For as far back as I can remember of my MDA Camp years, Thursday evening was always "Carnival Night." The cabin leaders were responsible for designing, setting up, and operating attractions which had prizes to award. Often there would be a specific theme to that year's event, which resulted in some consistency of look, for attendees and booths alike. The attractions varied a lot, for with the wide age range at camp there had to be something for everybody. Particular favorites with the younger kids were booths that allowed them to somehow whack or throw something on attendants and cabin leaders -- all in fun of course. Continuing with the look-back to 1983, 30 years ago now and then some, here are some Carnival Night pictures. I'm picking up on a space/aliens theme.
 |
| Jenny |
 |
| Jan O (now Coleman) wearing a mustache at what looks like a marriage booth, always a hit with some of the younger girls; perhaps Jan served as a stand-in for a groom who unexpectedly could not be located |
 |
| Roger Gordon & friend |
 |
| Lee Svihla & Tammie Gibson |
 |
| Chris Fair |
 |
| Danny Scanlon |
 |
| Liz Schwartz on the commode testing out Tim Coleman's "Dump On Your Attendant" attraction; that's Tim below running a safety check. |
 |
| Running with the space theme, here's Donna Daviduke operating a "Happy Holidays" game. If one survived from a previous Carnival Night, we all hated to let a good, colorful sign go to waste. |
 |
| Terry Walsh & young friend |
When it came to my own Carnival Night attractions, I was a firm believer in the "keep it simple" school of thought. For many years I produced, as I cannot say operated, one of the more popular attractions: the
Name That Tune booth. Who needed a sign? -- the zestful, melodic (ahem) tunes wafting over the crowd was the hook. Ahead of time I lined up a few shifts of some of the best comedic talent at the camp. Then, about 5 minutes before the opening, I set up a small folding table, on which the prizes sat, and two or three folding chairs. Add kazoos, fake schnozzes, and funny hats, and wala! -- a hit attraction. Here putting in what no doubt was a funny stint at the intergalacticly-themed booth are Doug Batesky and Jimmy Martin.
And then there was the show in the center ring, one long, continuous "sketch" that Danny and Freddy Martin would put on. Often it was a send-up of a telethon. One year it was a variation on that theme -- a telethon fundraiser for
Radio Free Litonia, which fearlessly broadcasted a message of hope and freedom into that long-suffering, socialist-controlled Eastern European Country whose people have thick accents and funny clothes.
Danny remembers:
“The
Radio Free Litonia celebrity hosts were Yosh and Stan Schmenge.
The entertainment was, of course, horrible!
No one phoned in a pledge!
That was the recurring laugh.
There were campers sitting there staring at makeshift
telephones that never rang.
The phones
never lit up!
I kept saying to Freddy in
that high Schmenge voice "TIMP ME, STAN BA-BY!" It was a very funny bit, and, as the saying goes, if you missed a little, you missed a lot.
This particular year the Martin show in the center ring was a send up of the TV kid's show Bozo's Circus. Freddy played a chronically inebriated and disheveled Bozo who was forever forgetting his lines and flubbing routines but who nevertheless was making the big bucks as the headline performer. Danny played an embittered and underpaid Mr Ned, who at this very moment was losing his composure on-air during the show, berating Bozo for his failures while venting his anger over the many slights he has been forced to suffer. All done in a very humorous way, of course, live and unscripted. And the Radio Free Litonia sign in front of the Bozo Bedpans? Danny and Freddy had done another such sketch earlier in the week and still had the sign, and colorful as it was, why let a good sign go to waste they figured, so they threw it into the mix. Whatever. That was funny too.
Eventually all good things come to an end, and everyone must go home for the night. By the next morning only the big sign and memories are left. Here Freddy Martin adjusts Calvin Spivey's leg braces.
