The kid with his shorts rolled up and that huge belt buckle was Mister Personality. I guarantee it.

Were those military style haircuts mandatory or were they the style of the day?

* All white: Check
* All male: Check
* Regulation military buzzcut: Check
* Socks lacking elastic grips: Check
* Ultra skinny belts: Check
* High top canvas sneakers: partial check (Clearly a few did not get the memo.)

My two older brothers and I each took our turn going to church camp. I don't remember any of us saying it was great or terrible. But I do remember none of us went more than that one summer.

This photo of these serious, disciplined lads reminds me of the Allan Sherman classic.

All but a few. Not sure if Converse was around then. One kid is wearing loafers to a summer camp.

Yikes.

Second boy from the right. He's going to be a camp counselor when he grows up.

I'm sure those counselors made sure the boys didn't make jokes about the camp's name. At least in front of them. Or anyway, didn't make better jokes than the counselors made themselves.

A Shorpy photo from 2015 connected me in 2020 to Brian Barker, a schoolmate of mine from the 1950s. We both attended Camp Wanakita in August of 1957, in the Haliburton area of Ontario. By email we discovered that we had both taken photos at the same time at the camp. My photo dated August 1957 shows a group of friends, mostly from Windsor and Hamilton. Brian is on the far left holding his camera. Brian's photo shows a group and I am standing on the far left holding my camera. We both shared our photos for the first time thanks to Shorpy.

Looks like Morning Muster ...
Camp consular: "You down there! I said Ah-ten-hut!"
Kid: "But I can't ... The mosquitoes and spiders chewed me up last night!"
Camp consular: "Fall out for sick call!"

["Consular"?? - Dave]

I'll give this camp, which closed in the 1970s, the benefit of my doubt. But I have to note the military maneuver, the camp counselor's assertive body language, and the fact that nobody is even close to smiling. It brings back memories of a camp I was sent to about the same time -- not happy memories.