The family loved going to Rosetta's brother's Camp Ojibwa in Eagle River, Wisconsin

Camp Ojibwa  Meyer, his wife Bea, Al, Sam, Matilda, Jean and  Edna

One of the big delights for the family was an excursion to her brother Al's Camp Ojibwa in Eagle River, Wisconsin.

It is amazing how well-known it became and how many celebrities acknowledged it. Even the Alan Sherman song, "Camp Granada" was inspired by Al's camp. You see, Sherman was one of his counselors, but how do you rhyme with Ojibwa?

At one time baseball's famous Leo Durocher left a game to spend two days at the camp, but the Chicago Tribune found out and did a cartoon with him wearing a Camp Ojibwa tee-shirt.
Here is a post about it from www.funtrivia.com

14. An incident occurred in late July (Saturday, July 26) involving Leo Durocher. Do you remember what he did?  Leo called Jack Brickhouse a mental midget on the "Tenth Inning" show  Leo left a game and went up to Camp Ojibwa  Leo punched home plate umpire Harry Wendelstedt while arguing balls and strikes  Leo won his 1000th career game as a manager

Rosetta's daughter Phyllice lived in Alaska many years, and lo and behold she mentioned Camp Ojibwa to a friend in Juneau and it turned out he was a former camper. As for me,  one of my ex-husband's business associates had an uncle who was an original investor in the camp. What a small world.

If the name Camp Ojibwa sounds familiar, please post a comment. Rosetta and her brother Al were very close and he watched out for his "little sister" her entire life. Here is an excerpt from Can We Come In and Laugh, Too? where Rosetta introduces her brother Al. This section in the book tells the story of how the camp came to be.

~Morgan St. James, Rosetta's daughter

EXCERPT:

Al was the most successful of my brothers. Still in his early teens, he was too young to enlist in World War I, but heard that a person could make lots of money by working in the shipyards and help the war effort at the same time. He traveled to Detroit by himself and got a job in the shipyards there. It was true. By the time he was ready to come back to Chicago, he had saved up a few thousand dollars which was a fortune in those days.

He returned home and told my parents to ask for anything they wanted. As it turned out, the only thing they wanted was a pair of tickets to the Jewish synagogue for the High Holy Days. With the money that was left, he bought a horse and cart and launched his first business—delivering ice for iceboxes. We didn’t have electric refrigerators back then. Big cakes of ice were placed in heavily insulated ice boxes to keep our food from spoiling.

My brother said that he learned at a very young age what he had a talent for—making money.

As I say in my main story, the business he loved the most was owning a boys’ camp. He opened Camp Ojibwa in Eagle River, Wisconsin in 1928 and it became famous worldwide. For the rest of his life wherever he went it seemed someone recognized Al. Even in Europe. 

The book is available in paperback and Kindle. Get your own copy for inspiration and laughs.

WHEN ROSETTA WAS IN HER MID-80s, SHE REJECTED A SUITOR WHO WAS "TOO OLD"

He was too old for her!

Up until the mid 90s Rosetta was a familiar face in the Pico/Robertson area of Los Angeles. She never learned to drive and went everywhere by foot or bus. Occasionally, she would spring for a taxi. Until she was nearly 89, most mornings she  walked from her apartment at Sherbourne near Olympic to the shopping area on Pico--about a mile walk each way. It was good aerobic exercise, and probably contributed to her good health and youthful attitude.

As Rosetta took her daily walk, always with that great smile lighting her face, she frequently stopped to chat with some of the many friends she'd made along the way. By the time she was 86, it seemed as though one older gentleman waited  in the same spot every morning until she passed 


Finally one morning he struck up a conversation, then walked along with her. After several mornings he asked her out for dinner, but made the mistake of calling it a "date." Much to his dismay, she said she just wanted to be friends. Undaunted, he still waited for her every day. At last she agreed and they had their "date."

It was hard to hold back my chuckles after I asked, "Mom, you said he's a nice guy. I never hear you talk about him anymore."

"Well, honey, he's just too old for me. During dinner he me told he's ninety. Okay he still drives, goes to the gym every day and is a fine-looking fellow--tall and erect with a good head of silver hair, and he's really funny, but what do I want with an old man? She lowered her voice, "Besides, I think he's looking for a sex partner. So, it was a dilemma. You see, I'm too young for him, but I'm too old to be anyone's sex toy."

The poor old gent continued to hound her to no avail. That's all for today. Thanks for following this blog. ROSETTA'S DAUGHTER, MORGAN ST. JAMES

 Love Rosetta? Read her funny and touching memoir. CAN WE COME IN AND LAUGH, TOO?

Welcome to the new blog for Rosetta Schwartz's book Can We Come In and Laugh, Too

Rosetta can't write this blog herself, because she passed away in 2006 just before her 97th birthday. When her daughter, author Morgan St. James, convinced to write a memoir back in 1989, Rosetta had no idea that someday it would be a book to be enjoyed by the masses. 

With her normal modesty, she said, "But honey, you and your sister Phyllice are the writers in the family. What would I say?"

"Well, Mom, just write about your life. Lot's of people living now have no idea what it was like back then . You weathered some pretty stormy times and it seems laughter always got you through. By the way, you're wrong. You're a wonderful writer."

She thought for a moment, then said, "Well we always did have so much fun. With 9 brothers and sisters pulling crazy stunts and all the neighbors wanting to come in and laugh with us, I guess I do have pretty much to write about."

So Rosetta took out her spiral notebook and started to write. "Before I tell my stories, and I've got a lot of them, I want to talk about my brothers and sisters. People need to know what they were like to understand that our family was like living in the middle of a three-ring circus."

That was definitely the truth. The calmest one was Jean, the oldest of the brood. Beautiful Jean even graced the cover of an early Saturday Evening Post one time, but that's another story and you'll find it in the book. The others were like a troop of comedians 24/7.

As she takes you through her more than 90 years, future posts will give you more insight into Rosetta, a little silver-haired woman with the strength of steel and the understanding of Soloman. She had the gift of being able to make you feel so special and believe that you could accomplish anything.

Oh, yes, there will also be video of her dancing to rock and roll at age 90 and peeks into her amazing wisdom.

Thanks for visiting, and come back soon.