Project.  The campfire pit at the end of the path is long gone and it appears that the chapel and dance stage have been reclaimed by the forest.

 I know a few former Directors of Waterfront –and you know who you are - must be mighty jealous of the huge house that now sits where your little shack used to be.  No doubt Shorty WOULD have built you a similar abode, but my understanding is that she wanted a director of waterfront who actually came out TO the waterfront instead of staying inside watching satellite tv.

 Unfortunately, my friends, the Indian Council ring is no more. But a few teepee sticks and a totem pole remain on the original site. Hopefully, you’ll break out the old drum this weekend and shake your groove thing with a toe-heel and a stomp-hop. And all you 12-steppers, remember this: forward back back forward forward back forward back forward forward back together. 

 Over the years I’ve watched as many of you have come back to visit camp.  You’ve laughed. You’ve cried. You’ve bored your friends and family to tears with stories that begin: “And here’s where I learned to tie a lanyard!”   God love ‘ya, but you never notice as your family’s eyes glaze over, as they quietly wait for you in the car, as they beg you not to break into another round of ‘We are the girls of Chipway Chorus.’

 Well campers, this is the weekend you’ve been waiting for! Here, surrounded by your fellow CTC alums, you can indulge in all the ‘remember when’ stories you want. Sing those songs! Dance those dances! Tie those lanyards and wash that trainwreck down with as much bug-juice as you can stand!

 And speaking of signing, I have it on good authority that Shorty has been practicing just for this weekend. As some of you know, she recently had to spend some time in a rehab center where she showed those doctors a thing or two about a picture-perfect recovery. They soon discovered that beautiful singing voice that we all know and love and put her to work each morning singing for the patients and staff. She’s all warmed up, so don’t let her down!

 Chippewa Trail Camp is alive again. Thanks for coming back and I hope you have a great time. And remember, if you end up doing something embarrassing this weekend…I’ll know about it. And I have Internet access!

 
Your friend,

Billy the Brown Bat