A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Camp - 29C - CREATING SHERWOOD FOREST I

One day in 1964 when Richard and I were at Calvin Crest we were walking up and down the grounds with Ted and Dorothy Lyons.  We had wandered down to what was then called the pioneer area.   As we were walking, talking and dreaming, we started to brainstorm the kind of camp we could develop in this area for junior age children.   

We knew about camps with themes like Indian village, Wagon Wheels and Camp in the Woods.   As we were tromping around, I imagined merry men and maids running through the woods in Sherwood Forest.  We started to laugh and throw out all kinds of ideas and scenarios that could be used in camping.  That day Sherwood Forest was born!   

            Since I was the one who was blurting out a lot of the ideas, the consensus was that I should try to develop the theme for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders summer.  In the succeeding months, I wrote the Mayor of Sherwood Forest in England and contacted Disneyland.   I was looking for designs of buildings and different ideas we might be able to adapt in this setting. 

            During the time we were developing the living units for the Sherwood campers I had in mind a hut design that looked similar to a cave or barn.  The contractor who was building the units wanted an A frame design because it was easier to build. 

            When we left the camp and were driving home, I started to cry because I knew I did not want an A frame unit.  (I’m a crier.)  We stopped along the way (there were no cell phones in those days), I called Ted and said, “You cannot let him build A frames.”  I put a lot of pressure on Ted to make sure the design would be as close to a Sherwood theme as possible.   He was caught in the middle.  When I would go up to the camp and the contractor, who was a retired man, would point to me and ask Ted, “Is that the lady?”   Maybe that’s why sometimes my “nickname” would be “witch of the woods” instead of “Lady of the Forest”.

            The huts were just what I wanted.  Bob Stevenson, our Maintenance man, had creative ideas, and came up with the thatched roofs design.  They took regular roof shingles and cut them with points that looked like a thatched rooftop.   He also created the quaint shoppes in the the Townsquare where the campers would come to do their crafts.   It had a candle shoppe, tinker shoppe, basketweaving shoppe and an area for the campers to have target practice with bows and arrows.  It was a fun place to be at Camp!    To be continued: