Skipper At Camp

Joe (left) & Friend at camp 

I went to Camp Frisbie summer camp for one or two weeks in 1943 (9 years old) and 1944 (10 years old). Camp Frisbie was somewhere in Michigan, but I don’t know where.*  I don’t recall if it was for one week or two. I know I spent a Sunday there. 

We swam in some lake. Some guys got to go boating, but I don’t recall that my turn ever came.  I also spent one night and a day in the infirmary for some reason. The part that impressed me most were the evening flag lowering ceremony and the morning flag raising ceremony.  Oh, I also received a sailor hat with Camp Frisbie printed on it which I wore around the neighborhood for a few days.  Along with my nickname Skipper and the sailor hat - maybe, that is why I joined the U.S. Navy in 1953. But, then again my nickname left me rather abruptly at the end of the 5^th grade when I became Cadet Todd and went for a two year long camp out.~

I remember when my parents came to pick me up, I proceeded to sing “Bringing in the Cheese”+ which I insisted were the words we sang in church that Sunday. I sang that song and “My Darling Clementine” all the way back to Grosse Pointe. I couldn’t sing then any better than I can sing now. I am certain my parents were relieved to arrive at home

The evening we arrived home after the 2^nd year, I announced that the whole family should get up and perform the flag raising ceremony along with me – my parents were most unenthusiastic about this wonderful exciting idea and they suggested I get my buddies together to do it. I arose very early in the morning very excited about my new life style. I figured my friend would not come to my backyard, so I went to the front of his place on St. Clair and rang his doorbell for him to come out. He did very sleepily and stood there and stared at me. I stood there and saluted the small flag I brought with me and I forget what else I did, but it must have been very impressive - my friend said, “Is that all there was?”  My father drove by on the way to work and waved.  I must have lost interest in this new activity as I passed up the opportunity to introduce the flag lowering ceremony to the neighborhood and didn’t get up so early the next morning. We all went on to some other exciting adventure.

I enjoyed Camp Frisbie, but I was happy to return home to my family and friends. 

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Written by Joe Todd – August 2006

Notations added by Julia Todd January 2018

*Thomas Lake, Waterford, Michigan   

~ Howe Military School  

+Bringing in the Sheaves