My Summer of Chicken Pox
by Melissa (Klar) Magid ('79, '80, '81, 82)

Of course I have hundreds of memories from camp - mostly the little things - like morning revelie with Arnie announcing "It's time to get up, it's time to get up, its a beautiful Kendale morning!" (no matter how hard it was raining!) or going to the rec hall to blow dry my hair (I had to look good for social!)

Anyway one funny story that I remember was during the summer of 1981(?), I was in girls bunk 13 (?). There were a lot of Venezuelans in camp that summer and they all seemed to get the Chicken Pox. Unfortunately I was also that only 15 year old in the U.S who had never had it either. One day while lifeguarding on the dock, someone noticed the dots all over the back of my neck. So I was sequestered to the infirmary with the Venezuelans (which I was secretly psyched because I knew I would get a hot shower every day!) My parents offered to take me home, but there was no way I was missing any camp!

One afternoon my bunk mates visited me and told me about a big raid they were planning (I think to boys bunk 8). I was bumming that I was going to have to miss it, but what could I do. Leave it to my friends (Melissa Dobkin, Jill Strauss, Caroline Grenis...) that night at about 2 AM on their way to their raid, they snuck all they way to the infirmary to pick me up for the festivities (picture how far out of the way it was and how dark it must have been!).

Somehow we managed to sneak out of the infirmary and all the way over to the boys side without being noticed. We must have visited 4 or 5 bunks before we decided to head back. On our way out we heard Paul Karp (I think) about to make his rounds, so somehow we snuck over to the parking area (remember - by the tennis courts) and hid under someone's car for about an hour (or so it seemed)! Amazingly no one discovered us and I made it back to my infirmary bed before the sun rose!

Actually the real reason I am sharing this story is to apologize to anybody who might have contracted the Chicken Pox after my little escapade - I have been living with the guilt for the past 20 years!

Mitch Strauss Responds:
Melissa Klar's chicken pox story was very interesting but needed a correction. The campers who had the chicken pox were 2 Mexican boys who were cousins from Pachuca, Mexico. It was their second season in camp. They had to be isolated and I bought a small trailer which I located just outside the infirmary ... I called it my "pox box." The boys lived in it for about 6 days and then returned to their cabins. To the best of my knowledge and memory we did not have more than one or two more cases the balance of that summer. After that the trailer was used for guests and one summer for a staff member ... Mitch Strauss