CAMP STEPHENS 1960 – 1965
The YMCA has been a part of my life for over sixty-five years. Its programs, leaders and values have shaped my life from childhood to adult years. Y Camps have been at the core of those developmental experiences. Several years back Canadian Stories published some of my earliest memories of Camp Norval near Georgetown Ontario. Since then I have embarked on another saga of memories in a book about Camp Stephens operated by the Winnipeg YMCA-YWCA on Lake of the Woods. In 2016 the camp will celebrate its 125th anniversary. This book is [from] a collection of my memories giving leadership to the camp in the early 1960’s. The pieces don’t follow any order, rather they are snippets of people, events and programs that were part of that era. It was a special time.
Hal Studholme
One of the most memorable personages I ever encountered in my Y camping career was a venerable old cook named Alfred David. Known affectionately as ‘Davey’ to literally thousands of campers and young staff who came to know and appreciate him at Stephens, he touched the hearts of all with his unique character and skills. Davey was camp cook for forty years. More than fifty years have passed since his death but he is still remembered and revered. Staff training sessions done by the camp alumni tell of him so that his name is never lost. One of the camper cabins in Junior camp is named ‘Dave’s’ after him and each period of camp the counselor of that cabin is charged with the duty to tell his campers of this special man.
Now Davey wasn’t what you might call a gourmet chef. His background in cooking came from working on the railroad and whatever may have carried over from his mother and the mess tents of the First World War. It was an eclectic education in the culinary arts. And ‘Dave,’ as those of us honoured to be on a more senior level of staff at camp called him, never referred to himself as anything more than ‘cook.’ Camp meals in Dave’s era were the height of simple fare in contrast to today’s kitchen staff who are required to meet the tastes and dietary needs of vegetarians and vegans as well as those who eat ‘regular’ foods.
In Dave’s time meals at camp were very much meat and potato affairs. Breakfast was a rotation of oatmeal, with toast and jam or peanut butter on the side, flapjacks with lots of corn syrup, and scrambled eggs, usually with sausages. Lunches offered a variety of soups, usually chicken noodle, bologna sandwiches, boiled potatoes with boiled wieners, and sometimes beans and wieners. (this could also be a supper entrée.) Supper could be anything from a repeat of lunch from another day, to stew, or Dave’s historic hash, made from a mixture of left-overs from past meals. It seemed we weren’t all too bright in those days and took years to discover that the source of the next day’s ‘camp flu’ was the hash. Some of the ingredients had gone ‘bad’ and adversely affected a number of the campers and staff. It had been going on for years. With the advent of the proper refrigeration, the problem never occurred again. No one ever said a word to Dave such was the level of respect.
One of the all-time favourites of Davey was his Chinese dinner, served up once in every two week camp session. As preparation, campers and staff were sent out to cut willow branches to form chop sticks. No knives and forks for this ‘authentic Asian feast.’ With the camp thus armed, Dave served up a concoction of noodles and chopped wieners, in a mild soya sauce. His piece de resistance, however, was dessert.
