Thursday, August 19- Miscellany from the "Mess Hall"

Since I'm writing this entry early in the morning, before breakfast, I thought I'd include some of the other "graces' that we sang each summer. One, in particular, "We Hail This New Morning" was sung during my earlier years at Lenore, and I've forgotten some of the lyrics. (I've enclosed them in parentheses) If anyone out there recalls the missing words, please let me know!) In addition to the graces, and usual camp songs, there were also some humorous songs we sang during our meals, particularly if we were served something special. (ie. Jello)

For Health and Strength (sung in a round):

For Health and Strength and daily bread, ,
We praise they name Oh Lord

Johnny Appleseed :

Oh, the Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord!
For giving me the things I need
The sun and the rain and the appleseed
The Lord is good to me!


We Gather Together

We gather together in all kinds of weather
To clasp with a smile the dear hands of our friends!
We gather to meet you, we gather to greet you.
As one to another, our welcome extends


We Hail This New Morning

We hail this new morning, that calls us on* our way
We hail this morning, and sing to greet the day!
Rejoice in our strength, rejoice in our youth
Rejoice in the open skies
Rejoice in the HOPE of the days to come
And each new sunrise.
We hail this new morning that calls us on* our way!
We hail this new morning, and sing to greet the day!
* Thanks to the memory of Nancy Kaye who corrected/supplied the lyrics: I had been incorrectly singing: "that calls the SUN OUR WAY!"

Here are two other songs that we sang- usually during lunch. And who knows how long they had been around by the time we sang them in 1959? My guess is that the "Jello" song was a commercial jingle...

"Oh the big red letters stand for the Jello family
The big red letters stand for the Jello family
Jello pudding, yum, yum, yum!
Jello pudding, yum, yum, yum!
Jello Ta-pioca pudding yessiree!"


No matter how young a prune may be, he's always getting wrinkled
A baby prune is like his dad, but he's not wrinkled quite so bad
We have wrinkles on our face, but prunies have them every place!
No matter how youg a prune may be, he's always getting
Stewed, stewed, stewed!

With the days of camp decidedly winding down, there was more of a sense of urgency to get things done. The weather was generally much chillier. -Definitely, Camp Lenore (CL) sweater days.. We would be learning a host of special songs for the Banquet. (More on this next week) But, according to the calendar, there was another Team Game to play. Go Whities!