Church Camp and a First Kiss

When I around 13 or 14 I started going to a one-week church-sponsored camp at Kiamichi Baptist Assemly in the beautiful hills surrounding Talihina, Oklahoma.  The camp is located off Highway 271 south about 20 miles to Christ 40 Acres (a church camp).  There were thousands of kids from hundreds of churches scheduled for practically every week during the summer.  It was a wonderful week of swimming, eating cold popsicles, attending early morning and evening church every day, Bible classes, and arts and crafts.  There were bunk beds in rustic cabins and no running water, but we did have electricity.  Showers and restrooms were down the hill from the cabins.  Each cabin had at least two adult sponsors who keep tight reins on their assigned girls or boys. 

Rita's mother (Rita Wanell was my church BFF) was our cabin sponser for several years, and I always rode in their car to the camp since we didn't have a church bus in those days.  We would meet at the church very early on Monday morning, with duffel bags packed full of needful things for the week, including towels, blankets, pillows, flashlights, play clothes and church clothes, and of course our Bible. 

We were required to wear dresses or skirts for both the evening and morning church services--no jeans or shorts, and the boys wore slacks with dress shirts.  It was 1957.  I am wearing my cute black and white stripped pedal pushers that Grandma made when Rita took this picture of me--me and my "Olive Oyl" figure in those days!  After church services and morning Bible class, we ran back to the cabins and changed for lunch.  Each church had their own cooks in a separate bunkhouse and all of the kids and sponsors from our church ate there.  Then we had afternoons to play ball, walk around, swim, and eat popsicles. 

We had specific swimming schedules and there was absolutely no coed swimming allowed.  In fact, you were required to wear a robe over your swimsuit when walking to and from the swimming hole.  This is how it was in 1957 kids.  I mentioned there was electricity in the cabins but we didn't have portable hair dryers back then so if you swam, you wore a swimming cap (ugh!), and when you took a shower, you wore a shower cap! 

It was always dark by the time evening service was over so that is why you needed a flashlight--also good for writing in your diary after lights out if you could get away with staying up past ten.  Rita and I always walked together and on one particular night two boys started following us and began talking to us so we let them walk along.  I was 15 and "never been kissed" nor had she, since she was a couple of years younger than me.  The boys started holding our hands and then the one I was walking with with pulled me aside and I remember kissing that boy which seemed like a very long time.  Well, we got scared after the boys told us there were not attending camp and weren't associated with any of the churches--they were local boys "just visiting".  We ran off and Rita told her mother, who was our cabin sponsor,  about the boys.  She didn't get upset too much but said we should walk with her to our cabin the next night to make sure the boys didn't bother us again, and if we saw them at the evening service next night to point them out, but (unfortunately) we never saw them again!  The boys were probably on the prowl and kissing other girls the next night!

Anyway, during the next two summers Rita and I met two very nice boys from Sallisaw, Paul and Johnny, who actually did go to church camp the same time we did.  We double-dated a couple of times after camp ended that summer and I continued to date Paul for a time, even though he lived in Sallisaw, which was 11 miles west of Muldrow.  He was a great basketball player and I would ride the school bus to Sallisaw when our teams played so I could see him play.  His schoolmates called him "Streak" but he had one problem--he stuttered when he was nervous.  I guess I made him nervous because he always stuttered around me!  It was never easy to date boys from a neighboring town in those days especially if you weren't allowed to stay out past ten, and the boys I dated were in sports and had ball practice all the time.  I'll have to tell you about Mickey, a football player from Sallisaw, but that's another story!
Love, Mom & Nana