Borscht Belt Bungalows: Memoirs Of Catskill Summers

12. The Day Camp [Includes Image Plates]

12 The Day Camp I n 1953 when I first worked at a day camp, my salary was one hundred dollars , payable at the end of the summer, plus tips. My first paycheck from Meyer Furman's Day Camp bounced, returned for insufficient fundsMeyer soon made it good. I worked for him for two more summers because I liked the head counselor. When he left, so did I. Like much in the bungalow business, the day camp concept was developed by the Catskill hotels, which quite early recognized that mothers would especially enjoy their holidays if the kids were out of sight for at least part of the time. By the 1920s, the larger hotels had children's dining rooms separate from the adults'. The day camp was a post-World War II introduction.l Which bungalow colony had the first day camp will probably never be known, but the time of the first one was probably 1950, because it was a very new field when I entered it in 1953. Day camps were offered to tenants as a premium service, that is, on a pay-per-child basis. However, at most places it was required that your child attend camp. At the onset, the fee varied from $35 to $75 per child, but this increased steadily, and by the end of the 1960s the fee was over $250 per child.2 Like much else about the bungalow business during that period, the day camp was not usually a lush profit center. Although the largest camps could be very profitable, most owners could hope for no more than a modest profit and 158 BORSCHT BELT BUNGALOWS were happy if they broke even on the operation. The camp's purpose was to help rent bungalows. Day camps were an annoyance. Some owners tried to farm out the camps as concessions, and a few small companies ran day camps for various colonies for several years. However, the only way these companies could make any money was to skimp on everything from arts-and-crafts supplies to toilet paper. Parents rebelled, and colony owners generally ran their own camps by the mid 1950s. Owners watched salary expenses, insurance, and supplies. Staff endured campers. Central to the camp was the "head counselor," or "camp director," who was usually a New York City school teacher or-more rarely-a suburban school teacher. The head counselor was paid a salary and provided with accommodations . This job was highly prized by those who wanted an affordable way to have their kids spend the summer in the mountains. The other more or less adult positions at the camps were the nursery counselor and the arts-andcrafts counselor. Apart from a smattering ofcollege freshman and sophomores, who didn't really need money but were in the country for one reason or another , the counselors were high school students, with a minimum age offifteen so that they could have legal "working papers." Some of the counselors were children oftenants-the terms ofemployment were tied to their parents' rental contract. There were also CITs, counselors-in-training, thirteen and fourteen years old, who were tired of being campers. They were always children of tenants and often excampers, going through that rough transition from paying customer to paid employee. Many CITs never made it through the summer. Most large colonies also had a lifeguard who was expected to give campers swimming lessons as part ofhis duties. My first head counselor was Sol Ellman. He and his wife, Una (nursery school teacher and all around piano player), introduced me to camp work. They were among the very few gentle folk who went into the business. After four seasons , they left it. Their backgrounds had been in sleep-away camps, but now with two young children, they tried day camping to have family togetherness. They lived in an apartment on the ground-floor level ofthe barn that served as our camp house. Usually head counselors were housed in units on the grounds, and owners resented having to give up rent on these units. At some places, such as Kassack's, the owners rented accommodations for staff at less expensive colonies nearby. I became a head counselor when I was twenty-one, and I was heartily disliked by many ofmy peers who looked upon me as a kid who was taking the food out of the mouth of a fellow teacher. Many places...