MEMORIES Of CAMP WEE PAH
I first heard about Lake Owassa in 1945 when good friends of my husband and I rented two tiny bungalows on Blackford Road. We came up for the day with Janet, our three-month-old daughter. If my memory serves me well, these bungalows were formerly part of a camp which was owned by Ann Kovalewski. Ann occupied a larger house on the same property and rented the smaller bungalows to girl scout troops from the Newark area.
For the next two years we made only day trips to Lake Owassa until we discovered Camp Wee Pah. Wee Pah was a 10-acre tract of land located on the West Shore of the lake owned by Jack & Dora Bauer. Jack rented out camp sites for $45
for the season. He also had two bus bodies which were formerly used as Bear Mountain Sight Seeing vehicles. Each was seven feet wide by fourteen feet long. The seats and motors were removed. Two iron cots were placed in the seating area. When they were opened, they became wall to wall beds. The area which once held the drivers seat now had a 2-burner kerosene stove. There was a picnic table and an ice box outside with a piece of canvas stretched from the bus body far enough to cover the table in case of rain. Jack rented these bus bodies for $2 per night.
My husband and I with our two children, Janet and Carol, rented one of these buses for several weekends during the summer of 1948. Our close friends and their two children, rented the other bus.
We enjoyed the time we spent there so very much, except for the cramped quarters. Our husbands asked Jack Bauer if they could build an addition to the bus which would enlarge the structure to 14 x 14 feet and provide room for bunk beds, a dresser, and an indoor table and chairs. Jack agreed. He provided the lumber and our husbands did the work. We rented this larger building for $100 for the season. While this was a great improvement, my husband, who was 6'4" could never stand completely upright when inside. The following year, the men installed electricity which allowed us to have a refrigerator that replaced the ice box.
I must add that Jack was a very frugal man. His favorite saying was "Watch out for your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves." He could also be seen now and then straightening used nails for future use. Jack rarely missed an opportunity to collect money for services. He charged a 50 cent parking fee from any visitors. After we got electricity, he charged an additional 25 cents for the season for use of an electric clock.
We stayed in this enlarged structure for two summers, coming to the lake the day after school closed and not leaving until Labor Day. We women were there without transportation as the husbands, who stayed home during the week, needed the cars to go to work. They usually came up one night during the week and on the weekends. Our contact with the outside world consisted of a truck which came into the camp every other day bringing us milk, bread and a newspaper. The young delivery boy who worked on this truck was our own Bob McDowell. Bob’s parents owned the store and soda fountain in the cove at the end of the lake which became a great meeting place for all the young people. Mrs. McDowell always made the teenagers feel welcome. but was also skilled at keeping them in line. We never worried that they were getting into trouble when they were at the store.
After two years in the "Bus Bungalows", Jack was offered $250 rent by another camper and said we would have to pay that amount if we wanted to continue to occupy them. Not wanting to give up our summers in Lake Owassa, we paid the $250, but told Jack that we wanted to build a platform to hold a tent-like addition for subsequent years. It had Masonite sides and a canvas roof. Jack charged us $45 per year to rent the land.
Over the years friends came for visits and decided to "pitch a tent" and join us during the next few summers. I think there were probably 10 or more families who summered at Camp Wee Pah.
Since we had no running water, we did our bathing and laundry in the lake. My children enjoyed soaping up their dungarees while they were wearing them and then jumping into the lake to rinse the soap out. I washed the clothes in the lake and then sat in the boat, rowed by the children, with the clothes trailing along behind for their rinse cycle. The children were responsible for getting buckets of water from the well to be used for cooking, dishes, and moping the floor. They tried to convince us that we had running water because they picked up the buckets and ran with them.
Camp Wee Pah had and outhouse which was situated in a very central location. One day while a line was forming to use the facilities, we finally realized that Bobby Germann, one of our teenage residents, had locked the door from the inside and climbed out the window. He was hiding in the bushes, and with great glee, was watching the reaction from the waiting line.
We spent most of our days enjoying swimming, fishing and boating on the lake. The children all became excellent swimmers. In their early years, they were not allowed to use the float or swim by themselves until they proved that they could swim from the float to the shore without stopping. In later years, they sometimes enjoyed swimming the two mile length of the lake with my husband rowing beside them in case someone got tired.
The lake was fairly quiet during those years, even on the weekends. There were only a few motor boats and swimming was permitted on all parts of the lake. There were also no restrictions yet as to the type of boat or size of motor. One of the residents had a fairly powerful motor boat that could pull five water skiers at one time - a truly memorable sight. Another teenager had a small hydroplane that he and his father built together. Since there were so few boats, you could actually recognize the sound of individual motors and knew exactly who was on the lake.
At the end of the each summer, swimming races were held in the cove area. The competition between the East and West Shore was never more evident that at these events. In my memory, West Shore always managed to bring home lots of blue ribbons. They also frequently won the greased watermelon competition which was the final event of the day. It took a lot of cooperation to get that melon on the raft.
Several times during the summer the area kids hiked to Tillman’s Ravine, which is located in Stokes Forest. They would cut thru McCoy’s farm on Rt. 521, cross over the mountain to reach the ravine, and spend the day sliding down the rocks in the waterfall until the seat of their bathing suits was worn thin. I can never remember any of our children saying they were bored or that they had nothing to do.
While the summer days could be very warm, the evenings were almost always cool. We were always grateful to be in the mountain region of Lake Owassa when our husbands would come up on the weekends telling us about the heat-waves in the cities. Our weekend evenings were spent outside sitting around camp fires. Often we would be wrapped in a blanket to keep our backs warm while our faces would be burning from the roaring fire. About 10 p.m. the fire would be reduced to brilliant embers which were just right for cooking marshmallows and hot dogs. Many a card game was enjoyed at the picnic table, again wrapped in blankets with the cards being illuminated with the light from a kerosene lamp.
Around 1955 Jack and Dora who were getting on in years wanted to spend the rest of their lives in Ft. Meyers, Florida where they had lived in the winters. They were asking $10,000 for the entire 10 acres which went from the 250 feet of lake front back to Rt. 521. We all tried to come up with enough money to buy the camp but $10,000 was a lot of money in those days. It was later sold to Howard Hamilton who intended to run the camp in much the same way as the Bauers’ did. The following year the Lake Owassa Community Association voted to disallow any commercial enterprises on the lake.
Hamilton divided the property into parcels of land, most being 65 x 125 feet with joint ownership of 50 feet of lake front property A corporation, Wee Pah Acres Association, was formed which controlled the front lot for the purpose of paying taxes, insurance and maintenance. My husband, Gene Seider, was the first president of the corporation. When we applied for membership in LOCA, our applications were denied by the Board of Governors stating that a 50 foot lake front was not sufficient for 17 families to use. Hamilton had reserved 100 feet which he intended to sell off as 2 fifty foot lots.
The Board of Governors told him if he would sell these lots to Wee Pah Acres Association, they would grant membership to the 17 families. After a lot of controversy, 17 families were granted membership in LOCA.
And so, Camp Wee Pah was abolished.. Many of the buildings had to be moved so they would be situated on the owners newly acquired property. Many families built more permanent structures. However, we will never forget the good times we had camping at Camp Wee Pah.
Written by Marion Seider Cirello White June 2004
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