makin' $325 for the summer

Ah, the old contract. We awaited these, typed by Jane Brown and "signed" by an inked stamp carved with Halbe Brown's signature. Here's Stu Sherman's contract to be a counselor in the summer of '73. If he came on June 18 and left on September 1 (including Family Camp week at the end) he'd earn $350! Click on the image below and you should get a large-enough version of it to read the whole contract. (I've blocked out Stu's SSN.)

We didn't get paid for staff training week (now the staff does indeed get paid for that week, which is of course hard work).

I think I must have spent $50 easily on my days' off each session. That didn't leave much. Sometimes it felt like serfdom, sometimes it felt like a labor of true love, sometimes it felt like a hamster cage, sometimes it felt like volunteerism, but we got these things, never questioned them, signed them and sent them back. (Later - once - I negotiated a slightly better weekly pay, but it felt odd and untoward.)