Monday, July 27, 2009

Revisiting Camp Madison Felicia


At The YMCA Camp Combe in Putnam County on July 12, 2009. It's formerly the site of Camp Madison Felicia where many KVers, Al Smith kids and other Lower East Side children and teens went to camp in the 1950's-70's
There's a facebook group for the camp
The camp's current website
The generous ownership at Combe Inc. provided the finances to save the camp and many of the company employees as well as former campers and camper families volunteer their time and talents to continually improve the site
I doubt this might have been a Camp Madison Felicia song, but I needed a soundtrack
(Leader)
We're going on a bear hunt!
(Group)
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Here comes the gate
" " (Group Echos)
Now we're on a bear hunt " "
We're gonna catch a big one " "
I'm not afraid " "
Are you? " " Not me! " "
We're coming to a tall mountain " "
It sure is high " "
It sure is wide " "
Let's climb up it " "
Well, there's nothing over there " "
Nothing over there " "
Nothing back there " "
Hey! Wait! I think I see something
Quick! Everybody run down!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
We're going thru the tall grass " "
We're going thru the short grass " "
Hey! Look! There's a little tree " "
Well, let's shinny on up it
Whoa! It gets a little skinny up here at the top
See anything over that way? " "
Anything over that way?, Uh, oh!,
Oh, no! Whoa! Agh! let's get down!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Oh, no! " "
It's a big puddle of mud " "
Can't go around it " "
Gotta go right thru it " "
Yeuk! " "
Well, let's go.
Squish, Sqwish, Blaaahh.
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
We're coming to a wide river " "
And there's no bridge going over it " "
No tunnel going under it " "
It's just plain old water " "
And we're gonna have to swim " "
All right, dive in!
Start swimming
Do the back stroke
Do the side stroke
Do the doggie paddle
Try the little cat paddle
OK Jump out, shake yourself off
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Shhh, it's a cave " "
Looks like the kind of cave that B-bears live in " "
I don't know if I want to go in there
You think we oughta go in?
Are you nuts?
There's probably a bear in there
All right I'll go in, You stay here,
And if I find a bear, I'll come out and get you
And we'll all go in and grab him together
Now, quiet, don't make a sound while I'm in that cave,
Cuz if you wake him up, I'll be in trouble
Bears are awful ornery when they first wake up, you know
OK, I'm going on in
Oooo, It's dark in here
It's really dark in here
I can't see a thing
Agh, there's spiders webs
Ooo, what was that???
What's this??.... it's soft, uh oh,it's kind of fuzzy
Ahg!!!!!!!!! Run! Everybody run!!
I saw a bear!!!!
Jump in the water! Swim fast!!
Do the backstroke!
The sidestroke, the doggie paddle
Jump out of the water
Run through the mud!
Forget the tree!!
Go through the tall grass
The short grass
Quick! Go up the mountain
Down the other side
Go thru the gate
Into the house, under the bed
Under the pillow
Hide!!!!!
Uh, it's awful quiet around here
I'm not afraid
I'm not afraid
Are you?
Are you?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I went to Camp at Madison Felicia in 1964. the camp song was "Yo Yo Ski Wattin Dottin"

Penelope said...

Oh does this bring back memories!! Yo Yo ski wattin dottin ah ah ah ah. ditto, the rolls at madison felicia they say they're very fine, one jumped off the table and killed friend of mine...oh yo yo...

I always wondered if anyone remembered:)
Penelope (Penny)

Unknown said...

I have such great memories going to camp here i think it was in 64 or 65

Unknown said...

I have such great memories going to camp here i think it was in 64 or 65

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I was there in either 1964 or 1965 as part of a group called Friendship in Action. We were Jewish and African American kids from Birmingham, AL. Does anyone remember an African-American camp counselor name Cleopatra? I remember the 3 sided cabins the most then the open-faced cheese & tomato sandwiches we'd have for lunch, the smell of skunk cabbage when we'd go hiking, a day trip to Bear Mountain, camping in the woods one night and then the "maybe" once a week walk to a nearby little country store where we could by candy with the allowance our parents sent us.

posterboy said...

I just digitized a 1964 8mm movie of the camp made by a counselor, Ann Tompkins. Ann just died, and I'm reaching out to anyone who might remember her there. Here's the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/Vhv7kZmewsk