In 1956 I entered the middle boys’ group and again got closer to the action. One game I remember was rahvastepall. I don’t even know what it’s called in English. For those not familiar with the game, it involves two teams on a court, with “kuningad” at either end. The aim was to “knock” off your opponents by hitting them with a volleyball. If your target was able to catch the ball, his team got posession of the ball and he could in turn throw the ball at his opponents. We had some pretty wild games, with people scrambling all over the place. One boy knicknamed “Cannonball” was a good player, being able to throw and catch “bullets”. Unfortunately, the game was not played anymore in thelate 1950’s, possibly because of safety concerns again.

Going to the tagamaja at night was always a dreaded task. One would sprint there and back as fast as possible, convinced that there were ghouls and kidnappers hiding behind every tree and bush, waiting to snatch you away. Pillow fights were always exciting. Sometimes things got out of hand and not only pillows were used. On more than one occasion I remember shoes flying and in fact a shoe getting imbedded in the wallboard. Unbelievable!

On weekends, the older kids were allowed to hike to Udora and wait on top of the hill for their parents who were coming to visit. The kids could be released into the official custody of their parents and have picnics, go swimming all day or whatever.

1957 was a memorable year. The middle boys built a large fort under the direction of our kasvataja, Mati Sulev and camped out for several exciting evenings. However, later that summer, Arne Kolga’s fort caught fire during a sleep-over. All of the boys got out safely, but that incident put an end to sleep-overs in forts, and led to a general decline in the forting experience.

It was customary for the older girls to go to “Taevaskoda” in the afternoons to do some sunbathing in the nude. One of the older boys managed to sneak through the dense underbrush and snap photos of the girls. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, he was caught by pr. Kahro and was forced to expose his film in the sunlight.

Two of the older boys went missing one day and evening, leading to grave concerns by the Joekaaru family. I don’t remember if the police had been called in or were about to be called, but the two finally showed up in the late evening. It turns out that they had hitchiked to Toronto for the day. Needless to say, they were in deep trouble!

1958 was the year yours truly finally was initiated into the oldest boys’ group. We were now able to take part in the hikes to Lake Simcoe. These seven mile hikes on dusty roads were no mean feat for twelve year olds, but well worth the effort. Kind hearted farmers along the way would offer us much appreciated drinking water from their wells. Once there,we could count on a day of great swimming, a picnic, and listening to our favourite tunes on the juke box in the snack bar. Unfortunately, hiking to Lake Simcoe was terminated a few years later when one of the cottage girls was killed in a tragic car accident while hiking along Highway 48 to Lake Simcoe.

The older boys took part in oo valve, though at the time I wasn’t sure what we were guarding against. It must have worked though, because Ants Toi did single-handedly catch two English farm boys lurking around the barracks late at night. Amazing!

We would go hunting for crayfish downstream from the swing bridge, and have them cooked up by the kitchen staff. To this day, I swear that these crayfish tasted better than any lobster or crab that I’ve eaten since, be it at Red Lobster or Cape Cod or the Maritimes.

We had wonderful dances in the soogi saal, with great music provided by the Ants Sulev orchestra, and the popular hits of the day provided by the camp open reel tape recorder and the popular radio station CHUM.

We would sneak out at the middle of the night to play spin-the bottle with the older girls. Though strictly not allowed, some of the boys, who shall remain un named, were known to ride their bikes to Leaskdale and to hitchike to Uxbridge during puhke tund. This was also the year that the oldest boys went on a marathon two-day overnight hike to a place on the east side of Lake Simcoe, courtesy of our adventurous kasvataja, hr. Roodus. Sleeping over in tents, a lokkeohtu and other activities were enjoyed by all. Hiking back was less exciting of course, with the boys spread out miles along the dusty country roads, with stragglers nursing mega blisters, sunburn, thirst and hunger.

This was the summer that the camp went on an outing to the Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, and two years later we went for a visit to Seedrioru where activities included horeseback riding and volleyball matches.

The summer experience at Joekaaru was never complete until arrangements had been made for everyone to meet for one last time at the CNE. Great times were had by all at the Ex. I hope this will encourage some other former kasvandikud to share their memories, whether in Estonian, English, or Canada’s third official language, French.

I’m interested in making contact with anyone who has 8mm or 16mm movies from Jõekääru from the 1950’s. I was lucky to make contact with a former kasvandik who took many great colour 8mm movies in 1958 and I was able to get copies of his movies. I have 8mm and 16mm projectors, a digital camcorder, and soon hope to have a DVD burner, so I can make copies of movies or videos for interested parties. In fact, if there is interest,I may think of setting up a web site where people can post old photos, stories and even some film clips of Jõekääru from the 1950’s. People can e-mail me atkr131@hotmail.com.

Arvamus

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