Those Were the Days Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sidestroke

Sidestroke was recommended as a relaxing stroke to use at intervals when engaged in a long-distance swim, possibly a session working towards the goal of swimming 50 miles in the course of the summer. And it was recommended for adaptation in a lifesaving situation. But it is not a speed stroke. The stroke we called the Australian crawl (because it had been developed from the earlier Trudgen crawl by Dick Cavill, an Australian swimmer) is also called the front crawl, and now almost universally used for freestyle events. Freestyle means you can use any stroke at all, but in practice this is the fastest for competitors. During my years at summer camp, the kick for the breaststroke changed from the frog kick (raise your heels together to as close to your body as possible, straighten your kegs, snap them together; repeat) to the whip kick, while the recommended arm movement also changed from a three-beat pattern to a two-beat rhythm. The butterfly was by far the most difficult stroke for us to master, and the most tiring. Coordinating the circling arms and the dolphin kick took a lot of practice!

As well as instruction in various strokes, we studied for Red Cross certificates, which also involved diving and life-saving lessons. The afternoon free swim session was a time to practice, or just splash around, or swim laps towards the 50-mile badge - and sometimes a swim across the lake was organised to make that challenge a little less monotonous.

Answer: Stern

The bow paddler followed instructions, and provided essential arm-power, but the stern paddler was responsible for identifying how the course might need to be changed. This was especially important in unfamiliar waters, when quick changes of direction to avoid looming obstacles was frequently needed. River excursions usually used aluminum canoes, which might be dented if you hit a snag, but were unlikely to be destroyed. The canvas skin of the wood canoes was fairly fragile, and easily ripped. (Not to mention what happened when someone stood directly on it, instead of one of the ribs, as she was getting into her first canoe!)

Before we were allowed to use the canoes, we had to pass a "tip test", which involved paddling out a short distance, tipping the canoe over, then righting it, getting back inside the submerged canoe, and hand paddling back to the dock. Those who hadn't passed the tip test could still participate in boating, but were confined to the wide, flat-bottomed rowboats. Not nearly as much fun, the boats took a lot more effort to move, and provided a real incentive to develop the necessary swimming skills to graduate to canoes!

Answer: Jib

While some dinghies are set up for more than two sails, these are the two basic ones. Everyone wanted to be the skipper, sitting at the rear managing the mainsail and steering with the tiller, but the rest of us acted as crew. There was always at least one member of the crew, because someone had to handle the jib and keep it nicely trimmed by adjusting the sheets attached to its clew (bottom corner of the sail).

There were two sheets (ropes) used to adjust the position of the jib, and which one was being used to control the jib depended on which side of the boat it was set on.

As the boat changed direction (tacked), the jib would be changed so that it was still on the opposite side of the boat as the mainsail. The jib also came into its own when a skipper accidentally pointed too close to the wind, and lost forward motion.

The crew could climb forward and manually hold the jib up so as to catch the wind from the relevant direction, allowing the boat to slip backwards and then around so that the mainsail could again pick up propulsion.

As if that weren't enough to keep the crew busy, they were also expected to be ready to sit up on the side of the boat in a strong wind, and lean over backwards to help keep the dinghy from capsizing.

Answer: White pine

White pines, also called Eastern white pines, are a very tall tree with a tendency to drop the lower branches, which receive limited light, when they grow close to each other. This means that the upper branches provide a canopy, while there is plenty of room to move about at ground level. If the dropped needles are allowed to accumulate over the years, they provide a soft surface on which to sit - hence, the Grove where Sunday services were conducted. I have no memory of the content of the services, but vividly recall the view as I sat there, and the sense of emotional renewal that Sunday mornings offered. White pine trees can be over 50m in height. I never knew how tall the ones under which we sat were, but they were pretty tall - the adults were dwarfed, and one of them would have to have stood on the shoulders of at least one other to be able to reach the lowest branches. And on the way back to our cabins, we could collect blueberries from the bushes growing alongside the edge of the path.

Answer: Camp Grenada

As the song (written to the tune of 'Dance of the Hours' by Amilcare Ponchielli) starts,
"Hello Muddah, hello Faddah,
Here I am at Camp Grenada.
Camp is very entertaining
And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining."

From there, things only get worse, with poison ivy, ptomaine poisoning, malaria, alligators in the lake, leading to the plaintive cry,
"Take me home, oh Muddah, Faddah,
Take me home, I hate Grenada.
Don't leave me out in the forest where
I might get eaten by a bear."

And, finally,
"Wait a minute, it's stopped hailing.
Guys are swimming, guys are sailing,
Playing baseball, gee that's bettah,
Muddah, Faddah, kindly disregard this letter."

Still the letter got sent - presumably the boy's camp also required the presentation of a letter home at some prescribed time in the week. My camp was nowhere as dramatic as the picture in the song, but sometimes it was pretty hard to find interesting things to write about - three more days of the usual outdoor activities having passed since the last missive.

Camp Krusty featured on the television show 'The Simpsons', Camp Crystal Lake was the location for the 1980 horror movie 'Friday the Thirteenth', and the name of Camp Wobegone was inspired by Garrison Keillor's 'News from Lake Wobegon'. The image in the question was of the Caribbean island of Grenada.

Answer: Tennis

The tennis courts used by the younger campers were red clay courts, which made it less likely that a shot would be hit hard enough to escape over the surrounding fencing and be lost in the undergrowth. It still happened, and not just when someone was challenged to see if they could lob it that high. Older campers had their lessons on cement courts, which allowed them to choose their surface of preference for free-time games.

The oldest campers, who were participating in a training program to be future counselors, spend an hour each morning at tennis - it was obviously considered a key skill. (As a somewhat more cynical adult, I suspect this was because it was transferable back to our suburban lives, unlike the skills we acquired to get a Junior Maine Guide certification - boiling a can of water in less than five minutes starting with a log of wet wood, digging latrines, and other skills more useful in the woods than the suburbs.)

Answer: 7

When there are only five rings, there is only one value assigned for each color: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. Many targets have two rings in each color, with the outer ring being the appropriate odd number, and the inner ring the following even number. In both types of target, there is often an extra central gold ring or small X, which is used only as a tie-breaker. It does not count for extra points during competitive rounds. We used to call it the bullseye.

In order to score, an arrow must lodge in the target (or pass through, if you have the strength for that). An arrow that bounces off is not generally allowed to score, although a judge may allow the archer to shoot a replacement arrow. An arrow that touches the line of a higher-scoring color gets to claim that score. Archery competitions are performed in ends, during which each archer shoots and scores a certain number of arrows, which varies between competitions.

Answer: Mount Katahdin

More precisely, Mount Katahdin is a massif, and two of its peaks, Baxter Peak and Hamlin Peak, are the two highest peaks in Maine. Sugarloaf Mountain ranks third, and Mount Pleasant, in the image for the question, is the one we used to climb on a regular basis, as it was located across the lake from the summer camp. Cannon Mountain, in New Hampshire, used to be the location of the rock outcropping known as the Old Man of the Mountain. Baxter Peak is the northern end of the Appalachian Trail, and the southern end of the International Appalachian Trail, established in the 21st century.

This international trail extends (with some travel by boat required at points) through New Brunswick, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador, where it terminates at Belle Isle.

Answer: Maria, from 'The Sound of Music'

All these, and more, were proudly presented by the seniors to the younger campers, after several weeks of preparation. The dining room tables and benches required some use of the imagination to turn into the Swiss Alps, but we tried! 'The Sound of Music' was the only one listed which included climbing pretend mountains at the end. 'Oliver!' used the tables as tables for the workhouse scenes, they created the square dance space for 'Oklahoma!', and established the boundaries of the space where the trombones were pantomimed at the end of 'The Music Man'.

The creators of the original shows would have been appalled at the way their work was butchered to get it condensed to fit the time and performance skills available, but it was a lot of fun.

Answer: S'mores

While all of these involve marshmallows, only the s'more is made specifically with toasted marshmallows. Place a (plain) Hershey bar on a Graham cracker, add two toasted marshmallows, top with another Graham cracker and press lightly - voila! If you let it stand for a short while, the chocolate will melt slightly, and guarantee that you will manage to drip food on yourself. This treat is very hard to duplicate in other countries, as it requires the exact shape and texture of the ingredients to work properly.

For those who didn't know, a fluffernutter is a sandwich made with marshmallow fluff and peanut butter, ideally using the kind of fluffy white bread we all started sneering at as young adults. They were a popular choice for the make-your-own sandwich meals.