The Great Escape
By Steven J. Fisher

Once a year, instead of sitting in the dining hall watching old movies on the wall, we would get a special bus trip into Storrs, Connecticut to see "a real movie." This particular summer (I think it was around '62 or '63), it was "The Great Escape", a wonderful World War II movies about allied prisoners of war breaking out of a German prison camp. We were actually allowed to sit with our girlfriends. For an 11 or 12 year old boy, that was special.

On the bus returning to camp, we planned a rendezvous with the girls for later that night, incorporating some ideas from the movie. Our bunk backed into a small wooded area, beyond which was the main softball field. Beyond that, a larger wooded area. The girls bunk backed into the larger wood. They could 'escape' their bunk--a few at a time as in the film--make their way around the main ballfield, around the smaller ballfield and into the smaller woods that backed our bunk.

Upon reaching the back window of our bunk--which happened to be the bathroom window--our 'sentinels' would allow them entry and it would be party time. Of course, it had to be after the camp was quiet but before all the counselors returned to their bunks. It was my shift to stand guard. I sat in the bathroom, watching out the back window in eager anticipation, fighting the inner enemy that was making me nod off.

That's when I heard it. Shouts. Adult shouts. Followed by young female screams. The quiet night erupted as the pajama-clad pre-teen girls came running out of the woods from all directions, followed by counselors yielding large wooden paddles. The screams awakened the rest of my bunkmates, who ran into the bathroom to get a look at what was happening. I told them the girls were busted and we all scrambled back into our cots, just as our counselor came bounding through the front door, yelling, "Got ya!"

Our punishment was to be banned from "Cabaret Night" and to be kept from our girlfriends for the rest of the summer. At least, officially. There were some other punitive chores we had to endure. I believe, at the end of the summer, the powers that be relented and allowed us to attend Cabaret night. I might add, the end of "The Great Escape" was not much different. And I believe we were betrayed by our counselors who witnessed our guilty whispers on the bus...and had seen the movie too.

Despite the downbeat ending, it is one of the most memorable events in my childhood and very fondly remembered.

Steve Fisher