The Female Experience… Emily Fish

Last week, we look at a pretty common experience among males on the camp staff: the arrival of sisters. Today, camp staff is more gender diverse, so an alternative perspective seemed valuable.

Meet Emily Fish. Fish worked on the camp staff in 2004 and 2005 at the Health Lodge and again in 2007 at Pool at 2008 as Craig Waterfront Director. Fish “LOVED hanging out with [her] Boy Scout friends… Luckily, the local Scout troop looked teh other way on some things and [she] frequently hiked, cave, and backpacked with those guys.”

James Akers had expressed interest in females at camp as an opportunity. What was Fish’s experience? Generally, pretty good. “Most staff and campers generally treated us as sisters or daughters… It was obvious that we worked on a 1:20 ratio of young men, hormones, high school/college age, and no girls for miles. However, most were nice and treated me like anyone else. You definitely got some of the childish flirting tactics or inappropriate comments but mostly it was harmless.”

Fish’s hardest year was 2008 (staff ID photo shown here). Apparently, young men–and older men–had a difficult time composing themselves when confronted with a young woman in a swimsuit and shorts. Apparently, a “Scout is Courteous” has some boundaries!

Boys Will be… Boys

When summer camp staff was primarily male, Sundays and Fridays were special days. It was on these days that the young men who made up the summer camp staff got a special treat: sisters.

Young women came to camp with their families. Some stayed at Murrey, but most were dragged to Boxwell on Sundays or Friday as part of the family excursion. The young women were then subjected to the (undoubtedly highly sophisticated and not at all awkward) flirting of various staff members. Flirting with sisters of Scout campers was a time-honored tradition among the male staff.

Seen here (center) is one such sister, specifically Cheryl Hardcastle, in the summer of 1965. The young man who took the photo and fawned over her? None other than James Akers, one of Ward Akers’ sons. On the back of the photo James wrote, “The fun day was check in Sunday when campers were escorted by their big sisters. This was the Hardcastle family who owner the Chrysler dealership in Franklin[.] Camper [?] was Stan Hardcastle (who I believe became a staffer later[).] Sister Cheryl Hardcastle”