A
History of Camp Lucky
by Patrick Kehoe
Pre-Lucky
1991
Pete Margules and Michelle Belt got married in Muskegon. The reception was an overnight party in the winter lodge in Muskegon State Park. Sources say that everyone had a great time, perhaps because I wasn't there.
1992
In celebration of Pete and Michelle's first anniversary, another overnight party was held at the winter lodge in Muskegon State Park. On the application to rent the lodge, the purpose was listed as "consuming alcohol". Again, everyone had a fabulous time, although this time I was there. Highlights included rolling down the dunes onto the beach and realizing that Cynthia had a key for the "locked" fountain soda dispenser. Free pop for all!
Everything was not quite rosy in the eyes of the park rangers. Turns out that we were "not allowed to stay the night". The whole purpose of the party was to be able to drink and not have to drive. But rules are rules…
Camp Lucky — The Beginning
In the spring of 1993, after having had a fantastic time at Pete and Michelle's party, we set out to find a new location to have an overnight party where alcohol could be consumed, but without having to worry about people driving home drunk. After much searching, we narrowed down the list to a couple of State of Michigan parks that had outdoor centers. After a road trip to check out some locations in the thumb area, we found the Cedar Lake Camp facility in the Waterloo State Recreation area… our future Camp Lucky.
We couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect spot than the Cedar Lake Facility. It was close to the Detroit area (only 20 minutes west of Ann Arbor) had a full kitchen, showers, a great lake and an amazing calming quality.
Around this time, I was becoming increasingly bitter about all my childhood toys having been deemed "too dangerous" and discontinued. This was brought to a head when Fisher-Price discontinued the Little People that my generation played with, and came out with "fat" little people. "Mark Simple" devoted an entire issue of his X-Magazine to the toys that we loved, with the cover story on the Fisher-Price Little People .
In my opinion, everything in life was becoming safety-sealed for our protection. It drove me crazy. For me, childhood had been just the right mixture of danger and fun. "That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger…"
So, to pay tribute to the now-retired Fisher-Price Little People dog, Lucky, we decided to name our party "Camp Lucky". It would be a festival of our childhood. It would be a place where we could become kids again. Camp Lucky would be complete with squirt guns fights, hide-and-go-seek, and anything else that kids or 20-something adults did. It would be like summer camp, only this time we could smoke a joint while skinny dipping.
1993
After 3 years as the X Magazine Staff car, my "converted" (top cut off) 1974 Pontiac Grandville became the Fisher Price little people car. The car was repainted with blue skies and rolling green fields. Then Mark Simple painstakingly painted scenes of little people sets on the car. These included a giant lucky head painted on the hood, and a Fisher-Price plane mounted as a hood ornament. The Lucky car was a big hit. I can remember a really nice late night drive in the country under the stars with about 8 people in the car.
In '93 we only rented the "A" group cabins which included the lodge and the showers. So we had to share with some families holding a reunion in the "B" Group. While we didn't really have any problems with them, we were rather loud as drunken 20-something's are known to be. Total attendance records were not kept, but if memory serves me correctly, there were about 30 or 40 people.
Being the first year, we didn't really know about the deer flies, so everyone busted back into town to get a hat. For some reason, deer flies don't like hats. Whatever.
Everything went great and we all had a fantastic time. On my way out, I kept coming back to the top of the hill by the lake and thinking "giant slip and slide… yep, this would be a great place for a giant slip and slide." Cynthia forbade it, but did I pay attention? No…
1994
The waterslide. After tossing the idea around for a year, we borrowed a gasoline pump and bought a 100-foot roll of plastic. Instant waterslide! Cynthia was still not happy with the slide, but I was being extra careful. I had my bike helmet and insisted on going down first. Once I emerged from the bottom in one piece, there was no stopping people. Even Cynthia went down, but she caught and ripped her swimming suit on a tent stake that we had put into the plastic to hold it in place. Tent stakes were great at the top, but were a really bad idea for the sides and bottom. Ray whacked his ankle really bad on one, so we pulled them all out. "That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…"
Our puny squirt guns from the previous year weren’t cutting it, so it was an all-out search for the most effective water projectile technology. In true geek fashion, it quickly became obvious that volume was where it was at. The best gun was a simple plunger type that you put in a water source and pulled the plunger back to fill the gun. 3 feet by 2 inches is a lot of water. But you usually blow it in one shot, so it became de rigeur to carry around a bucket for quick reloads.
As a new twist to an old game, we played night volleyball, but with strobe lights. Really fun when you turn the strobe to slow. <Strobe> You see the ball getting launched, <Strobe> you see the ball in the air, WHACK you get hit with the ball <Strobe> everyone laughs at you.
This year we rented the whole camp, and discovered the journal in the Tamarack cabin. The Camp Lucky entry was patterned after the Donner party…
A "purple dinosaur" piñata was purchased with the intention of allow everyone to take out their aggression on Barney TM. But alas by the time Saturday night rolled around, no one had any real aggression left and the dinosaur went untouched.
If I remember correctly, this was the first year of the long distance lucky attendees, with Scott Berk and Jon Ferguson coming from Boston and Will White from California. Lucky was starting to become a destination…
1995
Death of the Lucky Car. After the landlord at my work said that I couldn't park the car behind the building anymore, I reluctantly decided to give it away. In a hilarious mad-cap adventure, the car was raffled off on the internet and delivered to Chicago to the winner (and only entrant), our friend Doc, on the day after Christmas, 1994. Doc and Burford, dressed as Santa Claus and an Elf, were going to drive it back to Arizona. Unfortunately, the car threw a rod near St Louis and the Lucky car was no more. Burford, a US Marine, honorably discharged a full round into the Lucky car as it lay in its final resting place in Normal, Illinois.
Spring rolled around and I was really missing the convertible action. So I conned my co-worker to sell me his 1975 Chevy Monte Carlo. My friend Tom and I promptly cut the top off. (This car was better ‘cuz it would fit in my garage at home). After the last car, Mark says no way is he painting another car. So Tom and I found a gallon of latex paint on the special aisle at the local hardware store. Only $3.00! We rollered on a fresh coat in the street in front of his house. After we’re done, we realize that there’s a reason they sell paint for $3.00; No one wanted this color…kind of puke green. But the open road beckoned again.
Camp Lucky was Friday, July 7th to Sunday, July 9th. We had a waterslide again this year. I think this was the year that Mark Simple got a fish hook stuck in his butt from the water slide. Well not actually from the slide, but from the lake at the bottom of the slide.
We debued Giant Croquet this year. Just like regular croquet, but with 18" plastic balls and mallets to match. Great fun, but a pain the ass to send someone.
This is the year that Paul road his recumbent bike from Kalamazoo.
1996
Pooh Car debuts. After realizing the error of our ways with the paint job on the convertible, but losing our "artist", we looked for solutions. Wandering the aisles at Mejiers at 3 am, we came across giant stickers to put up in kids’ rooms. Holly Hobby is out, but Pooh is cool. So we purchased a box of Pooh stickers and repainted the car with the now familiar rolling fields and blue sky motif. The stickers were great and covered big areas of the car. Never one for leaving well enough alone, we scared up a new artist to paint a giant pooh head on the hood and the scene where Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit’s house on the trunk. We complete the trunk by getting a Pooh doll, cutting it in half, and bolting the half with the legs to the trunk so it looks all 3D and stuff. The hood ornament is pop-up Pooh toy, only it’s rigged to a cable in the dash so we can make it go up and down from the inside.
You know, chicks really dig Pooh, and some people got it, but eventually the car began to feel like the child molester mobile.
This year Lucky was Thursday, July 4th through Sunday, July 7th. I think it was the first year of babies at Camp Lucky. We noticed that staying in Tamarack cabin could be dangerous. Three couples who stayed there were pregnant the next year. Tamarack became known as the fertility cabin.
This year, my friend that had the gas pump couldn’t make it, so I spent $500 and bought my own gas-powered pump. Gotta have a waterslide…
1997
5 Years of Camp Lucky. Five years was a special time, we had free t-shirts, live music provided by the Leah Jacobs band and an awesome set by the band Ohio. Lucky was again a three-day event starting on Thursday, July 24 and running until Sunday, July 27th.
Everyone finally got on me that I had to make sure that people actually paid. Costs for Camp Lucky this year exceeded $2000, and I knew that I would lose money, but if people didn’t pay, I would lose a lot more. We debated using plastic armbands or custom buttons to give people as proof of payment, but the cost and delivery times made those options out of the question. While buying paint pens for the new Dr. Seuss car, I found a bag of "buttons" — clothes buttons that is, at the craft store. With the addition of some pin-backs, we had custom Camp Lucky buttons. People received their button when they paid, and were instructed to wear their button at all times. The penalty for not having your button on was to be thrown in the lake. The buttons conveniently coincided with the opening of the Kraft Kabin, which saw a lot of use as people decided to customize their buttons.
This year was hot! Like crazy hot. The walk in refrigerator became the place to be. At one point, I found 10 people in the fridge.
An awesome Camp Lucky overall.
1998
After the spectacular Lucky in ’97, I wanted to continue with the theme concept and do shirts again. We finally settled on "Lucky Strike" as a pun on the cigarettes. Instead of "it’s toasted", our slogan was "we’re toasted". And Lucky the dog was going on strike! We made about 20 different picket signs ("Free green dad", "Little People Rights Now!", "Yes Waterslide", etc). The signs were placed along the road leading to Camp Lucky, sort of like a Burma Shave campaign. The shirts had a "Lucky Strike" logo the front and some of the picket signs on the back.
The dates were Thursday, July 23rd through Sunday, July 26th. The payment receipt this year was a bracelet. Again with a craft store custom feel — a leather cord with crazy plastic beads.
We got busted by the rangers and were forbidden to have the waterslide this year.
Instead of live bands, we added a Camp Lucky pirate radio station that could be received on any radio in the vicinity. The entire Camp Lucky event was chronicled in a year book that Greg Macintosh made — the Camp Luckian. With all the standard high school year book stuff, it proved a great diary and register of the event. Attendance was at least 45 people.
1999
Camp Jeff Daniels. After having invited actor and Chelsea resident Jeff Daniels in the previous years without even the courtesy of a declined RSVP, we make an all-out push to get Jeff to attend. Lucky, our mascot, took on the understudy roll, and Jeff became front and center. In keeping with the spoof t-shirt theme from 1998, we choose the Jack Daniels logo for the front – but change it to "Jeff Daniels". The back of the shirt was based upon the black-and-white-cum-color movie that Jeff had recently co-starred in, "Pleasantville", except it was now "Luckyville" with a scenic picture of one of the cabins in black and white and some of the Little People seeing the truth of Lucky and emerging in color. Jeff didn’t come, or respond again. Screw him.
The dates were Thursday, July 22nd through Sunday, July 25th. Payment receipt was a Fisher-Price Little Person, with a hole drilled through its head, on a beaded chain. A huge hit, people loved picking their person and then customizing their chain with additional beads.
This year the Big Gay Boat and polka dot canoe debuted with the unfortunate mishap of getting a blowout on the boat trailer and having to leave the boat on the side of the road. After delivering the stuff to Lucky, I went back and got the boat, but couldn’t get a new tire on the rim. Finally, on Friday I discovered that you can buy new tires and rims for $20 from Meijers.
Tom, Steve, Pete and many others finished building the giant "Operation" game. A beautiful job was done (especially the "BRIAN") and it was a huge hit at Burning Man. (Unfortunately, it was too big to bring home from Nevada, so it now hangs in Robert and David’s loft space in Los Angeles).
This year, our new Burning Man friends Robert and David came out from Los Angeles along with Oliver from San Francisco.
After getting special permission from the head ranger, we had the waterslide again this year, complete with the official Olympic sport of "most people in a rubber boat down the slide." The slide continued to claim its share of injuries with a wicked scrape on Robert from getting stuck under the boat (and 7 guys) as the boat rolled over going into the lake. Nice scar…
2000
The Census 2000. Invite was based upon the US census short form, but not really. Quite funny. We got lots of positive feedback on the form, but alas, too many of our friends threw the form out.
At the end of 1999, the State of Michigan privatized the Cedar Lake camp-ground and gave a long term lease to the Ann Arbor YMCA. Because the Y ran a day-camp during the week, Lucky was scaled back to two days.
Robert, David and Oliver came out again from California as well as Jenny’s friend Annalisa and my brother Tim from New York.
Lucky ran from Friday night 21st of July until Sunday afternoon the 23rd. The payment receipt was a beaded chain again, but this time with beads that said "Lucky 2K" and everyone got to pick their own number ("I am not a number, I am a free man!").
After the injuries sustained the previous year, and the shortened time, the waterslide concept was abandoned in a fit of apathy. Len brought out his ring of fire and potato gun, so at least we met our danger quota for the year. This year we had several visits from idiot teenage boys from across the lake. We all learned just how dumb teenagers could be. Huh?
2001
2001 presented a bit of a quandary. We had a really difficult time getting a hold of anyone at the Y to reserve our dates. By the time we got someone to call us back, they had no weekends available at all during the summer. The only times available were late May (too cold) or Labor day weekend. Labor Day was a concern because this is when Burning Man is held (in Nevada). This created a major conflict for not only myself, but a number of my good friends and long time Camp Lucky planners. An effort was made to find an alternative venue, but in the end, we decided on Cedar Lake. Cedar Lake is a very special place to me, and Lucky wouldn’t be the same anywhere else.
My new fiancée, Jenny, stepped up with an offer to help, so we decided to go ahead with the Labor Day weekend. Because it was being held over Labor Day weekend, we decided on "Labour Camp" Lucky this year. Lucky went into labor!
Since the Y was finished with their day-camps, we got to have an extended Lucky again. From Thursday the 30th of August to Monday the 3rd of September. Payment receipts were custom laminated "patient" badges with a photo (courtesy of the Polaroid I-Zone) and specific warnings for each person. The badges came with a lariat so that they could be worn around your neck. My warning was "8 more truckloads and then I’m done".
Faced with the prospect of missing Camp Lucky completely, both Doug and Elizabeth decided to split their time between Burning Man and Camp Lucky and arrived on Saturday. In addition, Robert came out from his job in Las Vegas. A whole posse of Jenny’s friends, Annalisa, Chelsea, Stephen, Claire and Heather came out from New York. Even Eli, Jenny’s brother, made it out from Oregon. Allenn made it from California. This year also featured the debut of the Canadians. In addition to Liz Clayton and her boyfriend Jeff, they brought along six of their peeps, including Stefano and Terri who flew from Milan, Italy to attend Camp Lucky. Because Oliver was at Burning Man, we had to find a new dish bitch, and Mike Higginson came through with flying colors. Man do those Canadians know how to wash dishes.
This was probably the best Camp Lucky for me. Although many of my good friends couldn’t make it this year, it was an opportunity for Jenny and me to make Camp Lucky a joint project. Four days provided an awesome way to relax and just hang out with old and new friends from all over. The weather was perfect and those pesky teenagers and deerflies stayed away.