MEMORIES: JOAN SINNEMA REISIG (1944 - 1948)
Joan was a design draftsman for Goodyear airships, F-15 flight simulator and other projects for the war.
Started camping at Camp Julia Crowell around 1944 or 1945. Camped there many years - into Senior Scouting in High School. Both summer resident camp and troop camping. We stayed at Kirby House many times. Garfield House and Tent camping.
Camping started in the winter [for a spring camp out]. You had to make the reservations. You had to plan. We didn’t have sleeping bags in those days, we had bedrolls. You had to make your list of what you needed to take, what food you needed to take for the whole troop. EVERYTHING had to be planned ahead of time. That stayed with me. We didn’t realize it at the time that we were learning. You plan ahead to do something.
I look back on those years and think: If it weren't for Girl Scouts, I wouldn’t be who I am today. After we raised our children, we were sort of free again, we got together. It was 50 years that we hadn’t seen each other. And then we met every year for several years. We got permission to go back. We went to Cricket’s Corners and had lunch. We had the best time remembering everything.
I came from the heart of Cleveland. The Cleveland Zoo was right behind our house. I'd go from there to where there were trees, and water, and waterfalls… to get out into an open area…we didn’t have that privilege in Cleveland……It was a Whole. New. World. And we LOVED it!
I can still tie a square knot in the middle of a sheep shank!
[Camping] brought people together. We learned how to get along. We learned how to understand other people’s personalities. So when we left Girl Scouts and went into the workforce, it helped us to get along with the people we were working with.
Camping started in the winter [for a spring camp out]. You had to make the reservations. You had to plan. We didn’t have sleeping bags in those days, we had bedrolls. You had to make your list of what you needed to take, what food you needed to take for the whole troop. EVERYTHING had to be planned ahead of time. That stayed with me. We didn’t realize it at the time that we were learning. You plan ahead to do something.
I look back on those years and think: If it weren't for Girl Scouts, I wouldn’t be who I am today. After we raised our children, we were sort of free again, we got together. It was 50 years that we hadn’t seen each other. And then we met every year for several years. We got permission to go back. We went to Cricket’s Corners and had lunch. We had the best time remembering everything.
I came from the heart of Cleveland. The Cleveland Zoo was right behind our house. I'd go from there to where there were trees, and water, and waterfalls… to get out into an open area…we didn’t have that privilege in Cleveland……It was a Whole. New. World. And we LOVED it!
I can still tie a square knot in the middle of a sheep shank!
[Camping] brought people together. We learned how to get along. We learned how to understand other people’s personalities. So when we left Girl Scouts and went into the workforce, it helped us to get along with the people we were working with.
We went to the dances. The floor would spring up and down. I’m sure my husband didn’t believe me. Kirby House had a bathroom. [Tent units ] had latrines. To this day, I love the smell of a kerosene lantern.
My home life was not the best. My Girl Scout life was what helped me to grow up.
We didn’t know much of the history [of the camp]. We knew it was Mr. Kirby’s summer home in the 1920’s. God bless Mr. Kirby for taking that land and making it what it is.
This was the year of the 17 year locusts. [1948] We were tent camping. We went to bed on Friday evening and everything was wonderful. We had our campfire. We had our supper and our s’mores. We went to bed and had a wonderful night’s sleep. I woke in the morning to the most horrendous screaming that you could imagine. Those locusts were in our faces. In our bedrolls. Hanging from the top of the tent and falling down on us. You’d go to put your shoe on and there was a locust in the shoe. And they were not nice bugs to look at.
But by the end of the camp out, we got so used to them. We had these long tables under a rain fly. I remember one locust fell off the ceiling of the that by the end of the camp one fell off the ceiling right into the potato salad. One of the girls picked it up, threw it over her shoulder and didn’t even stop talking. Everyone else kept right on eating.
Sometimes something happens and you just make the best of it. And we did. It didn’t spoil our time.
interview by Joanie Gottschling, January 11, 2016
My home life was not the best. My Girl Scout life was what helped me to grow up.
We didn’t know much of the history [of the camp]. We knew it was Mr. Kirby’s summer home in the 1920’s. God bless Mr. Kirby for taking that land and making it what it is.
This was the year of the 17 year locusts. [1948] We were tent camping. We went to bed on Friday evening and everything was wonderful. We had our campfire. We had our supper and our s’mores. We went to bed and had a wonderful night’s sleep. I woke in the morning to the most horrendous screaming that you could imagine. Those locusts were in our faces. In our bedrolls. Hanging from the top of the tent and falling down on us. You’d go to put your shoe on and there was a locust in the shoe. And they were not nice bugs to look at.
But by the end of the camp out, we got so used to them. We had these long tables under a rain fly. I remember one locust fell off the ceiling of the that by the end of the camp one fell off the ceiling right into the potato salad. One of the girls picked it up, threw it over her shoulder and didn’t even stop talking. Everyone else kept right on eating.
Sometimes something happens and you just make the best of it. And we did. It didn’t spoil our time.
interview by Joanie Gottschling, January 11, 2016