Mid-Century Mohawk Memories

Many things at Camp from the 1950s are still recognizable today.  The Dining Hall (built in 1950), the Waterfront (though with different docks and no inflatables), and the Staff Lounge (formerly the Infirmary and then the CIT Lodge) existed then. As far back as 1920, there was a camp store, a farewell banquet, songs, stories, and awards. There were even Jawaks, Mohicans (or Mohegans), Utes (or Utees), and Seniors, although Mugwumps and Oscadees came later. (Nick Prout recalls a Wyantenok Unit from his first year in 1959-what happened to them?) While few people are left who can tell us about those earliest decades, we’d like to share fun memories from the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s.

Marion Zuzalock Smith, mother of Karen (Smith) Luttenberger and Wendy, grew up in Bethel, Connecticut. She was a Mohawk camper she recalls, in 1946 and '47 when she was 10 and 11.  Marion remembers living in the Quad cabins, which stood where Mohicans are now.  The Quad consisted of a row of cabins from the Staff Cabin, one perpendicular across the top, and a third row along the Chapel side of that area, where Moore Lodge is now, forming three sides of a square. Marion remembers the way the windows opened on hinges from the top and held up by a pole and propped open most of the time giving free rein to the mosquitoes. She doesn't think there was any electricity in the cabins. Her counselor in 1946 was named Curly and Marion recalls “she was a delight.” 

Being at Mohawk so soon after the end of World War II meant a break from some of the limitations and responsibilities that Marion had even as a child. She didn't think about food rationing or blackout curtains, which were a constant presence during the war years.

Marion took swim lessons and arts and crafts, where she remembers making lanyards. Favorite activities included singing in the Dining Hall (an earlier building than the present one, although both are formally named Pond Lodge) and waiting in line to buy candy at store – a practice which her mother later blamed for Marion's cavities. While walking up the trail to the Chapel, Marion recalls being stung in the foot by a bee and being treated at the Infirmary.

Now 90 years old, Marion can still sing all the words to the Mohawk Fight Song. She has visited Mohawk a few times in recent years and still tears up when she drives up the Camp road. Marion is grateful not only for her own Mohawk experience but for the time and friendships that have been so meaningful to her daughters, Karen and Wendy.  Marion enjoyed having their Camp colleagues come home with them on days-off, especially Robin Jones who came with Karen and Suzanne Howard with Wendy.

Marsha Sangster Thompson came to Mohawk in 1952 at age 12, with three friends from her hometown of Thomaston, CT. She sold cheerful cards and saved babysitting money to pay for the camp and riding fees. She loved Arts and Crafts and continues to be artistic today both in her daily life, and during the reunion where she created the most original votive art!

Marsha loved living in the Quad cabins and fortunately doesn’t remember mosquitoes! She loved the woods and the feeling of sleeping outdoors.

Not quite as beloved, but normal for the time, was using latrines in the days before the Lighthouse was built. Boys from those days have recounted stories of bathing in the pond before the Lighthouse arrived, though Marsha thinks maybe they went the week without bathing…

One of Marsha’s favorite memories is sleeping outdoors at Cathedral Pines. Cathedral Pines was a stand of old-growth massive white pines and hemlocks in Cornwall-the largest in New England. It felt like a sacred place, so quiet and serene. She recalls spreading out her sleeping bag on the pine needles, without a tent, and falling asleep under the stars.

Bonnie Smyth Heudorfer came to Camp in 1959 when boys came to Mohawk in July and girls in August. She remembers the Camp Director telling her parents that the boys didn’t want to come in July because it conflicted with Little League so they switched the schedule. (This was before Title IX). When the girls moved to July, he said they had to send most of the horses back in August because the boys didn’t like to ride.

Music fills Bonnie’s memories: a real bugler (a camper) who played Reveille and Taps, and MJ Curtin May bringing her accordion (really cool). Bonnie’s best friend, Suanne Doza (Morgan Carpenter and Glenn Moore’s mother), who had previously gone to Girl Scout Camp Francis down the road in Kent, taught them Barges. By the mid-1960s, it seemed everybody played the guitar, and the Mohawk canon expanded to include many iconic anti-war songs.

Music was such an important part of Mohawk at the time that Bonnie remembers recording the first Mohawk Sings album (on vinyl, of course). She thinks someone came in with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and they did several cuts of each song. Whitney McKendry had a beautiful voice. She remembers Linda Goodwill  (Goody) reading The Mohawk Creed, and that the whole camp sang some songs, and each unit sang a song as well.

Bonnie remembers walking in silence to Chapel (except for the time someone stepped on a yellowjackets’ nest) and wearing only white clothes to chapel and banquet.

Many Mohawkers remember their wilderness experiences with great joy and Bonnie is no exception. She recalls making sumac tea and treating snake bites in Outdoor Living class (among other valuable life lessons). She also noted that there was no Cabin E at the time, and that Cabin D had a backdoor that opened onto the Wilderness tent.

Safety regulations were somewhat more relaxed and campers bobbed and swamped their canoes under Bonnie Jones’ watchful eye and paddled and portaged those canoes up and down the Connecticut and Housatonic Rivers. Pete Wallach and Eric Bailey made the best doughnuts, cooked in lard over the open campfire. Bonnie remembers riding bareback, horseback overnights and trail rides along paths beautifully maintained by the Connecticut Trail Riders Association, as well as embarking on canoe trips that lasted a couple days.