Ellen (Zackin) Schwartz

Class of 1956

I remember two men in trench coats waiting outside my elementary school at lunchtime.  They asked me several questions but the one I remember most clearly regarded my parents’ subscription to the Daily Worker.  I was taught to say that I knew nothing about anything.  Shortly after that meeting, our house got broken into and the neighbors became hostile.  It was clear that the FBI had gone door to door asking about us.

However, the worst thing to come out of that experience was the conversation my parents had with me about the possibility that my father could be deported to Poland as he had come to the United States at the age of two and was a naturalized citizen. That was terrifying to me and I remember saying that I didn’t want to move to Poland and worrying about it for a very long time.

I was surprised to learn that so many Kinderlanders had been campers at Wochica and Wyandot.  I was in the youngest group in Wochica’s last year (1951).  I remember being in in a large building (a quonset hut?) and being transported by the sound of everyone singing together.  The next year, I went to Wyandot and was in a unit called Carmenville.  It was a very rainy July and I recall slogging through lots of mud.  The following year I came to Kinderland  (1953).

All of you have written about how camp was a respite from a politically hostile world.  It was for me as well.  However, our experiences growing up on the left with all the talk of building a better world did not necessarily transfer into the day to day life of us kids.  Despite so many glowing accounts of Camp (and I don’t doubt your memories), Camp was not an especially welcoming place for everyone.  In my group at least, there were strong cliques, popular bunks and unpopular bunks.  There were good counselors and poor counselors.  Unfortunately there was little or no effort to work on group dynamics and a lot of kids suffered.  To this day, I am grateful that I was a good athlete and was accepted (perhaps marginally accepted) into what I would call the “In” group.   I bring this up because I think we should value what we got from Camp but also acknowledge that it was not a happy place for everyone.