Last week you learned of the founders of “Zitt’s Little Ponderosa” and thanks to an invitation from my old classmate, Peggy Z. Smith, I will let you in on what their legendary camp out on Labor Day is all about. Words like fun, family, fellowship and freedom come to mind to describe this 47th annual gathering. (Actually it may have begun on a small scale years before with just Clinton and Lucie Zittrouer’s young children: Norwood, Ray, Nell, and Peggy.)
Weeks before Friday night of Labor Day weekend, the family is busy getting the Ponderosa ready for the weekend. Then on Friday night around 7:30, all of Lucie Rae’s and Clinton Zittrouer’s family and all their brothers’ and sisters’ families gather for a weekend of fun. The food is all planned and purchased for meals feeding 35 or so at slack times to 100 or more for evening meals, Sunday and Monday lunch.
The setting is a very peaceful, shady and quiet wooded area except for the nearby railroad’s occasional train which still thrills all the children who are riding all over trails around this camp in a very safe environment. They even tape flashlights on their bicycles and ride well into the night. The elders here even look out and see so many kids that they think some extras may just come by and join in.
The camp itself is centered on a rustic enclosed building with a fireplace and lots of screened windows which house the cook stoves and a very long table to hold the bountiful meals including: barbeque pork, low country boil, pot roast and fried chicken, burgers and hot dogs and the big meal on Monday which is Clinton’s recipe — barbeque chicken cooked on grills and pits.
Meals are eaten under an attached open picnic shed with picnic tables with benches and additional folding chairs are scattered nearby. A cast iron bell by the door rings to call the gang to meals with a first ring to wash up and the second for grace.
The favorite meal is breakfast that is a “grits, bacon, sausage, toast and eggs” spread that the little ones really enjoy as a treat that they may only see on Labor Day weekend. A few tarps make shade for the most important item, a huge pile of dirt, thoroughly enjoyed by the little campers with their shovels, pails and trucks. Nearby a fire pit is surrounded by a circle of lawn chairs for adults to congregate for long chats.
The stationary buildings are the two log cabins that house beds for sleeping and a much-improved privy. The abandoned three-hole privy may be refurbished, or at least redecorated, with some of the entertaining paper memorabilia of the past for the 50th event in 2012.
The new bathroom facility boasts his and hers toilet areas including showers with hot water. Around this area there are many RVs, horse trailers with sleepers and a few pop-up tents. Each is hooked into electricity just like a campground. The new feature this year is the Ponderosa Department of Corrections Bus – P DOC – that housed two of the Fulcher wardens and five juvenile inmates in its generous sleeping quarters that replaced the seats. And folks, these inmates even have air-conditioning. Around 35 or so still spend the nights with many trekking home overnight to arrive in time for breakfast the next morning.
Zittrouer Farms brought its new (old) restored fire truck that provides climbing areas for the kids and aids in dust suppression and recreational water sprays in the heat. At intervals, rides on the truck brought much pleasure.
This year, Peggy Smith and Carroll Zittrouer led the way on the midnight bike ride to Springfield flanked by more bikes and a few golf carts. It is very evident why kids cry when the event closes shortly after noon on Labor Day.
Each year a theme is selected and current trends are worked into the festivities. A few years ago the Olympics hula hoop rings decoration and selected games brought unique sports to the camp out. Winners in sack races, Frisbee throws, relays and other events received traditional prizes: a gold sprayed dried cow pie for first, a silver pie for second and, you guessed it, a natural one for bronze. This year the camp is environmentally friendly with new lighting fixtures under the picnic shed. Discarded satellite dishes were painted white with attached electrical works utilizing new green low wattage curlicue light bulbs providing economical and recycled lighting for the area.
This year focused on the “Amazing Race,” organized by Sandy Granade and Jill Williams, where groups were given tasks to complete.There were two versions for this, children on bikes and golf carts in and around the camp (adults driving) and an adult version (cars and trucks). Each had to travel by vehicle to a site by clues given and take a picture at the location.
Vague clues sent them to the Guyton Caboose, Savannah River and other locations. In the words of Darren Thomas, “Whoever said Family Reunions aren’t fun?” while he hung out of the back of a vehicle filming his team in the “Amazing Race.”
Womanless beauty pageants over the years complete with talent caused many to laugh until they cried. Elaborate scavenger hunts have graced the years and now the modern version is video scavenger hunt. Favorite sports always include horseshoes, bicycle hide and seek, cutthroat volleyball, softball and more recently “corn hole,” a bean bag toss into a wooden target with an opening. Many recall the nine-hole Zitt’s putt-putt golf course with rolled roofing putting greens and coffee can holes. The flashlight bucket frog hunts and Hippie Go-Go-Van are fond memories.
Since Daddy Clint is no longer with us, “Mabo” Lucie Rae is the original founder in charge of the event. Other matriarchs of the founding group are: Clinton’s sister “Ma Matra” Matra Fulcher and Lucie Rae’s sisters “Aunt Dena” Madena Edenfield and “Aunt Deet” Marguerite Dutton, the 91-year-old character who always tells it like it is. There is no need for an entertainment committee in this family; most everyone knows fun is an attitude.
I guess it is unique relatives who actually think up these crazy antics who bring so much pleasure to this family. Newcomers and dates get tried and tested during their initiation into the event and some never return. And those who did marry into the family only come to appreciate this wonderful fellowship later on and become much loved members of the somewhat crazy family.
Others like Rob Williams, Jill’s late husband, loved it remarking that, “They talk about it, then sit around and talk about it some more. The event has massive amounts of family bonding.”
Married couples have always taken hits. The year when Janice and Buddy were sleeping in Walt’s furniture truck, they found themselves at a new location after the gang had pushed the truck into a new part of the woods. It is pretty well understood for all the couples that family planning must exclude giving birth during Labor Day weekend. The nearest birth to the weekend was two days away from the event. Over the 47 years there have never been any serious accidents. Praise the Lord.
What will the 50th anniversary hold? Will they lie out in the field and spell out words for airplanes to read like they did for Eddie Browning flying over years ago? Will Detra and Jill take the kids “snipe hunting” in 2010? Will the people attending the reunion ever get the chicken right?
The rules are that each family is to arrive on Monday by the designated time with quartered chicken salted and peppered with the wings tucked and the chicken is to not be frozen. We all know barbeque chicken is not just a food on Labor Day; it’s a work of art. How many new family members will be there for the next year? Time will tell.
Whatever the case, I can bet that this tradition is here to stay. What a family and what a wonderful Christian clean fun event that is intergenerational and still going strong. Other boring family reunions might be much better attended if they took a lesson from this gang on Labor Day. Family is the most important thing according to Daddy Clint and his legacy lives on at Zitt’s Little Ponderosa every Labor Day Weekend.
The on-going theme of this reunion is: “Next to God, nothing is as important as family.”
This article was written by Susan Exley of Historic Effingham Society. If you have questions, comments or photos to share, please call her at 754-6681 or e-mail: susanexley@historiceffinghamsociety.org.
