The Towne Family Legacy, and Others at Camp Waupaca

Wayne Towne was the first of the family to work at Camp Waupaca beginning in as a groundsman in 1956. Then the next year he began spending summers as a counselor. Military duty interrupted and then back at camp until 1982 as a full-time counselor. Then in 1983 and 1984 he worked only as a counselor on the Dells Early Bird trips only.

Wayne's first job there was to haul the mattress out of the storage unit in the Red Barn. Then he and Jim Danielson cleaned up the leaves, put in docks, and cleaned up the mess hall. Winfield Sterns supervised their work as he repaired and painted the picnic tables. Winny had a stack of full paint cans from the smallest to a quart in size. They were all different colors so to get the same color for the table and bench he mixed colors until he had enough paint for each set. Being color blind, he did not know of the colors he invented. Some were not too bad but some should not have been used on anything where food would be consumed.

Winny made the rounds of the camp every day to supply the bathrooms with supplies until his health failed. He enjoyed talking to the campers and often had a story for them. As he had a hand in building the camp he was proud of the success the camp was having.

Besides Annie all of the Waupaca Towne’s worked for a time at the camp. Hazen, Wayne's father, planted the maple trees that grew there. He also mowed the far fields once for Parent's Day. Wayne's daughters Tammie and Cindi both worked one season in the kitchen. Their Grandpa Towne drove them to camp and Annie brought them home. Renee Towne, Wayne's wife, worked as the afternoon cook for two years. Wayne's bothers also worked at Camp Waupaca. Alvin mowed the sports fields for three years. Erle and Dean each worked at the camp as groundsmen for two years each. Alvin's wife Evelyn was a “Kitchen Girl”. The Towne family has many fond memories of their work there.

Wayne had many good times in the year he was groundsman. Wayne and his partner in crime James Danielson played a lot of games while accomplishing their duties. Seeing how fast the old truck could run through the camp without hitting trees. Garden hose fights when cleaning the toilets (great for hot days). Hauling the garbage cans to the dump could be fun if there were objects that could be thrown to see them sail.

Erle's greatest embarrassing experience as a groundsman was changing the light bulb in a cabin. Camp Waupaca had been rented to a coed group. A girl in one cabin ask to have a burned-out bulb in the cabin to be changed. The person in charge asked Erle to make the change. “Knock on the door to make sure the girls are not changing,” she said. Erle knocked on the door, “I am here to change the light bulb,” he said. “Come in,” was the reply. He opened the door and saw all the girls half-dressed and undressed. What did he do? Why, he changed the light bulb slowly and left.

Erle an Mike Lotz were given some heat by Ron Lavine who was the golf instructor. After every class the golf students had to put the golf balls that they used in a container in an open shelter by the carpet green. Some golf clubs were also stored there. While the camp was at lunch, the groundsmen went to the range and hit all the balls as far as they could. When they ran out of balls they threw the clubs as far as they could. Before the afternoon classes all of these items would have to be picked up. Of course the innocent groundsmen knew nothing of the vandals who were responsible. Ron took the golf clubs with him after each class. The groundsmen found a couple of clubs in the “Red Barn” and continued their game whenever possible. That was the summer Ron lost his golf balls.

There was a camper who must have skipped one of his classes on a regular basis. He waited with a squirt gun to get Dean and Jeff Harvey as they cleaned the toilets. The camper would hide by the cabin until he heard the groundsmen cleaning. Then he would rush them as they left soaking them with his squirt gun. Dean got tired of this. One day he did not disconnect the hose he used for cleaning. As the camper charged with his squirt gun Dean opened up with the hose soaking the camper from head to foot. “I am going to tell Manny,” the camper yelled. “Manny is in the office,” Dean said, “I just left him there.” This was the last time either Dean or Jeff got charged by the “Squirt Gun Warrior.”

Dean Towne and Jeff Harvey were asked to paint the office building before camp. The paint that they used was a shade of green. They finished the job and thought it a good color for camp. Manny came for a visit the day after the painting was done. “That's an terrible color.” he said, “It needs to be repainted brown.” He then got back into his car and went to town to get the brown paint. The boys did not mind as they were given more paid time.

The groundsmen who worked the least amount of time at Camp Waupaca was Mike Heartsworm. The week before camp opened, he set traps for the chipmunks that were over running the grounds. He skinned the ones he caught, “To make a fur coat for Lillian.” Mike was not happy when Manny told him to stop killing the chipmunks. His revenge was to take some boards and make a sign that he hung on the camp gate just before the campers buses arrived. The sign read, “Welcome to Auschwitz”. A red-faced Manny took Mike by the shoulder and ushered him to the gate and forbade him to ever set foot on Camp Waupaca grounds again. Mike was smart enough not to say, “It is just a joke.”

Wayne Towne also moonlighted from his stated duties at camp exchanging pumps when one broke down. There was a time when a spare water pump was stored in the Red Barn. The broken pump would be taken into town to be repaired and go into storage. When the Trip Shack was moved to the CIT Village, Wayne and Smitty built a new one. The one they built did not have skids under it so that it could be moved easily.

The last act Wayne did for Camp Waupaca was to plant trees around the Horse Shoe. He selected the largest maple trees that might survive and dug them out of the forest behind the Trip Shack. Every day to the end of the camp season he watered them. A wet fall that year prepared the trees for winter. The next time Wayne saw the trees most had survived and were shading the meeting place.