Chapter 3 - Camp Life

1955 - Wow! What a great place. Getting my trunk into my cabin by 9AM and being introduced to all the other guys in the cabin we easily make friends and start doing things together. Cabin seven is for six and seven year olds and is my first cabin. Cabins seven and eight make up Junior Division and we have our own special area for games. There is special diabetes instruction every day. Our day starts at 7AM with specs at the lab (urine tests 4 times a day as well as blood tests 3 days a week). We even have to collect 24 hour specimens twice a week. After specs we line up at the infirmary to get our morning shots. By this time I have started injecting two shots a day, one in the morning and one before bed.

We have every kind of sport imaginable. My favorite is hiking to Dresser Hill. You have to realize what Dresser Hill is for this to make any sense. It's a place where they make homemade ice cream, about four and one-half miles from camp. We would ride in the van, get our ice cream, be driven half way back, then walk the rest of the way. Most of the time we would sing camp songs at the top of our lungs. Of course, we do that in the mess hall after each meal too. We even sing grace before each meal.

There is Indian Counsel. I am a Mohawk. The last week of camp we have the Sioux - Mohawk wars (don't tell anyone, but it's a form of capture the flag). Once a week we troupe at night to the counsel fire and listen to the chiefs tell us what we need to do during the week. My war club passed the rock test the first time around.

1956 - Now I'm in Cabin Eight. Two campers from last year are here with me again. I was only homesick two nights this time. Last year I was just a kid. I spend almost every less-active period this year learning how to paddle a canoe and will receive my Canoeing Merit Badge by the end of session. We're making lanyards in arts and crafts.

1957 - I'm back at Joslin in Cabin Six and am learning how to shoot a bow and arrow but I still love paddling a canoe and rowing. I'm learning how to play basketball the right way. I still love playing baseball, but I guess I'm not very good at it. There's a new room with a ping-pong table and we're having a lot of fun. On Sunday mornings we go out and have services at the Chapel in the Woods. My diet has been increased again. I'm now getting 1500 calories per day. I'm taking 12 units of regularˆ and 18 units of NPHˆ in the morning and 2 units of NPH at night.

My parents struggle to allow me to go to camp each summer. Arriving and signing in, I heard the Camp Director explaining to my father the breakdown of camp costs. One item was a laundry bill. It was a minimal amount but as a young boy I thought I could save my Dad that expense. So I stayed in the same clothes for most of the session only cleaning them during shower time. Once Dad picked me up at the end of session, he was quite perturbed at me. He had already prepaid the laundry fee when he dropped me off.

1958 - Mom and Dad are sending me to Pennsylvania's Camp Firefly this summer.

1959 - This year I am going to Camp NYDA in New York.

1960 - Cabin three. I think this is the greatest cabin. You're already at the top of the hill and it's easier to get everywhere. The mess hall is only forty feet away. I've learned several different swimming strokes this year and I'm now in pool 2. That means no matter where you jump in from the dock it's over your head. Both my insulinˆ and diet have increased. I'm now taking an extra pre-supper insulin injection. One of the campers threatened to run away last night. His counselor found him under the cabin after supper. I can't imagine anyone wanting to leave camp to go home. I'd stay all summer if they'd let me. I met Mr. & Mrs. Perkins again this year. Mr. Perkins maintains the camp grounds and Mrs. Perkins works in the kitchen. One of the counselors brought his dog "Perky" to camp with him. Of course, the song 'A Little Black Dog' had the dog's name changed from Bingo to Perky.

1961 - Dad couldn't send me to camp this summer.

1962 - Cabin 1. What a great bunch of guys this year. We're scheduled to go mountain climbing on Mount Monadinock in New Hampshire next week. Shot my first rifle this morning. For some reason the camp isn't going to offer riflery any more; something about too many advocates objecting. I met a couple of counselors from Africa this year who play soccer and know Pele of the New York Cosmos and a retired top seeded tennis player by the name of Billy Talbert. He gave a clinic at the tennis courts. After seeing me serving some balls, he approached me, put his arm around my shoulders and said, "Son, I think you better find a different sport. This one isn't yours". What do you think he meant by that?

1963 - I'm in the Senior Division, Tent-A. It's been a great summer but I'm sad because it's the last year I can be a camper. Thinking back over the years I've been coming here, I see that most of the sports I know how to play I learned here. Other activities, like working with my hands, learning chess, canoeing, kayaking, archery, hiking all had their beginnings here. I'm going to be sorry to leave.

1964 - My application to become a Counselor in Training (CIT) was approved by the Unitarian Universalist Womens Federation. I'm back at Joslin helping kids get through the same doubts and fears that I once had. Because I had to adjust to life as a diabetic, I can share actual experiences. Not only do I know the apprehensions they are experiencing, but I can share what does or doesn't work to alleviate those apprehensions. My cabin is Cabin 7 which has the youngest campers and is part of Junior Division. Did I really look this young when I started coming to camp here?

1965 - This is my first year as a Junior Counselor in Cabin 8. It's the third week of camp but I'm no longer at camp. Instead, I've been admitted to Worcester General Hospital. This morning at 4AM I went to the infirmary at camp with the worst stomach cramps I have ever had. The pain started in the center of my abdomen but slowly moved to the right side. It was late in the afternoon when I was put into the ambulance, driven to the hospital and diagnosed with appendicitis. Of course, my summer is being cut short.

During one of the summers I was at camp we were allowed to bring our bicycles. I had learned to ride while we lived in Dickenson Center, N.Y. It was actually my brother's bike but I used it more than he did. There were two old tractor tires on the front lawn filled with dirt where Mom planted flowers. Our porch was raised with four steps and had lattice work from the bottom of the porch to the ground except for one area right next to the steps. I would climb onto the nearest tire to be able to get on the bike and ride around the yard. Stopping was a different matter. I would ride right up to the steps and just let the bike go under the porch. This is the one area there was no longer any lattice.

I met Doctor Joslinˆ while at camp one summer. What a fantastic person. Even though he walked slowly and with a cane he talked to each one of us, giving advice and a word of encouragement. One summer when I was in Senior Division I learned he had passed away during the previous winter. There was to be a memorial service at the Oxford Cemetery where he was buried and I was going to be able to attend. What a privilege.

There are literally dozens of diabetic camps populating the United States. Some are co-ed while others are for either boys or girls. Growing up I needed to know that I wasn't alone in what was going on in my life. I spent many years as a camper at the Joslin Diabetic Camp for boys in Charlton, Massachusetts. My parents sent me to Camp Firefly in Pennsylvania one summer and Camp NYDA in New York, another. They were both closer to home but after my first year at Joslin, nothing else seemed to compare.

There is nothing to compare to camp life where everyone in your cabin, including most of the counselors, have diabetes. Once I became an age where I could no longer be a camper I became a counselor in training and then a junior counselor. My second year ended rather suddenly when I was rushed to the hospital with appendicitis. That winter I met my future wife. I now only occasionally go back to Joslin.

In my scrapbook are many letters from doctors at the Joslin Clinic; Dr. Howard Root, Dr. Priscilla White, Dr. Leo Krall, and I even have one addressed to my parents signed by Dr. Elliott P. Joslinˆ dated September 24, 1957. My parents were being encouraged by Dr. Joslin to allow me to be an active inquisitive 'lad' and with the help of diabetic camp life he foresaw me growing up into a 'well-rounded' healthy young man.

There were many friends I met at Camp Joslin, but only two I've really kept up with. One is Paul Madden, who was never in my cabin (don't expect me to admit I'm older than he is). Paul has become Special Assistant to the President, Joslin Diabetes Center. A great speaker and fellow diabetic he's a really great guy. He still spends an enormous amount of time at the camp. Joslin Clinic awards the 'Half Century Award' to those Type 1 diabeticsˆ that have lived with the disease for fifty years. It is my wish that Paul be present at camp to personally give me my Half Century Award.

The second person I want to mention is not diabetic nor did he ever attend the camp as either a camper or counselor. His name is Peter Starkus. Peter took over for Mr. Perkins in charge of grounds maintenance. A plumber by trade, who is also the town's Plumbing Inspector, Peter single-handedly put together the new water pumping station at camp. Peter allows me to come up once in a while and give a helping hand trimming trees, helping erect cabins, or whatever he is working on.

I can't begin to tell you how many great people comprise an institution like Camp Joslin, but my hat is off to you two gentlemen.

Genesis 32:21-NIV So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.