A GREAT TWO WEEKS AT JOE WEBB ' S RIDING CAMP
by Cheri Spencer
My first year at Joe Webb ' s Riding Camp was lots of fun. I am nine years old and this was my first camp away from home and Clarksville, Arkansas is a long way from Chattanooga. Tennessee. My mother, father, brother and I went to the Germantown Horse Show on the way to camp. Wesley, my brother, went
■ ibis camp last year. We were leaving Memphis Monday morning, June 6, to go to Clarksville. Wes
• e up with a stomach ache. We took him to the doctor and that afternoon at 3:30 PM he had his apcondix removed at the Methodist Hospital in Memphis. He wa- more upset about missing camp than he
was abou. e operation. Daddy took me to camp that night.
When I got to camp, the girls in my cabin were waiting up for me. Kay, my counselor, and all the girls in the cabin made me feel at home before we) went to bed that first night. It’ s hard to sleep the v first night, but by the second you are so tired you go right to sleep.
We had different groups for riding and all our activities. These are some of the things that my group did: We got up at 8:00 AM and ate breakfast. Next we went to sports, then we went to the barn for an hour of riding. Crafts came next for an hour, then lunch at $ 12:30. Rest period for one hour in our cabin after j lunch, during which Coach comes around to each cabin and asks if we want free time, swimming, or to go >; to the recreation hall or Old House or go trail riding.;] After that we eat at 6:00 PM, then we kinda goof off
jj for an hour. At 9:00 or 9:30 we have devotionals by the lake or in the Old House before we go to bed.
The day before camp wras over the girls serenaded f: the boys with real pretty songs. That same night the boys sang to the girls " Jingle Bells,” " Mary Had A: Little Lamb,” songs like that. It was real funny.
* 5 The horse show I liked best of all. I rode D DIA-
; MONO LIL. She is a real Walking Horse. All the kids showed a horse, six classes for the kids and one for the counselors. About six kids had never ridden before but they were real good riders when they left camp. Joe Webb teaches us our riding lessons. Joe rode THE ENTERTAINER in the show. He was a whooper-dinger. I really liked him. One day a girl
wanted to go trail riding bareback, and that same day the saddle came off her horse.
On Tuesday the second week, we went to town to see a movie called " Wherever Angels Go— Trouble Follows.” On Thursday, we went to see " Blackbeard’ s Ghost.” That was neat!
We had a Talent Show one night. My group got first place and we had a watermelon feast. Ah-ha. The show was fun, there were a lot of crazy acts. The boys had a beauty contest; they wore dresses and shoes that belonged to the girls. The counselors had a Newly-Wed Game and Mrs. Webb and Joe and two others played a Dating Game. The winners of the Newly-Wed Game got to go on a cruise on the lake. It’ s not a very big lake.
I really want to go back next year and I hope Wes can go again next year, even without his appendix.
( EDITOR ' S NOTE: This year we obtained a list of the campers from both sessions. Space will not permi giving cities where they are from, but we are listini the names and states. Hope we did not omit anyone We tried to get all the names right!)
The counselors were Howard Hamilton and Debbh ■ Diehl from Tennessee; Joe Sexon, Robert Dacus, Dennis Martin and Carol Byrd from Arkansas; Emily Gambreel from Texas and Kay Bridger from Missouri. The cooks were Mrs. Nellie Young and Mrs. Mozelle Stafford. Coach and Betty Lynn Mote did just about everything, and of course Joe and Nell Webb.
Campers: Arkansas— Chris Franke, Kevin Webb, Mike Rice, John Parrish, Dana Hickman, Denise Pruett, Kim Webb, Reba Linduall, Lisa Cone, Lisa Thaxton, Joanna Webb, Julia Henry, Ruth Ann Reynolds, Diane Deitz, Melinda Fair, Vanessa Cranston, Ruth Ellen Harvey, Pattie Helsten, Sharon Webb, Terry Horner, Susan Quile, Steve Morris, Clark Secoy, Elmer Horner, Mike Morris, Grayson Sloan, Sally Sloan, Ann Blakely, Vicki Goble, Dana Sloan, Sommers Adkisson, Mary Grace Denton, Mimi Mitchell, Mary Richardson, Leigh Minor, Mary Sloan, Marge Rogers, Kim
Blakely, Jane Dillingham, Susan Nelson, Cathy Compton, Melissa Curtner, Bessie Means, Beth Richardson,
( Continued on poge I 18)
116
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse