Something was Always Cooking in the Kitchen

As Wayne Towne had worked as a groundsman, he knew a lot about the kitchen and what was in the storage closet. The light bulb in the toilet of Cabin 1&2 burned out. Chuck Cooper and one of the campers in Wayne's Cabin 2 had use of the facility in the dark of night. Wayne got into the kitchen to get a light bulb. He entered through a door that was never locked. It was the door to the garbage can rack. As he crawled out of the rack Skipper greeted him. “What were you doing in the kitchen,” Skipper asked sternly. “The bathroom light burned out in our cabin so I got one to replace it,” Wayne replied. “Thank you,” Skipper replied, “I could not believe you came here to steal anything.”

Annie Towne came to cook at the camp two years after Wayne started. During the school year she worked making lunches at Guards Corners Elementary School with Judy Grant. Judy was the head cook at Camp Waupaca. Mrs. Irene Guethul was the dinner cook. Annie worked either morning to lunch or afternoon until dinner dishes were cleaned up. When Irene and Judy retired, Jane K. and her sister Norma J. came to work in the kitchen. Jane retired a year before Annie and Andrea Wanty became the afternoon cook.

A dietitian, Louise Grant, was hired by Skipper in 1995. She is the only one on record. The menus that Louise made up remained with only small changes for years until Annie retired. Louise was a graduate of Stout State College. A few additions came about when Manny ran the camp. Two additions to the menus were pizza and Spaghetti O's. Camp Waupaca pizza was introduced by a one season cook from New London named Judy. The menus change drastically when Andrea Wanty became the head cook. Most food purchased was commercially prepared, very little food was made from scratch.

It was just before the camp would open for the summer, and Skipper was painting the canteen shack. He came into the kitchen to take a phone call (the only phone in camp at the time). In his hand was a can that had once contained food, now however it had turpentine he was going to use to clean his paint brush. Irene had used the same kind of can to measured water in for the chili that was to be the evening meal. The soup was ready for the water and Irene Guethul grabbed a can sitting on the counter. The one that Skipper forgot to take with him. Just a smell of the soup told the counselors something was wrong. The menu changed to canned soup and sandwiches quickly. For several days after counselors could be heard singing, “Who put the turpentine in Mrs. Guethul's chili.” The poor woman never lived the mistake down even when Skipper told the counselors to knock it off. He told them he was the one to blame.

A barrel was delivered to the kitchen and Annie opened it. She thought the contents had been sent to camp by mistake. She had never seen pickled tongue and hearts before. Loretta Kuklin came to the kitchen and Ann told her that a barrel of spoiled food had been delivered by mistake. Loretta took a look and laughed, “This of the pickled tongue and hearts that is on the menu for Friday”. She told Annie how to prepare cook it. Ann enjoyed eating the food, but never liked to cook it.

“Jane,” a small camper said on All Out Day, “could I get a hot dog. My counselor ate mine.” Jane though he must have dropped his hot dog in the dirt and could not eat it. She gave him a hot dog and with a smile on his face left. The next week the same camper came for a hot dog with the same story. Ann told Skipper about it and he investigated. The camper like to fish and he had cut up the hot dogs and put them on a hook because they caught fish.

The food that Annie disliked to cook was the chicken for “Parents Days”. The chicken came with ice in clean garbage cans. The cooks had to reach into the ice that was slimy with blood and pull out the whole chicken carcasses. Each carcass had to be cut into pieces on a slimy table. The pieces were then covered with a seasoned flour and put into the walk-in cooler. Most “Parents Days” were hot. The chicken was cooked on grates on steel cattle water tanks. Sometimes the cooks burned their legs standing by the tanks. Warren Metzdorff to the rescue. Warren and some volunteers piled rocks around the tanks and filled in between them with sand. Grilling the chicken was still a hot job, but not as dangerous.

One day a camper came to the kitchen with a bag of cotton balls that he had cut in half. “When you are cooking some beef”, he said, please soak these in the blood that is on the tray please. I'll dry them in the sun and put them on my fish hooks. It works good for catching big fish.” Annie Towne did as she was asked with the cotton balls and the camper dried them. I think that he was the only camper who consistently caught northern pike. I tried it a couple of times, but I did not have kosher beef and it never got a nibble.

One of the treats was the weekly can of soda for each camper. Unless your cabin won a trip to the local A&W or Dairy Queen, this might be all the soda you had for the summer. On very hot July day, a camper brought his can of soda to the kitchen. The pull tab had been broken off. He handed it to the cook on duty and asked, “Can you please open this for me?” She got a pointed can opener and punched the can. Cold soda showered her. “Can I have another can of soda,” the boy asked trying to stifle a laugh. “No! You cannot, you son of a bitch!” was the answer. The camper left in a rush.

Manny told Annie that the campers were asking for pizza. “I have never had pizza and do not know anything about it,” she told Manny. Judy a new cook from the New London area piped in, “I made it for the school and have a recipe for it.” The next week the first pizza was served at Camp Waupaca. Because of Annie's heritage of only mildly seasoning food did not like the pizza as it was, “too spicy.” After a few samples of the pizza, she became a big fan of it spice and all.

The Kitchen Girls had a break in the afternoon and were permitted to relax on the beach. Annie Towne noticed that they were always coming back to work a little early and investigated. The boys in 7 & 8 had a habit of coming out to get their swim suits off the nails on the side of the cabin. There was swimming after “rest hour”. This happened just as the girls returned. Some of the boys were coming out nude and put on their bathing suits. This seemed to delight the girls, however Skipper did not allow them beach privileges any longer. It was said that the boys were disappointed.

Kind counselors told the kitchen girls of the “Old Beach”. So during break some of the young ladies went there to sun bathe. There were rumors that they sometimes took off their tops so as not to get white lines that would show. Maybe this could be confirmed by CIT's of that time. There is always a kill joy to spoil a good thing and Skipper put that beach off limits as well. Sucks the boys spent more time trading “Playboy” centerfolds.