cabin 18, we'll miss ya

I never thought it would succeed--the somewhat crazy notion of having alumni bid on the old cabins. But it has. There has been a great deal of talk and excitement. Jim Tisch at FV has been collecting bids, and the bidding will end on October 1.

Here's one of many responses I've gotten - from a long-time camper-staff of the late 90s and early 00s:

"Since the moment that you sent the original email about owning a frost valley cabin, my close group of best friends has been endlessly talking about the possibility! In fact, we are all getting together tonight to talk about what our options might be: if we all go in together (there are about 9 or 10 of us) – what could our bid be? If we win, where could we place the cabin?"

"We are truly hoping that this is a possibility," she continues. "All of us have been friends since we were young campers and just the thought of always being able to be in one of the original cabins, where it all began, is truly awesome."

So go for it. Send your bids and questions to Jim Tisch at jtisch [at] frostvalley.org.

Cabin 18 in Lenape was the highest-up cabin in the old days. Cabin 15 in Outpost (now gone--replaced on the site by the road running in front of Hyde & Watson and Quick Lodges) was probably a few feet higher up. But we of Lenape cabin 18 claimed we were highest. Whatever. I was a camper in that cabin for 6 weeks in '68. My AIM screename is "lenape68."

Bud Cox was a VC/counselor in that cabin for many years.

John Butler writes: "Just to add to the history of Cabin 18, I lived there with Andy Pilc for a while when I first worked in Hemlock. We had some of the best kids ever who are now off to become CITs. I remember, to tie it more closely to your history at the Valley, that we acquired 10 copies of the book you wrote about FV [Finding the Way Back] and gave them, along with a FV Visor to each of our 8 campers at a little ceremony on Big Tree Field where we talked precisely about the legacy of being in Hemlock and the legacy of Cabin 15 [18], which we made-up at the time. Later as a VC I chose to emphasize the history and legacy of the buildings as a means of cultivating stewardship of our little patch of land, which I still treasure as one of my favorite places on camp. My history is more closely tied with cabin 17, however, both as a CIT there and then as VC. If I had the money and location, I would buy 17 [old 19] in a second."

Dave King writes: "Cabin 18 was the cabin I lived in as Chief of Lenape in 1958. I also stayed there in '59. The original Wawayanda villages were numeric until we could figure what the village names were to be. Lenape was Village #4. Thankfully, "old timers" such as Hal Ressmeyer (Waterfront Director) and Bill McNally (Riflery Director) prevailed and it was decided retain the Wawayanda names. The whole cabin sale response again underlines the power and magic of Frost Valley."