I have way too many Chanco stories as all of us do. I made a listing of my favorite ones and it just went on and on. Like many Chanco stories, the humor and meaning is often an "inside joke" for those who were there. However, the recent poll for favorite counselor made me chuckle and reminded me of a story that might resonate with any counselor that had a memorable camper. Mine was a familiar name on the poll list - LaEunice Brown! Oh, what an unforgettable camper!

Yep, I was La's counselor in 1970, I think it was that year anyway. I was at the old camp location in campsite Matthew. Two groups occupied that area. My co-counselor was Ann Williamson (now Worley) We lived in a leaky platform tent at th entrance to Matthew. The other group was led by Cathy Hermann and Nancy Bram. They must have rated better somehow because they got to live in the adirondack, a three sided structure with mosquito netting as the door. Back then, we had pit toilets and we brushed our teeth at the trough -- this was long before the luxury bath houses! We had to go to Mark to shower. Generally we had 8-10 campers and they stayed longer than they do now, a full week.We did many of the same things that happen now. We greeted parents, loaded kid's belongings in to the truck (then a beat up farm truck nicknamed CLANKO, we woke up to the bell each morning and barely made it to breakfast, we had the entire group pile into the counselor's tent each evening and laughed. Oops, i regress....

Well, LaEunice was my camper during first session which means she was young, about 9. She was not used to being away from home and was a clingy camper! She was one of those kids that some counselor was always carrying around. She hated the dark and the water. That makes for a challenge since that was mostly what we had in those days. She was one of those kids that you never thought was going to make it through the week. One night after lights out, we heard a high-pitched scream from LaEunice's tent. She spotted a Daddy Long Legs and kept yelling " there's a bug (pronounce it "booougg") in my bed!" She must have yelled "there's a bug in my bed" a thousand times...she was petrified. It was all night getting her to calm down. And, because of this and her naive charm that she became the signature camper of the session with staff and campers alike repeating "there's a bug in my bed" all session long.

I always think of La when I encounter those harmless, helpful Daddy Long Legs and I grin and wonder if she ever had a camper like her. Probably did. If not, she should have. If you had told me in 1970 that La would end up on staff and PD, I would have never guessed it could happen in a million years. Not the camping or outdoor type! And, I'll bet even to this day if you were to quip "there's a bug in my bed" to Ann Worley, Cathy Hermann or Nancy Bram or perhaps other staff from back in the day, they'd immediately know you meant LaEunice Brown.