Remembering Camp Owaissa and Camp Pinewood
By Kathryn Ross
I have a favorite television program I like to watch, ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.’
In a recent episode the program took place in the old Borscht Belt in the Catskill Mountains and featured the old summer resorts. For several decades people would escape the hot summer months in New York City to the cool mountains of the Catskills. There were many resorts that catered to those refugees renting them cabins and cottages to live in and programming that featured water sports, badminton and tennis, amateur nights, stargazing and outdoor sports like archery and hiking. Think of the movie ‘Dirty Dancing’. There were programs for every age. But most, if not all, of those old resorts are gone now and like other rural areas the Catskills have been in a slump.
When I was a Brownie and later a Girl Scout, I used to attend summer camp Owaissa off Niles Hill Road. Every morning we’d tramp down a dirt road winding through a hayfield, scrambled down a hillside, cross a gurgling stream underneath a dark umbrella of pine trees and make our way across a short field to a wooden cabin on a gentle rise. There we would spend the day learning skills and making crafts.
I was never very good at crafts. I didn’t know how to braid. My boondoggles really were boondoggles. My adept best friends Nonie and Gail would make mine for me. If we were asked to paint or draw, I would help them out, We learned forestry and camping skills, like how to lash a table, set up a campsite, recognize dangerous plants, first aid, and build, tend and put out different styles of campfires Most of all we just enjoyed the great outdoors and the camaraderie of other girls – directors, young women counselors, teenagers and girls our same age. There were no men or boys at camp Owaissa.
On camp outs, we stargazed and learned the names of the constellations that lit up our summer sky. We were so proud when we were finally old enough and advanced enough to sing, “We are the pioneers, jolly old pioneers. We come from Owaissa, as you all may know. As for the work we do, we do it all for you. We’re the jolly pioneers. We are so slow, Ho.”
Funny what you remember 60 or so years later, especially since you can’t recall what you had for breakfast.
As a young adult I became a camp counselor at Girl Scout Camp Pinewood above Arkport. There we offered many programs, including horseback riding and sailing to girls scouts from Rochester.
So, why am I recalling my wonderful and memorable days at camp in the wild woods of Steuben and Allegany counties? Because, I recently saw a program about people wanting to relive the camp experiences they had as children. They want to pinch the bowl string, pull back and let loose an arrow at a red, yellow, white and blue target. They want to swish their feet in a pond, snag a fish on a line, check out the plants along a hiking trail. They want to sit by a roaring campfire, dodge smoke, melt a marshmallow on a stick, and sing songs to the mellow chords of an acoustic guitar. They want to hear the hoot of an owl at midnight and wake up at dawn to birds singing.
For these simple pleasures they are willing to pay. It’s not glamping, although that’s a plausible alternative.
Our neck of the woods can offer all these simple pleasures and build on new ones without it costing anyone an arm or a leg. It isn’t hard to build a simple campground to provide the amenities we cherished as kids – a good privy and simple food cooked over an open fire.
I have also often thought that a good use for farms would be to open the doors, especially the barn doors, to city people who would like to experience farm life, you know, like in the old TV show ‘Greenacres’. Visitors could learn what it is like to milk cows, feed chickens, bale and stack hay.
These are simple pleasures that we can easily offer to tourists.
Building a summer camp for adults or opening up a farm for visitors could be a trend that Allegany County can embrace, afford to develop and thrive on, and a way of cherishing and preserving something today, from yesterday, for tomorrow.
Kathryn Ross has been a writer, columnist, journalist, and community activist in Allegany County for decades. She brings her great memory and insights to the Sun every week with her “Golden Girl” column. You can reach her anytime, kathr_2002@yahoo.com
