Camping For Boys Part 15

BREAKFAST Cream of Wheat Bananas Fried mush and maple syrup Coffee.

DINNER Roast chicken Creamed onions Mashed potatoes Pineapple sherbet Bread and b.u.t.ter.

SUPPER Cold beef Apple sauce Sweet cake Bread and b.u.t.ter.

Serving

Each table is provided with meat platter, vegetable dishes, bread plate, b.u.t.ter dish, sugar bowl, milk pitcher, water pitcher, salt and pepper shakers, etc. The only need of a waiter is to bring the food to the tables and replenish the dishes. Each boy takes his turn at waiting. If there are seven boys in a tent, a boy serves one day in seven. He usually sits at the right side of the leader and eats his meal with the others. This does away with a second or "waiter" table. By this system you avoid the tendency to smartness and roughness. Each leader is careful to see that food is not wasted at his table, that decency and order is preserved, and wholesome conversation and pleasantries indulged in during the meal, as an aid to good digestion.

Dishwashing

Some camps pay for all work done and give boys more freedom, but experience has clearly proven that the successful camp is the one where boys all have responsibility and definite duties to perform. Dishwashing is never attractive. It may be made less irksome by carefully systematizing the work. There are several ways. One way is that of having each boy wash his own dishes, working a tent at a time. A number of tubs of hot, soapy water are provided for washing, and several extra tubs filled with very hot water for rinsing. At a signal from the Camp Director or person in charge, each table of boys by rotation pa.s.ses from the dining room with the dishes to these tubs and each boy proceeds to do his own dishwashing and rinsing and drying. Another way is to provide two good-sized dish-pans for each table, and a.s.sign two boys to do the dish-washing for the day. The dishes are washed at the tables and stowed away in a closet, each table having its own closet. Another way is to purchase a good dish-washing machine, like that made by the Fearless Dishwashing Co., Rochester, N. Y. (Cost, $100), and install it in the kitchen. This plan is in operation at Camp Dudley and Camp Hayo-Went-Ha.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Camp Hayo-Went-Ha dishwashing]

Cleanliness must be insisted upon. Never leave anything unwashed until it is used again. The eating from dirty and greasy plates, forks, knives, and spoons will result in disease. No matter what system you use, do not let down on dirty dishes.

A FEW HINTS

Soup

"Soup makes the soldier," said Napoleon I. Bones should never be thrown away, but cracked and placed in stock pot, covered with water and let simmer. This makes "stock" which is the foundation of all soup.

All green vegetables should be washed well in cold water and put in boiling salted water, and boiled slowly until tender. All white and underground vegetables should be cooked in boiling unsalted water, the salt being added at the last moment.

Potatoes take from twenty to thirty minutes to boil. In boiling and roasting allow about a quarter of an hour for every pound of meat. The fire should be medium hot. Boiled fish should be cooked ten minutes to each pound.

Water

Water is the only true beverage. Forming as it does three-quarters of the weight of the human body, it is of next importance to the air we breathe.

Milk is a food and not a beverage.

Onions

Peel or slice onions in water and you will not shed tears.

Egg Test

To test the freshness of an egg, drop into cold water. If the egg sinks quickly it is fresh, if it stands on end it is doubtful, and quite bad if it floats. The sh.e.l.l of a fresh egg looks dull; a stale one is glossy.

Mending Pots

A pot may be mended by making a paste of flour, salt and fine wood ashes.

Plaster it on where the leak is and let it dry before using.

Table Etiquette

A mother complained that her boy, after being in camp for two weeks, returned home speaking a new language, particularly at the dining table.

If he wanted milk, he called for "cow," b.u.t.ter was "goat," biscuits were "sinkers," meat was "corpse," and there were several other terms and phrases peculiar to camp life. He had to learn all over the ways of decency and reasonable table refinement. There is no plausible reason why this should be so in a boys' camp. Grabbing of food, yelling for food, upsetting of liquids, and table "rough-house" will be largely prevented by the system of seating and of serving. The most satisfactory way is to seat by tent groups. Have as many tables as you have tents. Let each tent leader preside at the head of his table, and serve the food in family style. The leader serves the food, and sees that the boys observe the same delightful table life in camp as at home.

Grace at Meals

Grace should be said before each meal, either silently or audibly. In the morning the hymn on the following page is sung by the boys at Camp Becket, followed with bowed heads in silent prayer:

MORNING PRAYER HYMN FOR BOYS' CAMPS

To be sung at morning meal Words and Music by H. W. Gibbon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Music]

Morning Gracious Giver of all good, Thee we thank for rest and food.

Grant that all we do or say In Thy service be this day.

Noon Father for this noonday meal We would speak the praise we feel, Health and strength we have from Thee, Help us, Lord, to faithful be.

Night Tireless guardian of our way, Thou hast kept us well this day.

While we thank Thee, we request Care continued, pardon, rest.

-Camp Wawayanda.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Forest scene]

Go abroad upon the paths of Nature, And when all its voices whisper, and its silent things Are breathing the deep beauty of the world-- Kneel at its ample altar.-Bryant.

CHAPTER X--THE CAMP FIRE

HOW TO BUILD A CAMP FIRE PREVENT SPREAD OF FIRE FOREST FIRE LAWS HOW TO LIGHT A FIRE STORY TELLING MARSHMALLOW TOASTS AND CORN ROASTS A STORY, "HOW MEN FOUND THE GREAT SPIRIT"

There is an impalpable, invisible, softly stepping delight in the camp fire which escapes a.n.a.lysis. Enumerate all its charms, and still there is something missing in your catalogue.

--W. C. Gray in "Camp Fire Musings."

"I cannot conceive of a camp that does not have a big fire! Our city houses do not have it, not even a fireplace. The fireplace is one of the greatest schools the imagination has ever had or ever can have. It is moral, and it always gives a tremendous stimulus to the imagination, and that is why stories and fire go together. You cannot tell a good story unless you tell it before a fire. You cannot have a complete fire unless you have a good story-teller along." [1] Anyone who has witnessed a real camp fire and partic.i.p.ated in its fun, as well as seriousness, will never forget it. The huge fire shooting up its tongue of flame into the darkness of the night, the perfect shower of golden rain, the company of happy boys, and great, dark background of piney woods, the weird light over all, the singing, the yells, the stories, the fun, then the serious word at the close, is a happy experience long to be remembered.

[Footnote 1: Dr. G. Stanley Hall, "Camp Conference Report," p. 40.]

To Build a Fire

There are ways and ways of building camp fires. An old Indian saying runs, "White man heap fool, make um big fire--can't git near! Injun make um little fire--git close! Uh! good!" Make it a service privilege for a tent of boys to gather wood and build the fire. This should be done during the afternoon. Two things are essential in the building of a fire--kindling and air. A fire must be built systematically. First, get dry, small dead branches, twigs, fir branches and other inflammable material. Place these upon the ground. Be sure that air can draw under the pile and up through it. Next place some heavier branches in tripod form over the kindling, then good-sized sticks, and so on until you have built the camp fire the required size. In many camps it is considered an honor to light the fire.

Kerosene oil may be poured upon the kindling, or old newspapers used in lighting the fire.

Caution

An interesting account of "How to Build a Fire by Rubbing Sticks," by Ernest Thompson-Seton, will be found in "Boy Scouts of America," page 84.

Be sure to use every precaution to prevent the spreading of fire. This may be done by building a circle of stone around the fire, or by digging up the earth, or by wetting a s.p.a.ce around the fire. Always have buckets of water near at hand.