"Do you know what a Tajar is? Well, he's something like a tiger, and something like a jaguar and something like a badger; and if you should see him once, you would forget what he lookied like, but if you should see him twice you would forget to forget what he looked like, and that would be quite fatal."

The Tajar Tales were written by Jane Shaw Ward and first published in 1925. (You can even buy a copy of the book at amazon.com )

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A favorite evening program at Azalea Trails was the "Tajar Party." We gathered in the lodge, frequently after engaging in a friendly kidnapping of another unit, to listen to and watch the tales being acted out.Counselors play the parts of the narrator and of the Tajar, the Range Ranger (who ranges the ranges of that region) and of Madame Witch.

Here you see "Chance" as the Range Ranger and "Indy" as the narrator.

No Tajar Party was complete without the Tajar pledge at the end:

"Are you a Tajar?"

"You bet your stripe-d tie I are, GRRR!"

Followed by Tajar Food (graham crackers with chocolate frosting).

Campers would write letters to Tajar and place them in his house in a tree near the lodge. Although we forgot what he looked like, Tajar wrote back to us, relieving homesickness and the sadness that came of not getting mail from home.

Tajar's writing wasn't very good; he reversed many letters and had trouble with spelling. We loved getting his notes, though!

This picture of my sister, taken in 1979, shows Michelle putting letters in Tajar's mailbox.