CAMP ADELAWAN
On a tract of 88-acres of rough woodlands and fields, a small camp took form in
one woman's heart and mind. Mrs. Adella Barnes Johnson, then-widow of
Ralph Grant Johnson, Sr., opened Camp Adelawan about 1945, occupying about 53-acres
(the rest was unused for camp activities).
Mr. Johnson was a well-known and prominent civil engineer who founded the R. J.
Johnson Company, Inc. at 25 South College St., Washington, PA, which specializes
in drilling mine shafts. The founder's grandson, Murray Johnson, now runs
the company.
Mrs. Johnson, of Redstone Lane, Washington, was
involved in many civic organizations in Washington County, but focused her philantrophic work on the YWCA's intent to serve
girls and women. She had been elected president of the Y's Board in 1943
(with Mrs. Helen STOCKDALE, vice-president; Mrs. John W. LOVE, secretary, and Miss Ruth
NEEBLING, treasurer). Mrs. Johnson remained President for the 1945-47
term, when another took her place.
A large part of Mrs. Johnson's work focused on Camp Adelawan. The camp hosted up to 90 girls for an 8-week (later 6-week) residential summer camp
experience. The camp ran on a Sunday afternoon to Saturday morning
schedule and most girls only attended a week or two, although some stayed for
almost all of the available weeks. Like most camps of the era, Camp Adelawan attempted to fill young minds and hearts with solid, caring life lessons and supervised recreation. The camp was run by the Washington PA Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), a United Way Agency.
A Mrs. Fetherlin, the wife of insurer in the "Fetherlin and Carl Insurance
Co." on Main Street, likely worked for Family Service and helped
secure scholarships for needy girls so that they could enjoy a summer camp trip.
Family Service (or Family Service of Washington) was located on Cherry Avenue in
the same building the old United Way occupied until about 2003. No one seems to remember Mrs. Fetherlin's first name,
but some think it was Mary. My sisters and I simply remember quite well that her work on our behalf allowed us weeks of fun at Camp
Adelawan. [Mrs. Fetherlin became friends with my mother, Marcella M.
Florian. They often
enjoyed cups of tea together while they visited and chatted.]
Packing for summer camp always had pre-conditions of what to bring (or not pack). Checking off each item from a list of what each girl should bring, our mother used a permanent laundry marker or grease pen to mark each article of our clothing with our first initial and last name. Flip-flops meant an annual shopping trip for a new size as each girl grew, along with new plain white tennis shoes (now called Keds), or
at least replacement shoestrings (2-pack) and a bottle of white tennis shoe
polish to refresh our tattered, grey tennies. Swimsuits, swimming caps, shorts, tops, underwear and socks made the balance of the packed items.
Parents and children piled in the family's car to make the trip. After what seemed like endless miles far
distant from their homes, children knew that seeing Sunset Pool and the first
Camp Adelawan sign marked "almost there". Yet, the children had to endure another long country road, which was in fact less than a mile until the turn off for the campgrounds.
With seeing the second sign and arrow for Adelawan that made hearts jump with
excitement, once-bored faces lit up and eager eyes tried to see ahead as the car
continued its trek.
Old Camp Lane today remains the one-lane road as it was from 1945 to 1965 when Camp Adelawan operated, with
only a change from reddog to now partly white-gray gravel. Only a few newer-looking
homes line the the right side lane now. The road's short length as seen through the eyes of adults is in sharp contrast to how long it felt to children of
yesteryears. In the past, two telephone poles held the Camp sign over the road, before the lane
split into two, with the lower lane going onto camp lands and
directly in front of the cabins. Across the top of the poles and hooked with eye-bolts, a skilled hand had carved "Adelawn"
into the once blonde-colored wooden sign, quickly weathered into a darker
wood. Rather than being straight printing, the large letters each sat at
goofy angles to each other across the wood, which looked burnt in places as
though made during a time long ago. Someone has since cut the poles to half their
height and the overhead sign is gone. The lane still dead-ends at the camp,
although the lower lane is now obscured by time and other usage.
This upper lane continued on past what camper's considered the "back" of the large stone Lodge. However, the Lodge was not yet built when campers , grandchildren of the founder, attended in the 1950s.
/....Page under construction...
Within a block's length of continued bumpy, rutty road leading into the camp, a lone outdoor barbeque with chimney created another official marker. A metal plate cemented to the chimney bears the dedication "1946 Gift from Camp Wahoot." Sometimes at night, adults lit charcoal in the barbeque pit, leaving the hot red coals as though looking at the fiery throat of a dragon, smoke rising through the chimney as though curling upward from the beast's face.
The children's eyes or focus, however, barely rested on the dedication plaque as they arrived at the camp on the first day. Instead, young eyes watched for the short turn to the left, across the narrow one-car wooden bridge, and down onto the lower lane into the camp.
On the day camp opened, parents taxied their kids in 1940s and 1950s automobiles, from 2-door sedans to station wagons, forming a long line from the end of the lane at the last cabin and back to the wooden bridge as parents unloaded suitcases and yelled for their girls to "get back here and help unload the car!" Girls or their parents hauled the bags into assigned cabins, with youngest and oldest children housed separately.
From memories at age 6 to 8-years-old, I recall each cabin housed about 10 girls, with a female camp counselor sleeping in each cabin (older girls may have not had this adult presence).
On the wide plank wooden floors of fewer than 5 or 6 cabins, bunk bed cots were lined up about
12-inches apart with the foot of each bunk facing toward the back cabin wall. Each
metal cot with clanking metal springs had a mattress, sheet, blanket and pillow,
and each camper on arrival had to make their own bed. Close-meshed screens covered windows and wood covers lifted from the outside of each window and each was held up by a stick. Along the front wall, under the windows, were book shelf type storage where girls placed their shoes and clothing. Some girls sat on the "benches" these shelves made, studying the view beyond the window or calling out to friends.
I recently had the opportunity to visit the old campgrounds, which still has two
of the original red-painted cabins, although now in some disrepair after being
used to house farm fowl over a number of years. The cabin room now looks very
tiny as compared to seeing it through a child's eyes.
Two bath towels and two washcloths were the most unexciting packed items, but the towel for the pool lingered in the minds of excited new campers. Every year, Camp Adelawan joined with the boys camp (likely the YMCA Camp Buffalo) to attend swimming lessons at Sunset Pool. The outing was the highlight of summer camp, with pre-teens and teens cramming into the camp's open truck for the short jaunt to the clear blue water. Counselors or kids started the usual camp songs, while some standing kids swayed and hung onto the wood slats of the truck, jolted by the twisting and bumpy road. Easy songs entranced little campers, like "B-I-N-G-O...and Bingo was his name-o" to "If you’re happy and you know it, Clap your hands," while older campers just wished they were already jumping from the diving board or taking the plunge down the pool slide.
That slide caused a problem for me one year. Fearful of water, I still wanted to join the fun in the pool.
My sister Colleen, three years older than me, waited to catch me at the bottom of the slide while I climbed the steps to the top, fists tight against the railings. The slide was slippier than I knew, and I crashed onto my sister's hand when she tried to catch me. She ended up with a broken finger, which remains slightly crooked to this day. The broken finger added one more incident to a rather long list of injuries I caused her during my early childhood, including two head injuries, once when I hit her on the head with a brick and another time when I pushed her against a radiator pipe. I guess my sister should be glad it was only her finger I hurt at the pool. I also recall, with embarrassment, the year I "almost drowned" when I tried swimming in the deep end, and the two strong teen lifeguards who "rescued" me. Fortunately for my pride, that may have been the last summer I attended camp.
 |
My older sister remembers the camp store, located on the ground level of the 'lodge' building, where girls could buy necessities like green Prell Shampoo sold in a tube. The long, two-story lodge sat on the hill across from the cabins. We crossed a foot bridge above a small creek, then climbed stairs to reach the level of the building. On the second floor, a porch ran the entire length of the back, again facing the cabins. Swinging screen doors opened to the camp dining hall, where long tables and benches quickly filled with chattering girls ages 6 to teen years. Staff served three meals every day. The camp store held goodies
to help impatient, growling stomachs and sweettooths to get through the day until the next mealtime.
Candy bars, chips, Popsicles and ice cream treats were usual favorites, along with "pop" (soda pop) in bottles. Caps from Root Beer and Coke bottles littered the area beneath bottle openers mounted
in convenient spots on the lodge building wall and columns.
Regular camp activities started almost as soon as the girls opened their eyes. Early risers could slip off for a short hike in the woods above and behind the cabin
areas, but at the camp's official wake-up everyone had to meet at the camp
flagpole for flag-raising and morning ceremonies. The rusted staff still
stands cemented in place at the camp, within 15 feet of a sole cabin, holding no
flag and revealing nothing now of past camp activities which took place at its
base.
Mornings and afternoons offered nature hikes with plant and rock identification. My sisters and I always hunted for rock fossils to take home. The sandstone of the area sometimes preserved leaf impressions clearly enough to look like fossils. Other campers sought leaf collections, and Staff taught us how to press flowers between wax paper placed under a stack of heavy books.
Group and individual craft projects also filled the day. Camp Adelawan was where I learned to make my fist potholders, a surprise for my mom. Beads, bobbles,
and Popsicle sticks saved from daily treats
were turned into other gifts and souvenirs of the summer. Popsicle sticks or toothpicks were used to build small boxes and houses, which kids could then paint or decorate. Elmer's glue was in ready supply to hold the sticks together. Young campers made large 5x7-inch size pictures on stiff cardboard, and pasted each to a tongue depressor to make a handle. Children held these faces and other paintings in front of their faces as a quick "costume" during plays and skits that groups of children performed in front of the whole camp. Some children painted pictures or solid colors on pop-bottle caps discarded by campers and staff.
At the craft table, I first saw Staff cut a long line of paper dolls from one folded paper; I never mastered that talent, but the task and result fascinated me.
While younger children could busy themselves with making painted or crayon pictures or other small projects, older campers painted ashtrays and other clay-slip fired creations. Some campers learned how to create gimp strap projects (also called plastic lace or boondoggle), a process of weaving along the edges of leather straps or connecting the two pieces together to make belts, headbands, or bookmarks.
With yarn or string, campers made pictures while counselors showed other campers how to use knotted string or yarn for String Finger games like "Jacob's Ladder", "Kitty Whiskers", "Cup and Saucer" "Cats Cradle", "the Manger," "Candles," "the Cat's Eye," and "Diamonds."
("Cat's Cradle" pictures are shown on the Internet.
Easy to difficult finger figures are
also shown.) Campers took these new games home where they continued practicing for many months through the coming school year. A quiet game of skill and achievement, small hands learned each time how to manipulate their fingers until they could create the same pictures. More often, though, practices ended in tangled string wrapped around fingers, resulting in laughter or sighs of frustration.
Group sports centered around the once English lawn game of Croquet or lawn bowling. The campsite had the prerequisite horseshoe stakes, placed a good 40 feet apart. Our grandfather enjoyed horseshoes, but I never took to the game, in part because my throwing ability fell short. "Red Rover", "King of the Hill", and "Tug of War" strength games filled afternoon playtime and released the energy of young children. Some campers tried kite flying (another skill I never mastered) and flying balsa wood airplane gliders we could buy and assemble from the camp store. Night or day, groups of children might start a game of "Hide and Seek", "Simon Says", "Red
Light, Green Light", or "Mother May I."
Besides being the center of morning roll-call, the flag pole was also the
rallying point for one hilarious game begun by "George", one of the
female counselors. The young campers had to lift and carry
"George" or one of the other counselors from where-ever, back to the
flagpole. It took an average of 6 or 8 children to carry, lift, or drag (with
the object to carry) one adult's body the distance, as the counselor
alternately fought or went limp in her captors arms. A limp counselor became
dead weight and made it more difficult for the kids to lift and carry. An
arm would flail or one leg would dangle as the young campers tried, in vain, to
keep all parts of the counselor's body off the ground as they trekked toward the
flagpole. Much tugging and labors went into a successful end--that is, if
"George" didn't get away first and run off, requiring the kids to go
after her and begin the process all over again. From research I've done,
"George" may have been Georgia M. Rese of Claysville, PA who in
1971-72 was in charge of Camp Adelawan. Born in August 1929, this Georgia
would have been in her 30s in 1960s when my sisters and I attended camp.
Internet resources show this Mrs. Rese had lived in Claysville, PA, and also in Saint Augustine, FL,
Saint Johnsbury, VT, and Providence, RI. She died in Glover, Orleans
County, VT in August 1997 at about age 79. From
her obituary, Georgia was an educator and social worker for Vermont after she
left Pennsylvania.
Mandatory rest periods consumed part of every afternoon at the Camp. Most of
the girls did not really nap, but campers had to remain lying down on their bunks. Many campers read books. This was also the time campers wrote obligatory postcards and letters home, telling anxious (or relieved) parents how much she enjoyed camp but how she also missed home, missed mom & dad, and missed the pet dog or cat----regardless of whether the girl missed anything of home. In my case, my sisters and I were less 25 minutes and less than
15-miles from home, although for young children, Claysville seemed a million miles from home and the camp a world unto itself. The staff had to deal with some homesickness, such as the night I pulled my sheet,
blanket, and pillow from my bunk and tried to "run away home." Staff found me wandering the campground,
dragging my bedding with me up the hillside stairs leading to the Lodge, and took me
to the nurse's area in the camp bus parked behind the lodge. There, the nurse called my mom (the first time I realized Staff could do that) and my parents came to get me.
My older sisters taught me "Jacks" on the sidewalk outside the lodge. The camp store sold Jacks, 10 to a package with a small rubber ball. I was the gopher for errant balls that hit a crack, twig, or other uneven surface and bounced away. My sisters were always more skilled than I with coordinating their hand and eye to throw the ball high enough to pick up the correct number of jacks, and grab the ball after its first bounce.
We took this game home also and spent hundreds of hours on the front sidewalk at
home playing and practicing.
"Bingo" and "Musical Chairs" made great indoor games during rainy weather, as did the pastime "I Spy". "Tic Tac Toe" became a prank older campers (or Staff) introduced to younger campers, who then tried for hours to beat each other and win the game. "Hang Man" and other paper-pencil and word games kept minds busy. Older children introduced younger ones to the "Folded Paper Fortune Teller", like my sisters easily made, printing words and pictures inside the flaps. As one person manipulated the 'bowls' of two flaps, the other child gave a number which the first person would count off by moving the paper
bowls and guessed which number the paper would open to. Half the fun was making the Fortune Teller, a task easier for older minds and hands.
Instructions
for the Fortune Teller are shown online.
Campers wrote "invitations" to their parents during the week, encouraging them to visit for the ritual Friday night program of skits and singing. Girls donned costumes, had make-up applied by counselors, and the girls sung tunes for the program that they had practiced during the week. After the program, Staff awarded various campers with "Loving Cup" style trophies on a block with a circular base and inscribed with the camper's name, date, and the name "Camp Adelawan". My sister, Diana Lynn Florian, won many "Camper of the Week" Loving Cup Trophies. Parents and homesick campers got to spend some time together at the weekly programs before the parents had to return home for the night. If a camper was only to stay for one week, the camp ended on Saturday morning, so those children slept at camp Friday night after the program while their parents returned home; the parents then returned the next day to pick up their daughter(s).
Once a week, girls and counselors set out for a "long" hike to set up 'camp' within the campgrounds. Counselors had already selected the site, and once the group arrived, they'd pitch tents, make a fire, cook their evening meal amidst singing and laughter, pee behind bushes, and sleep out-of-doors. The next day, they'd eat at the secondary campsite, do some outdoor activities, and eventually tear down the tents so they could hike back to the main camp.
On some days, in the late afternoon after dinner, camp staff hooked a farm tractor to a flat trailer filled with hay bales for the girl's hayride. The driver traveled along Sunset Beach Road (then an unpaved road) as well as going through open fields, while the girls and counselors sang mostly loud songs belted out with glee and giggles. The ride and singing went on until well after dark, returning to the campgrounds just in time for quick showers and lights out.
On other nights, the bonfire called bone-tired campers to its warmth, while mosquitoes, gnats, and moths flittered among the group. Roasted marshmallows, hot dogs, and S'Mores were tasty treats for the evening, amid group-sung camp songs. Children and Staff concocted Indian stories based on characters like "The Lone Ranger", or instilled a bit of fright and goose bumps with short ghost stories, tall tales, and superstitions. Instilling fear was slightly balanced with bits of humor when one or another Staff realized some children had taken the chilling fiction far too literally.
Little ones were so tired before bedtime that it was hard for their little legs to walk back to their cabins. In groups of two or more, campers walked beneath trees shadowing the pathways below, and everyone hurried out of the night air. Often, huge moths entered the cabins too, fluttering high at the ceiling bulb until "lights out."
Taps played over the loud speakers attached to the electric poles outside the
cabins, closing camp for the day.
Although Staff member names have slipped our memories, Camp Adelawan could not have flourished from 1945
into the 1970's* without the hard work of the Camp
Committees, camp nurses, camp counselors, and volunteers. If the camp held it's capacity of 90 girls each
year (for around 30 years), at least 2,700 girls experienced the enrichment of camp attendance. Even at half-capacity,
around 1,350 young females gained skills and learning that can occur no where else but at camp.
By the 1970s, the camp also opened its doors to pre-school children and to boys
of all ages. In
the years since Camp Adelawan closed, much of its history has been forgotten
except by those whose lives were touched by the camp and enriched by the Mrs.
Adella Barnes Johnson's dream. But during its 20-year operation, it successfully served girls
from Washington County communities and from as far away as Florida.
The former owners of Sunset Beach are also to be commended. The pool had to have offered the YWCA flat rates so that the camp children could enjoy swimming there. Although each child paid for food and beverages, and a partial swim fee, Sunset Beach Pool likely absorbed some of the cost, and used their own lifeguards to oversee and protect the children. Sunset was probably where many young campers learned to swim for the first time, or enjoyed swimming in a pool (rather than creeks or lakes) for the first time. The success of the summer shows the strong working relationships between the YWCA, Camp Adelawan, and Sunset Beach to serve local children.
The YWCA of Washington PA has been closed since about 2002. Yet, it's legacy lives in the memories of the girls and women
the Association served. Although no one now remembers the old YWCA slogans, their past work certainly lives up to their current motto, "We Build Strong Kids and Families". The former YWCA
Boards, Staffs, and volunteers should feel proud of the work they accomplished in Washington County.
My sisters and I have tried, in vain, to remember the camp's song and the tune. We remember clearly that we sung-spelled out Adelawan's name--it was how we learned to spell it.
My sister The only remembers the last line, "Here's to you, Camp Adelawan!"
Indeed, my sisters and I fondly recall our summers there.
See Photo of 4 girls on porch of cabin
