Cerro Gordo County Iowa
Part of the IaGenWeb Project
|
Ventura Heights
 
Globe Gazette
14 From Local Troop Enrolled for 10-Day Period. CLEAR LAKE, June 20. -- Ventura, Mason City, Clear Lake, Hampton, Iowa Falls, Charles City, Belmond and Osage are represented in the North Iowa Area Girl Scout camp which opened Tuesday noon at Camp Roosevelt at Ventura Heights for a 10-day period.
Globe Gazette
Funds Sought to Finance Work Further in Mason City. Girl Scouting in Mason City has experienced a quick growth since its establishment in 1931, the present membership totaling about 125. This figure does not include those who have not passed tenderfoot tests. In addition to the work done in the individual troops at their weekly meetings which is recorded and sent to National Girl Scout headquarters, the Girl Scout camp is conducted annually at Clear Lake. About 70 girls attended camp last summer. This site was donated by the Boy Scout council and Charles Knouse and Bill Bartmess assisted at in the work at camp. Each girl made progress in swimming and boating.
Globe Gazette
First Day at Roosevelt Camp Begins With Filling Ticks. EDITOR'S NOTE - This is the first of a series of articles on
life in the Girl Scout camp which opened Friday at Camp Roosvelt, Clear Lake. The articles were prepared by a member of the
Girl Scout council and feature high spots in camp life. The first, "You Make Your Bed," follows:
"N-o-r-m-a N-e-w-c-a-m-p-e-r," wrote the registrar at the Girl Scout camp. "Okay. Get your straw tick ouside.
Next!" Norma turned away from the laughing, jostling line. "Better pick one with a zipper," advised a friendly
old-timer, turning over a pile of freshly laundered cases. "Here's a good one. Come on. Let's find that straw stack."
A moment later they had joined a hilarious gang, cramming their ticks with the crisp, golden stuff.
"Not too full," cautioned old-timer. "It's more comfy if the straw had room to work into the corner. That's fine!"
Beaming with pride, Norma dragged her burden to her mother's car and threw it over the hood. "Why - what's that?" asked
the fastidious lady, bewildered. "My bed. I can hardly wait to try it. Straight haded now to cabin 7." Cabin 7 was
a beehive of activity. "Hi, Norma Newcamper!" greeted a pal. busy with her bed-roll. "There's your bunk right over
mine." "An upper Oh, Mother, I've drawn an upper bunk." Thus began a long-awaited thrill, Norma's first experience
at camping. Determined not to interfere with adjustments to camp life, her mother stayed away for several days. Then,
armed with fresh bed-linen, she descended on cabin 7. A strangely brown and starry-eyed daughter greeted her, pouring out
a breathless account of the wonders of camp life. "What's that?" the girl suddenly asked in alarm. "Oh, Mother, not
clean sheets! Why, you'll ruin my mattress. I know every little hump in it. It's simply super!" "I see." Her mother
eyed a smear of chocolate bar on the pillow case and nobly restrained a shudder. "Well, we'll let it go . . . "
"I suppose you know," she remarked to her husband later, "that our beds are all wrong. They're smooth and firm and haven't
a decent hump to their whole vertebrae." "What do you mean all wrong? They're the best inner springs on the market.
What's better, I'd like to know?" "Straw! Plain, prickly straw! Makes you sleep like a top! Just see if you don't hear
about it the first night Norma gets home. And a hundred girl scouts can't be wrong!"
Globe Gazette
Golden Eaglet Cerermony Postponed to Monday at Roosevelt.
EDITOR'S NOTE - This is the second of a series of articles on
life in the Girl Scout camp which opened Friday at Camp Roosvelt, Clear Lake. The articles were prepared by a member of the
Girl Scout council. The Scouts are to assemble Monday night for their ceremony of the awarding of the golden
eaglet to Helen Lloyd Hones and Elinor Cutley. The ceremony, orginally scheduled for Sunday night, was postponed because
of the weather. It is open to parents and friends. "There's one girl who hasn't showed up yet," remarked Old-Timer
to Norma Newcamper. It was their first afternoon at Girl Scout camp and the two girls were lying on their bunks resting
after a swim. "Who's that?" "Freda. She's never missed a year at camp. She'll prbably be along any time now." "What's
she like?" "Oh, not at all good-looking. Sort of big an dnoisyand clumsy, but the girls are all crazy about her. You
see, she's sort of a tradition at camp. Earns her way, too. She gets the mail every day --." "Why, I didn't know we
could have mail service way off here!" "Sure we can! Freda goes to Ventura for it. And she brings us all our groceries
and food supplies." "She must be pretty responsible for a job like that." "Well," laughed Old-Timer, "she's quite
dependable, at that. Oh, once in awhile she goes on a rampage and flatly refuses to budge, but Fred can usually coax her out
of it." "Who's Fred?" asked Norma, curiously. "Oh, he's her boy-friend. They're inseparable." "And he's quartermaster
here. Helps with all the errands. Takes a ton of stuff to feed a hundred girls three times a day." "Do you suppose I'll
ever get to know everyone here at camp and all your stunts and traditions?" sighed Norma enviously." "Of course you will!
Listen! Here comes Fred and Freda now. Hear that?" A series of protesting coughs and chugs rasped their ears. They grew
nearer and nearer, shattering the peace of the drowsy afternoon with a deafening clamor. "Hi, Fred!" called the
Old-Timer sliding off her bunk and running outside. "How's Freda? Louder and funnier than ever, I see." Yeah, and
rustier, but she's still a great, old girl," he shouted patting her quivering sides. "Watch her eat up the miles!" and he and his
trusty Freda were off in an ear-splitting roar.
Globe Gazette
GARNER -- Hazel McMahon, 16, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas McMahon, Saturday reeived the highest award a Girl Scout can win, the golden eaglet. To win the award, 21 proficiency badges are required and she had quite a number more than this to her credit. She was a member of the local troop six years and spent three summers at Camp Roosevelt, Clear Lake. Her scholastic record is outstanding and she has taken an active part in school affairs and civic work. She will be a senior in Garner high school. Next Sunday night at Camp Roosevelt the formal presentation will be made.
Globe Gazette
Globe Gazette
Bob Ingersoll of Clear Lake still remembers his annual trips to Boy Scout Camp Roosevelt in Ventura Heights in the 1930s. "It was pretty elaborate. My most spectacular memory was the camp fire on the hill which they had every evening. They told stories around the campfire," Ingersoll said. Ingersoll first attended Camp Roosevelt in 1930 at the age of 9. And now the wooden entrance sign to the camp has been returned to Clear Lake and is on display in the Clear Lake Historical Society Museum at the rear of Dana's Decorating Studio & Gift Shop at 309 Main Ave. Camp Roosevelt was closed in the 1950s. "I belonged to Troop 17 in Clear Lake. They didn't have any Cub Scouts in those days so they let us begin three years early in Boy Scouts. You're supposed to be 12 and we started when we were 9," Ingersoll said. "There were a number of cabins there, a headquarters and a hobby shop. There was a big mess hall and assembly building." The sign was found in 1965 or 1966 by found Garner Boy Scouts including Greg Schmidt of Clear Lake. The boys rode their bikes from Garner to McIntosh Woods State Park and then took a raft over to Lone Tree Point. They found the old sign on a burn pile ready to be used as firewood for a campfire. "We knew the meaning of it and we felt it would be a disaster to have it destroyed," Schmidt said. The boys floated it across the lake and then put it on their bikes and road it back to Garner. It hung in the Explorer Scout meeting hall for five or six years and then went into storage. Last October, Clear Lake Scoutmaster Don Christ asked if the sign could be returned to Clear Lake and it was. Two weeks ago the sign was brought to the historical society museum. "Greg has been telling me about this sign for the last 25 years. I was anxious to see it," Christ said.
 Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2013
|
VENTURA -- It was quite an experience for a 9-year-old boy.