Summer of 1990
For those who were there in the late '80s through the early '90s, Birch Rock was a different experience. There were very few campers on campus and even fewer staff. The counselors were each teaching four different activities everyday, just to keep things open. And try teaching baseball to one or two campers everyday. During those summers, the program and activities suffered. There were fewer badges being awarded and there was less focus on the activities, the equipment was old or donated hand-me-downs, and even the s'mores suffered as the camp decided it couldn't afford the chocolate. The s'mores in 1990 were graham crackers and marshmallows. The staff was paid so little that after the bills came in for laundry and phone calls home, many counselors were actually writing checks to camp instead of the other way around. But that's just it! It wasn't about the equipment or money for the staff or those die hard campers who were there then. It was about being at Birch Rock!
It certainly wasn't a waist of time for those campers who attended. The staff in those years were an incredibly creative and entertaining group. Wild things were happening at every turn. The staff would make announcements drag on for an extra hour, sometimes even causing a period to be canceled out of the schedule for the day, because the kids seemed to enjoy the goofy announcements more than the somewhat weakened activity program. The staff in 1990 would give Elvis sighting reports and give announcements like, "Today in mirror making Josh P. saw his reflection and for some reason Jake I. didn't. A debate has come about whether Jake is a vampire...." This would go on and on. The staff member would go on talk about how to protect yourself from vampires and say let's all do research in the library and aren't vampires from Europe, can they be here in Maine? At some point one of the other staff members would likely interrupt and take the whole announcement in a new crazy direction. The creative story telling and random props and costumes seemed to define the staff in those summers. In fact, it eventually led to the staff in 1992 being called "the Sideshow" because of all the craziness.
Now back to 1990, what are some facts:
- Matt Bagger, was brought in as the acting Director for the summer, new to Birch Rock. Toby Brewster, the director in the off-season, would stay in touch with Matt by phone
- Ron Mattson was Head Counselor, the staff was Chris Cogswell, Mike Mattson, Dave Jenkins, Rob Christie and Brian Roskow. 6 Staff members total.
- There were four CITs that summer and one of them, Josh Church, had to run a cabin because we didn't have enough staff.
- There were 30 campers that summer and the number dropped to around 18 when the four weekers left.
- There were a couple big quotes from the summer of 1990. One was, "We're Just Not Kidding!" and the other was, "Dude, deal"
- 1990 is also the summer counselor Rob Christie brought Orb, one of the most popular field activities to camp.
There were often days in 1990 when there were be very few still on campus. If Chris took a trip out with one of the staff or CITs and two guys were on a day off, suddenly it became a specialty day and we all play kickball or go for a hike. This meant that there were often special days and lots of creativity would have to come into play. We used to do the BRC Armada a lot, this is where everyone loads up into some sort of watercraft and we all head out on a lake quest, usually a trip to Waziyatah and back. We would often have free swims as well, and with limited campers and staff the counselors would often swim in the cradle with a few still lifeguarding above.
The other thing about those summers was the growth of brush and trees around campus was out of control. There was very little funds to help pay to manage the campus' tree and brush growth. There was brush around campus that was 8 to 10 feet tall. So it was much more difficult to see from place to place on campus than it is now. Counselors would spend a couple days during staff orientation week just dragging and burning brush to try to clear away what could be cleared away. These brush fires were often huge and would be burned during rain storms. So you can imagine the staff with their shirts off in the pouring rain, as they drag their brush up to the immense fire, the steam from the rain evaporating off their bodies as they got close to the heat was just awesome.
As for the summer of 1990 quotes—the staff and CITs that summer worked ridiculously hard and got very little sleep. It often took one counselor saying to another, "Dude....deal" just to get them to shut up and move on. As for the other quote, there were so many times when the kids would question the staff on what they were thinking or wanted to do that the staff started saying "We're just not kidding!" In fact, there weren't enough funds for a quoted staff shirt in 1990, so about 6 years later Mike and Ron Mattson decided to order shirts on their own and pay for them, and then mailed 1990 staff shirts to all who were there that summer, staff and Josh Church. The quote on the back of the shirt was "We're Just Not Kidding".
With a limited staff it was already a tough summer for Ron to manage. One problem was many of the counselors had random issues come up. Dave Jenkins arrived at camp with a really bad back and was limited in what he could do, Rob Christie re-dislocated his shoulder during orientation week and would spend the rest of the summer in a sling, Brian Roskow had a little trouble acclimating to the food and was often seen sprinting across the field towards the upper wash house(the other field staff would just hear "watch my kids" as Roskow went flying by), and Mike Mattson was in major car accident towards the end of the season that put him out of commission for a few days. In fact, the car accident was at the end of The St.Croix River Trip of 1990.
OK, so which cabins were open? Josh was in Hilton A, Rob in Hilton B, Brian in Cabin 1, Dave in Eagles Nest, Chris in Buzzards and Mike in Pete's. Three cabins in Upper Camp and three cabins in Lower Camp. Cabin 2 had the ping pong table and a small beat up couch. Cabins 3 through 8 was just an empty ghostland territory.
