Camp and Landing Songs

The following texts are based upon my unaided memory. Having spent nine years in Camp Hope, I'm pretty comfortable with Osage and Chouteau. Twenty-five years after having spent one summer at Lake, however, I need some help with the Lake songs.

Within one very specific limit, I'd be delighted to have you jog my memory with an email to chipATthebucknerhomeDOTcom. Be sure to replace the capitalized words with the appropriate symbols.

Blue Mills Landing Song

(tune: Bloody Mary from "South Pacific"; lyrics: Kathy Stous, Mary Edgington, and Janice Moser)

Blue Mills Landing is a fabulous place (clap clap clap clap)
You can't live there without a smiling face (clap clap clap clap)
Anything we do, we just cannot be stopped
At camping skills we can't be topped.

You can't beat living in an Indian teepee
We really don't need them 'cause we're never sleepy
(Seventies alternative:
>>You can't beat living in a woodland scene
>>Such cheerful campers you have never seen)
We're always on the go and have such fun
We set the pace for everyone.

Blue Mills Landing is the best around
You can tell it when you hear our sound
We are proud to say that we're the best
And the rest can go to ...
Anywhere they like.
Blue Mills!

Camp Hope Song

(tune: The Cruel War; lyrics: Doris Isaacson; "Crawly Critters" verse: Dick Dawson)

In Camp Hope the spirit, lives onward through the years,
we'll remember the campfires with laughter and with tears.

The hikes and poison ivy, the songs and projects too
My heart will always linger to Hope forever true.

Keep the campfires burning, for I'll be back someday,
my heart will be in Chouteau, though I be far away.

Looking o'er the valley, is the landing of Osage,
where men and boys together, gladly spend their days.

Catching crawly critters, mired in the mud,
pouncing on a cater-pickle, crunching on a bud.

Remember the campfires, the songs and dances, too.
My heart will always linger, in Hope for ever true.

In Camp Hope the spirit, lives onward through the years,
we'll remember the campfires with laughter and with tears.

Camp Lake of the Woods Song

(tune: "Wayfaring Stranger"; lyrics: Roberta Reid)

High on the hill, over the valley, in the earliness of spring
You can hear the haunting echoes of the songs we used to sing

Four great landings all united by the ties of history
Westport, Kaw, Blue Mills and Franklin, spirit lives, forever free.

In the midst of God's great beauty Even when we're far apart
Camping memories will live on Always burning in our heart.

When campfires die to glowing embers And the autumn colors blend
Camp Lake friendship still will linger Comrades ever to the end.

Chouteau Landing Song

(tune: You're a Grand Old Flag)

We're from Chouteau Landing we know we're the best
We can hike, swim or ride with the rest.
The fame of our skills is known throughout the hills,
and Chouteau can pass any test.

We will fight for the right of our old camping site
as we camp and we learn with our pals.
Should auld acquaintence be forgot
don't forget we're the Chouteau gals. Chouteau!

Franklin Landing Song

(tune: Oleanna; lyrics by Dick Dawson)

Oh we're from Franklin Landing, tops in every standing
We're never late, we're really great, our tummies are expanding.

In Franklin Landing tent poles lean; looser ropes you've never seen
When rainstorms hit, the tents don't rip, they float down into the latrine

Oh we're from etc.

In Franklin Landing every night Bugs congregate to chew and bite
And even snakes find what it takes to satisfy their appetites.

Oh we're from etc.

We're up before the sunrise comes so we won't miss out on any fun
At meals we eat and eat and eat and sweep up food like a vac-u-um

Oh we're from etc.

Kaw Landing Song

Dick Dawson reports that Kaw had at least three songs over thirty years

#1

(tune: Oklahoma from Oklahoma)

O, yes it's Kaw Landing where the best girls always spend their days
Where we really like to ride and hike,
When we pass, the campers always say--

Oh, there goes Kaw Landing, the best at Camp Lake of the Woods.
Where we never quarrel, or have any sorrow
And we do the things good campers should.

We know how to swim just like fish, and on cookouts we fix any dish
Without a doubt---KAW! Best of all---KAW!
Kaw Landing for me, it will always be
Wherever we camp, C-A-M-P at KAW-----KAW LANDING!

#3

Kaw Kaw it's Kaw they say, on the far side of the hill.
Kaw Kaw I'm goin' away where the days are happier still.

Well I told my momma when the summer comes, I'm gonna pack my bags for Kaw
They got swimming and horses and archery so I'm sayin "Good bye Mom" (everybody now)

Kaw Kaw it's Kaw they say, on the far side of the hill.
Kaw Kaw I'm goin' away where the days are happier still.

Now don't you worry and don't you fret and don't you go feeling blue,
For if someday you become great you can be a Kaw girl too (everybody now)

Kaw Kaw etc.

K A W L A N D I N G Kaw Landing!

Oakwood City

(Junior City camp song) (tune: of "Of Thee I Sing")

We sing to thee, OAKWOOD; Junior citizens are we, OAKWOOD
High above our Kansas City, Mighty small but mighty pretty,
We're for thee.

Let's give a cheer, OAKWOOD One they will hear, OAKWOOD
We're all camping here together Through the fair and stormy weather
We're for thee --- OAKWOOD!

Osage Landing Song

(tune: Peasant Song from "The Vagabond King"; lyrics: Ed Tivol)

Oh you men of Osage, sing the song of Osage, sing it loud and sing it clear.
Swift as wind we're flying, o'er the trails a-winding, hark the Osage men are here.
Shout it, shout it, from the hilltops high, Osage spirit, it will never die.

Oh you men of Osage, show the strength of Osage, stronger than the mighty oak.
All the hills are ringing with our mighty singing as we hike along to Hope.
Shout it, shout it, from the hilltops high, Osage spirit, it will never die.

Oh you men of Osage, sing the song of Osage, Osage Landing, the best!

Westport Landing Song

We are the best landing you see. We are just what campers should be, campers should be.
And when the other landings start the show Westport ahead of all will go.

We practice up on all our skills. We hike the wooded paths and hills, the paths and hills.
It comes to swimming, horses, archery, Westport's the best you'll ever see.

So you see Westport Landing is the best. Westport men can past the test, can pass the test
Because the Westport men are on the beam and we think we're a camper's dream.

Yea Westport.

No tolerance policy note

There is, however, a single correction I will not tolerate. Al Ross needn't bother pointing out that for the twenty years before I got to Camp Hope, the Osage verse of the Camp Hope song began "O'er looking the valley". It didn't scan then. It doesn't scan now. (And to Dick Dawson--whom I admire very much--who thinks that "O'er LOOKing the VALley" scans ... there's a reason you taught biology.)

Compare "CATCHing CRAWLy CRITters" or "KEEP the CAMPfires BURNing" to (shudder) "O'ERlookING the VALley". The word is "o'erLOOKing", which doesn't arguably fit the meter. "LOOKing O'ER the VALley", on the other hand works.

Back then, I had the bigger voice and I won. Now, I control the website. Live with it.

Purists might note that "ReMEMber the CAMPfires" and "In CAMP HOPE the SPIRit" don't scan either. Yeah, well, they don't. Whereas I could out-sing a Landing, I couldn't overpower the whole camp. You do what you can.