Staff Photo
 
 
Trading Post or Canteen

As soon as the Recreational Hall was completed it appears that the annex on the southeast corner was opened as the camp’s store or canteen.  Campers accessed it from the porch by purchasing their wants through the small opening in the center of the large window.  In those days parents made a cash deposit with the camp and each boy shopped with "Canteen Checks", with the amounts being punched out as they were spent.  Shopping during the morning hours of 9:30 to 11:00 were limited to non-food items such as craft kits and Scouting supplies. In the afternoon from 2:30 to 4:00 food items could be purchased, including cold soda, ice cream and candy bars. There were no evening hours.  Obviously the object was not to make a lot of money, just to serve the basic needs of the boys.

During the late fifties and early sixties camp patches, Tee shirts and sweatshirts were sold (the same design every year), and the craft line was expanded to include Indian craft kits, woodcarving sets, and especially Neal Slides.  Those slides were the big seller of that decade, since Millard Neal, of Biddeford, made them in dozens of styles. Boys could purchase them already painted or plain; in that case they would take them to the craftshop and paint them themselves.

By that time the punch cards had been eliminated, but many parents, fearful of their boys mishandling money, entrusted it to the Provisional Scoutmaster, who would keep a record book and dole out requests during siesta.  That system ended when it turned out that the leaders couldn’t keep track of the cash any better then the Scouts.

Eventually the store was deemed too small, so in 1974 the stage was removed and converted into a larger store.  That store was half the width of the current trading post and was not yet self-service.  The old trading post became office space. In 1986 the Trading Post was then moved to the former health lodge to become the first self-service facility. By 1990 the rec hall was remodeled and the trading post was then moved back to an enlarged space where the stage no longer stood. With improvements the Trading Post, selling a much larger variety of goods, still occupies that space.
 


(Click any photo below to see it larger)
Trading Post - 1927

Rec Hall with old Trading Post - 1974
Canteen Entrance - 1974

Trading Post (Old HealthLodge) 1986

Trading Post (Old HealthLodge) 1986
Dedication Plaque - 1992
Trading Post - 2002
Trading Post - 2002
Trading Post - 2002
Trading Post - 2009




Page design and layout by:
Dean B. Zaharis
Created: December 15, 2010
Last Update: December 16, 2010
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