Mustangs trot ‘69

To the tune of I’ve got a lot of living to do (from Bye Bye Birdie)

Mustangs trot
Right into their victory
Blue team braves
Take heed to our call
Whites are here
to show you who’s with it
Blue team, you’re bound for a fall

Tonight’s the night
That we’re gonna win it
We have galloped
All through the rec hall
[Argh, can't remember lyrics here]
White mustangs are gonna take it all

For we’ve got [people to see? Places to go? something?]
As we sing and march along

Tonight’s the night (excellent harmony thing was going here)
That we’re gonna win it
We have galloped
All through the rec hall
[Argh, can't remember lyrics here]
White mustangs are gonna take it all

Ba ba ba , ba da ba da ba ba (Gimme a W) (we formed each letter as we did this)
Ba ba ba da ba da ba (Gimme an H)
Ba ba da, ba da ba da ba da (Gimme an I)
Ba da ba da ba da ba (T)
Ba ba da ba da ba (E)

This will be a white team color war

Waiters’ song

Was this ‘69 or ‘70? or ‘71 even? I can only remember a few lines:

To the tune of Hava Nagila

We are
the Crane Lake Waiters
We serve potaters
And a lot of P&J

Candlelighting ceremony

Posted by Robin Feldberg: 

Does anyone remember the candlelighting ceremony down at the lake at the end of camp? All I remember is lighting a candle that was stuck to a piece of tree bark and setting it adrift on the lake. It was a beautiful sight. Did we sing a song? I don’t remember anything else…

Silly songs

The boys at Crane Lake will never be
Tall dark and handsome and six foot three
The boys we call our own
Will have glasses and braces and smell of B.O.

Is it possible to forget these lyrics?

I go to Crane Lake Camp so pity me
There’s not a boy in the vicinity
And every night at 9 they lock the doors
I don’t know why the hell I ever came before

I’m gonna pack my bags and home I’m bound
I’m gonna turn this camp right upside-down
I’m gonna smoke and drink and neck and peck and what the heck
The hell wwith the whole damn camp

One more. Substitute any couple’s name for granny and grandpa:

And there was granny
Swingin’ on the outhouse door
Without her nighty
Grandpa never had it so good

Forgot about this one, ’til Meryl sent this today. Can you remember the hand motions?

To the tune of Zoom gally gally
Food waiter waiter waiter
Food waiter waiter
Food waiter waiter waiter
Food waiter waiter

Oh give me something to eat
So I won’t fall flat on my feet

Okay, I know you want to know the hand motions. I have to do it first to remember. Hold on.

Okay:

Fists on table
Thumbs on table
Pointers and middle fingers on table
Pointers and pinkies on table

At least that’s what my hands remember.

Friends, friends, friends and B&W together

I didn’t think I’d have to do this but apparently it is possible to forget these lyrics.

Friends, friends, friends
We will always be
Whether in fair or in dark stormy weather
Camp Crane Lake
Will keep us together
The white and blue
We will e’er be true
Love will pervade us till death separate us
We’re friends, friends, friends 

It wasn’t until today that I knew what the word “pervade” meant. It means to permeate, which makes sense in this context so apparently the word I have always sung while shrugging my shoulders in confusion is correct.

Another song along this lines:

Blue and white together we shall not be moved
Blue and white together we shall not be moved
Just like a tree that’s standing by the wa-ah-ter
We shall not be moved

A favorite CLC memory

It wasn’t any one night. It was every so often, and it was always so special and magical. Maybe it could have happened anywhere and it’s just one of those carefree times of childhood.  But it happened at camp, so that’s how I remember it.

We used to lie on our backs at night in front of Studio–me, maybe a girlfriend, my brother, and Bobby Price. Maybe Mitch Feldman instead of my brother, maybe just me and Bobby and my brother. Though he would later be my boyfriend for about a minute, at the time Bobby and I were young enough that it was all very innocent, when just being near each other made us feel happy. All we would do was lie there forever (Where was evening activity? Why were we allowed to do this?), staring at the sky, waiting for a falling star.

There was nowhere we had to rush off to; we had the luxury of having no cares or worries to urge us to go somewhere, do something.

I have never seen a night sky as perfect as the sky at night in front of Studio at Crane Lake. ”Busy” is the best way I can think to describe it; with no city lights for 50 miles to pollute or dilute it, you could see every star and planet the heavens had to offer.

 The best way to find a falling star was to look nowhere and everywhere at once, allowing your eyes to lose focus and stare at nothing, while being accutely aware of any movement of light in any part of your range in vision. We were so young, and the sky so old, so old that ancient stars that were years dead came to life to dance one time, and for us.

“If you could read my mind” alma mater

From Meryl:
(starting with the part – I don’t know where we went wrong..)
….
I never thought that I would feel this way
But now I’ve got to say that Crane Lake’s got it,
We believe in friendships long
Even when camp ends they’ll still be going strong.
…
Crane Lake is our home
A place where we can find
Joy and peace of mind.

Unga badunga

Based on Gary Marcus’s list and Meryl’s recollection of something called Effel the beffel teffel (or some such), I think perhaps these two pieces go together so you end up with:

Leader: Unga badunga
(group repeats each line)

Iggy ga diggy dig*

Effel the befel tefel

Ooh Aah

Go Blue

Beat White
All together (clapping with each word): Go Blue Beat White!

I would never in a million years have remembered this on my own.
* This line supplied by John Schacter.

Now if only I knew what this phrase came from:

Peep diddly oten doten bo bo ba ditten datten (shhhh)

Well, I just followed a hunch and found the complete “lyrics” to the above. It may come from being a bluebird/camp fire girl, not CLC, but if the words “Flea Fly Flew” mean anything to you, it’s from CLC. Here’s a link to various forms of the lyrics. The key to finding it was the word “navista”

http://www.9thhuddersfieldscouts.org.uk/Scouting/Scoutcraft/Campfire/DAC’s%20Songs.pdf

I do, on the other hand, know where this phrase came from:

Comfy twaja umph snoddibot

Some counselor Meryl and I had cozied up to–I think from Scotland or Ireland–told us this was the term used for a troll. I think he made it up on the spot, but he taught us the expression and quizzed us on it regularly throughout the summer.

You’re a good man Charlie Brown fight song(?)

It’s so weird. You know, I’m just walking around in the kitchen and this song just comes into my head. Where do these things come from? I don’t know.

Don’t know the year, not even sure if it’s a fight song or a Color War song. I got this much of the lyric

We have entered this sing night
With the knowledge* that we will go far
Yes it’s clear to the rest
That we are the very best
And we’ll prove that we are

Then it goes into “You’re a Grand Old Flag”–lyrics a total mystery. Except I remember the lyrics Mad Magazine put to it, so I give you that instead:

You’re a fat old hag
You’re a high-flying bag
But you’re still my true love Betty Lou
You’re an emblem of
The land I love
Your complexion is red, white, and blue

Overweight and big in your ill-fitting wig
(mystery line)
And if old aquaintance be forgot
I’ll escape from that fat old hag.

* Whoever I was standing next to when we sang this, pronounced the word “knahledge,” one version of the NY accent that was so strange to my Boston ears.

Various Color War snippets

Supplied by me and Meryl:

There was an alma mater that went to Precious and Few:
For treasured and loved are the memories of Crane Lake Camp.

A fight song to the tune of Hey, Hey We’re the Monkees:
Hey, hey we’re the Blue Team

Something was done to A Spoonful of Sugar, which I believe was a white team, Warlocks.

Cuz the white team is telling you that victory is ours,
With our strength and power, we’re marching tonight
blah blah blah
Victory belongs to us

Someone did something to the Flintstones:
Blue team. We’re the blue team. (or some such…)