At Falcona July was usually "Boys" and August was "Girls" camp,
the reason, the boys were better suited to the colder, July weather and mosquitoes..colder swimming too!!
Ages of the campers was 6 thru 16 but a few 5 year olds were told by their parents to say they were a worldly 6 years old so that they could attend..
The location was isolated Nelson Lake in Northern Ontario, near Sudbury. Access to Falcona, at that time was only by boat so the Camp had a heightened sense of wilderness, isolation and most important the out of doors.
Four main Green painted cabins, were the summer home to the "Juniors" aged 6-7, the "Intermediate A's" aged 7-11,the" Intermediate B's" aged 12-15.and the "Seniors" aged 12-16.
It was exciting to move up thru the "Cabins"; and reach a new high in Camp Life.
Small things like staying up later or special late night snacks were enjoyed at these different levels by all the campers.
During the day,of course the older members of Camp could venture further away from the main cabins by canoes, rowboats, even a sail boat that usually tipped over, much to the enjoyment of all aboard!!
A typical day usually started with my father Jack Nihill (The unequalled Camp Director for over 30 years) shouting ;"Dawn Patrol"; for all the campers that had volunteered to commit to jump into that cold lake every morning before the final count of ten!
Even the non swimmers and the non committed watched with enthusiasm to see who hit the water as he called 10!!
The skills I aquired at Falcona Camp, carried thru my adult life. I sailed, snorkeled and swam a lot in the Barbados W.I. sort of a hangout for my early years at Air Canada.
Hawaii became a second favourite destination and Waikiki Beach again found me surfing and sailing with no fear at all..we had did most of it at Falcona..diving down as far as we could with a heavy stone..similar to be sucked in by the Surf of Waikiki!!
Similarly in Montego Bay.Jamaica water sports were no problem. Greg was to show me how to snorkel, and I would teach him how to sail.All went well until we flipped the"Laser Sailboat" out in the ocean but no panic as we all had flipped the Falcona sailboat many times at Camp.
We just returned from seeing Cirque Du Soleil "Corteo" and included in one of their interesting skits was the equivalent of our Falcona Camp "Horse from Hanmer" Two people dressed up in a "Horse" outfit with the "mean" Trainer..making the reluctant Horse count, lie down..everything we did 55 years ago!!!
The show also featured several International athletes on the Parallel Bars and they were excellent but again we had our older campers (16 yrs old) ,the ones that could reach, put on quite a show on our two Falcona Camp chin up bars as well..even they knew how to keep their hands dry with baby powder, so they would not slip!!
We had the equivalent of the trampoline, a huge tarp with 40 or so fellow campers and counsellors, heaving up one small camper..the smaller they were, the higher they went until one time the smaller camper flew about 50 feet into the air and landed on the roof of the Lodge!! After that experience we did not use the Falcona tarp as much!
To be Continued!!
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