A farewell to Marshall Park Day Camp

For the past 50 years, Madison children have had the opportunity to participate in the day camp program run by

After discovering the camp would be canceled, I decided that I needed to go back to Marshall for one last visit. As I drove down the park's access road to the camp, I was overcome with memories from the past 14 summers.

I was flooded with images of children and staff engaged in the camp activities that were unique to Marshall Park. I saw children with their faces camouflaged running through the woods playing the weekly game of capture the flag. I saw decorated camp sites made to resemble pirate ships or covered wagons or spaceships. I saw children telling ghost stories in the cabin during rainy days, children running up to me to tell me about the first fish they had ever caught, and children forcing me to eat yet another 'smore that they had made special for me.

As these and a myriad of other memories swept over me, I found myself digging through the time capsule of materials, pictures, posters, games, and camp memories that I had started years earlier. This time capsule held in it items that represented many experiences and moments that were special for me, my staff, and campers, and I would like to share with you some of these memories.

The first item was the camp's Zoogle stick. Zoogle is a game that we have been playing in camp for as long as I have been at Marshall, and it became a highly anticipated ritual first camp game for the staff and kids. The game of zoogle is simply to catch the zoogle stick with one hand on the black end of the stick. If you fail to catch the stick correctly, you must place the hand that you tried to catch it with behind your back and continue the game with only one hand. Also if you move your feet during the game, you must pick up one foot and play on one leg. The winner is the last person to have at least one hand left and to be standing.

I still smile to myself as I think about the many zoogle games where multiple staff members and children would be standing on one leg with a hand behind their backs trying to catch and throw the zoogle.

The many camp posters that had decorated the walls of our cabin were the next item that I happened upon. Each year at camp my staff and I would take pictures of the different camp activities and create posters with the campers to decorate the walls of our cabin. Over the years, we had created dozens of posters, and each year we would bring them out and cover the walls of our cabin.

The posters were of many different sizes, shapes, colors, and artistic abilities. However, that didn't matter to the campers who would comb over the posters looking for friends, brothers and sisters, as well as pictures of themselves. Every year I would be pulled over to a poster by a camper who would say "Look, that's me with my friend from last year" or "I remember that game. Are we going to be playing that game this year?"

A Tom Sawyer fishing pole was the next item in the time capsule. A Tom Sawyer fishing pole is simply a stick with a fishing line and a hook tied to it. Over the years at camp, we had experimented with real fishing poles and reels.

However, for any of you who have gone fishing with children, especially children who have never gone fishing before, know what can happen to even the most expensive fishing poles when children get their hands on them... knots, tangles, and broken reels. As a result, and to the relief of counselors, each child used a Tom Sawyer pole to catch his or her fish at Marshall.

It was always an interesting sight to see 20 campers walking to the fishing hole carrying their Tom Sawyer fishing pole or to see these same poles being pulled around in the water attached to a carp that when caught scared the camper into dropping the pole into the water.

The next item was something that was not intended for camp but had become a camp fixture for the past ten years. Each year supplies are delivered to camp, which usually include art supplies, paper products, snacks, etc. However, ten years ago a large American flag that was obviously made for a prominent flag pole was delivered along with all the other normal supplies. No one ever knew where this flag had come from, and the mystery was never solved.

I still remember the conversation I had with my assistant director at the time. He asked what we were supposed to do with such a large flag. The problem was that at camp, we did not have a flag pole and really no place to try to make one. The solution we came up with was to use it to cover an entire wall of our cabin. When we were finished we both stood back and laughed at the gigantic size of the flag.

As the years passed, I kept putting up the flag and it began to symbolize the beginning of camp. The flag became a back drop for many plays and presentations that the students had created; it was used in 4th of July celebrations and was a focal point of the camp's activities. I was allowed to keep the flag, and I know it will be a constant reminder of the joy that camp has allowed me to experience for all these years. Now I just need to find a house with a flag pole big enough.

One of the central themes of the camp was for the students of Madison to experience the wonders of the natural world. As a result, each year the camp would create a nature center that would be used to allow the campers to experience nature up-close and personal.

This brings me to the next item in the time capsule: the camp's fish tanks. Over the years, we have collected three fish tanks of varying sizes in which we placed fish, snakes, turtles, frogs, and even wolf spiders that were collected within the camp's boundaries. These animals would be given a special place of honor in camp for a few days and then allowed to return safely to the park. These critters were treated with love and respect by the campers. Many times I would have to stop the campers from feeding them way too much food or explain why putting turtles and fish together in a small aquarium was not a good idea. In other words, the turtles eat the fish as we found out when one camper decided the turtle needed to have some friends.

The last item in the capsule is the camp's scrapbooks. These books were made up of student work and left over pictures from the posters. At first, these books were just ways in which odds and ends of camp memorabilia could be organized. As the books evolved and more items were added they began to document the lived experiences of the Marshall Park Day Camp community.

As I flip through them now, I am instantly brought back to the exact moment when those pages were created. The pages are filled with images and projects that document the many theme based weeks (such as superhero week, which was one of my favorites), field trips, and projects.

These books were passed from counselor to counselor, year to year, and camper to camper. These books now are in my home proudly placed on my coffee table for everyone who comes to visit to experience, if only superficially, the joys of Marshall Park Day Camp.

As I look out over the camp, I see the remains of these memories fading into the landscape of Marshall Park. Campsites that have been filled with children for 50 years will no longer have campers there to take care of them and make them their own, pirate ships will no longer have a crew to man the sails and walk the plank, and the fire pits will be reclaimed into the ground without someone to make a camp fire.

The cabin in the woods that has been my summer vacation for my entire adult life will have its doors shut for the first time since it became a part of our camp. There is a sign attached to the outside of our cabin which says "Camp Kids Paradise," and it wasn't until this moment that I understood what kind of paradise it truly was.

I am honored to have been a part of this paradise for so many years and as I say goodbye to Marshall Park Day Camp, I hope that someday someone at MSCR will discover Marshall Park in a Time Capsule of old programs and find a way to bring it back for the children of Madison.

If you have any questions, comments, or old camp stories that you would like to share, please feel free to contact me at marshallparkdaycamp@gmail.com. I am in the process of compiling the memories and artifacts of Marshall Park Day Camp and presenting them to the Wisconsin State Historical Society.