Lives in Letters: Postcard about 550 Boys

Here's a postcard I ran across last week that made me laugh.

Postcard
Boys at Camp
Camp Connell, California
July 18, 1957

Addressed to Tess P-
Berkeley, California




Preprinted on front: "Having a swell time, Mom. You oughta see me eat."

Dear Tess
550 Boys!!!
Of course, a few
are a little on the
young side.
Love
Daddy

Notes:

My guess is that Tess was an older teenager, or even in college, when her dad sent this postcard.

What a fun and interesting dad he must have been to send this. It's the kind of teasing I could imagine my dad doing, in a similar situation.

(Although at the time this postcard was sent my dad was at a different kind of camp. Having been through Camp Lejeune in 1955 and 1956, he was at the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Virginia in July of 1957. And I wouldn't be around till 11 years later.)

I think the camp in the postcard was Camp Sugar Pine, which opened its doors in 1939, and had a mailing address in Camp Connell. Camp Sugar Pine is part of the Girl Scouts' camp holdings these days.

Did Tess' dad run the camp? Was he just working there for the summer as a counsellor? Maybe he had Tess' little brother with him as a camper. Anyway, it must have been the dad's first year there, or he wouldn't have made such a big deal out of the 550 (three exclamation points) boys.