25th Season

To Boys

Wouldn't you like to spend this summer on a snug island in a mountain lake, where each day is a new adventure and you can do the things you've always wanted to do, with boys you like as pals and kindly men who are interested in the things you are doing? Where there aren't a lot of rules and "don'ts" and everybody is happy just having a swell time? "Yes?" Well, then you'd better be packing your bag for Treasure Island.

You jump out of bed in the morning and dash to the lake for a plunge that makes you feel "like a million"...then Ralph has breakfast ready for you...and how Ralph can cook! Breakfast is cheerful time, talking over what you want to do that day, reading the morning mail and discussing the latest news and baseball scores.

Then up to your cabin to make up your bed and put things in order. This done..."What do you feel like doing today?"

Maybe you'll go out sailing in one of the 18-footers, perhaps you'd rather play some tennis. We play a lot of tennis at Mishe Mokwa and you get the very best coaching to improve your form.

But still, you may want to go fishing, or go paddling or rowing around the island, or go exploring one of the neighboring brooks, looking for birds, turtles, or snakes.

You might want to make something in the shop, or try your luck at archery, or shooting on the range...or ride horseback...but perhaps you and your pals will plan a trip away from camp into the mountains or to the seashore, in which case you'll get together your blankets, knapsack, kit, and rations, and "You're off!" maybe for the day or it may be for two or three days or more. Sleeping under the stars in a strange country, listening to the noises of the night, and perhaps seeing or hearing some new animal of the woods, Nissan experience you'll never forget.

Mishe Mikwa boys like to keep their bodies strong and supple, so at most any time you'll find some "old' campers practicing somersaults or flips on the mats, climbing ropes, or doing stunts on the horizontal bar.

Before you realize it, it's time for "swim" and a chance to learn some new strokes or dives. Swimming in crystal-clear water over a white sand bottom is real fun and there's usually a new stunt or two going on, which make it more interesting. After coming out of the water there will be time for a good sun bath and then "First call for dinner!"...and you're so hungry you have "seconds" and even "thirds."

After dinner, as any good athlete does, you'll take a rest for about an hour, stretching out on your bed in your cabin...perhaps your counselor will read you a story or maybe everyone will just take a nap.

The afternoon is a great time for a baseball game or trips in the war canoes...it you've never been one of a crew in a war canoe, you have a new thrill coming to you.
Again there will be a trip in the cabin cruiser or a "spin" in the fast Gar Wood, and, best of all, you may do some aquaplaning, a sport that had its origin at Mishe Mokwa in 1913, Instead of these things you may play more tennis or go sailing again, or go out for that "big bass."

As it gets late in the afternoon everybody usually wants to go in for another swim with its "joshing" and "kidding" and general jollity. With swim over, and a good "rub down." it is time to eat again.

After supper we lounge around the broad veranda of the Lodge for a while, with usually a group singing around the piano. A little later there may be some games on the play campus, while others, as the Indians of old, paddle their canoes quietly along the wooded shores.

As dusk comes on, blanketed figures begin to gather around the camp-fire, soon to be thrilled by some interesting story.

All too soon the tale is ended; we arise sleepily and follow the paths to our cabins, and before the last note of taps has died away some are already in dreamland.

The quiet peace of those hours after taps with the moonlight filtering through the trees, the water lapping on the shores, and the light breeze drifting across the island from the cool waters of the lake. is a sensation that will always live in our memories.