The Golden Daze of Summer : Seniors Relive Childhood at Salvation Army Camp

“The last hayride I took was on a farm wagon drawn by a span of mules going up a creek bed in Kentucky in 1922,” Claude Windle recalled. “I didn’t get a kiss then, and I didn’t get one today.”

Windle, 80, of Ventura, had just returned from a hayride Friday with about 30 other “senior” campers at the Salvation Army’s Mt. Crags Camp in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Salvation Army has been running the camp for older people for the last 23 years, and more than 200 campers in two groups spent 2 1/2 days there last week, swimming, hiking, playing bingo and cards, learning crafts.

For many, it was their first camping experience--a sun-splashed respite from their solitude, or a chance simply to walk in the woods without fear of muggers.

‘Too Dangerous to Walk’

“Taking walks is my favorite activity,” said Gladys Espinosa, 73, of Los Angeles. “It’s too dangerous to walk in my neighborhood near Union and Olympic. I’m afraid to leave my home after 3 p.m. But I love it here.”

Espinosa and her sister-in-law, Maria Fraga, 74, of Los Angeles, giggled like teen-agers as they ate lunch and anticipated a bingo game Friday afternoon.

The camp is open to anyone who applies, “as long as we’re not over our quota of 150 per session,” said Salvation Army Brigadier Betty Whiteside, the group’s director of senior services. She added that the camp costs $50 but that nearly all the campers are subsidized by Salvation Army funds.

Like several other campers, Julie Castruita, 68, and her husband Luis, 74, said they left their cares at home in Santa Fe Springs. “We forgot about arthritis, rheumatism, children who don’t come to visit us,” she said. “We just sit in the sun and meet new friends.”

Julie Castruita remembers her family’s having “only enough money to keep us going. When we were kids, going to the beach was a luxury. We used to walk to the beach but not too often because we would wear out our shoes.”

‘It Was Worth the Wait’

Coming to the camp, she said, allows her to finally “get a taste” of what she missed as a child. “And it was absolutely worth the wait,” she said.

Julie said she and her husband first came to camp in 1972, finding that “it was something like going back to our childhood. There was somebody looking after us instead of us looking after our children.”

All the campers shared two things, she said: “We were getting old and we were all lonely.”

The camping experience reduces the loneliness for many. At least one couple was married after meeting at the camp several years ago, staff members said, and more than a few romances have blossomed amid the old oak trees and evergreens in the Malibu Canyon camp.

Friends urged Felix Calvillo, 77, of Whittier to return to the camp this year, but he admitted that he is having a difficult time.

Rest and Good Meals

“I look forward to the rest and the good meals when I come here,” he said. “And I like the bingo games, although I didn’t win a thing yesterday.”

But Calvillo hasn’t made any new friends this year, he said, “because I’m still kind of sad yet.” His wife of 48 years died last month, and he is very much in the midst of trying to adjust to “this very big change in my life.”

He sat alone, away from other campers at an amphitheater where he and his wife had enjoyed skits and talent shows together in earlier years.

“There are a lot of things that remind me of her here,” he said, unable to hold back his tears.

Despite the painful memories, Calvillo said it was a good idea for him to come. “The shows, the hayride, the games--they help me with my grief,” he said. “A friend whose wife died told me that the first three months afterwards are very hard.

“It is tough. But if you grieve too much like I’m doing now, you die.”

Shaking off his mood, he managed a smile as he headed off to the dining hall, allowing that he would try his luck at bingo again after lunch.

Other campers excitedly discussed a parade, talent show and a square dance scheduled later.

“We are all very talented,” said Adelina Gonzalez, 63, of San Diego, laughing. “I’ll sing ‘Granada’ at the talent show tonight,” she added as she sang a few lines.

And if she sang it with enough spirit, who knows, Felix Calvillo may just have joined in.