Homer McLemore remembers the early 60s

Homer McLemore remembers:

In the summer of 1961, my family members took me by automobile from northeast Miss. to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for an overnight train ride to NYC followed by a bus ride, via the Big Apple on Highway 17, to Liberty. In those days, Liberty was the abuzz with tourist and summer Catskill visitors. Arriving Saturday night about 10:00 p.m., Ralph Holt and Bill Starmer met me at bus station. Although I did not know the two, I felt as if we had been friends for life. We made the rounds of local clubs, hotels, and sidewalk café tables where we met with other counselors on that mid-summer week-end break.

The following morning, I was greeted at breakfast by Richard “Digger” Short, Mike Devita, Dave and Shirley King, Jerry Lester, and a number of others. It was a great summer with Mike Devita as Lenape Village Chief. I returned for two more summers as Archery Director and Family Camp Staff.

In the Spring 1964, I decided that summer employment within the area of my college studies was more responsible than returning as a camp counselor. The decision was difficult because of the memories of Wawayanda friends and things like the cool Neversink waters, the surrounding terrain, and hikes to the top of Slide Mountain. Other memories include flaming sneaker toes as I sat by a camp fire with cold wet feet and playing broom polo using the stable horses - seems we broke a number of broom handles. Other polo players included Bruce Whyte.

In those days, campers and counselors did not routinely cross the bridge on the road leading to the Castle. Staying at the Castle for a night was a special event. In 1962, Castle guests were served three meals including a semi-formal dinner serve by the staff who were more formally attired in their black dresses with white aprons and caps. In August 1972, my wife and I spent a honeymoon night at the Castle. What a ten year letdown! Alas, only one piece of fine china remaining in the cupboards. In the summer of 1995-ish, we ventured to Liberty on Highway 17. At one highway exit, a small bear greet us by sitting unnerved as we slowed for pictures. The town, Grossingers, the Concord, and many other summer resorts were sad reminders of the past. But (old English for something like: Behold the Undeniable Truth), the warm memories of Frost Valley have not faded in the past 48 years.

More on Homer here.

his last summer was 1964

From Michael Pitcher, whose last summer at Frost Valley was 1964:

Hi Al, as always it’s a great pleasure to enjoy the latest from Frost Valley. It's been 45 years since I attended Camp Wawayanda. A lot of adventures around the world under our belt as it were. My wife and I live on Vancouver Island, and refer to North America as the “Big Island to the east..."

My parents were the Northern Quebec connection for the Trailblazers in the early sixties, Roy and Kathryn Pitcher. And my experience at “W” has definitely been a “life-shaping” one.

I have enjoyed rekindling the memories very much as I ramble through your blog. Though we cannot easily attend as alumni, our hearts and prayers are very much behind the spirit of the Frost Valley vision and its impact on the world. All the very best to you and the folks at Frost Valley.

Family Camp, 1964

The families who spent a week at Wawayanda at the end of the summer of 1964 gathered in front of the dining hall porch for a group shot. Jim White was the Director. The Hamiltons were, as usual, part of the gang. They lived in Oradell, NJ, at the time. Later they moved to a home very near Frost Valley, and Bill was a member of the Board of Trustees. Their kids were campers and staff members. You can see Ann Hamilton (now Ann Dupry) in the very front, near the far left, wearing sunglasses and a hat. Brother David is to her left, on the end. Dad (Bill) is in the last row, second from left, wearing glasses.

The Hamiltons had been Family Campers since 1962. They were still Family Campers when I was the Family Camp Director in 1977.

Visiting Day, 1964

Isabel Banton Clowe (in the great glasses) is visited by her mother on Visiting Day at Camp Wawayanda in 1964. In those days: just park the old family station wagon alongside one of the camp paths, open 'er up and have yourself a picnic.

quick, get me a snake reference

Karen Rauter and others up at camp have been looking through old issues of the Wawayanda Wasp, which served as an off-season newsletter (for parents, mostly) and, during the summer, the camp newspaper written and edited by campers. (I was myself a "cub reporter" for the Wasp in '67 and '68.)

Here's a letter printed in an issue of the Wasp dated 1964:

Dear Mom and Dad,
Could you please send my by book on snakes; that tells the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes? A snake just bit me and…………
Love, Clem

I'm less worried about the snake bite (no poisonous snakes at Frost Valley!) than I am about the awful use of the semi-colon in the young fellow's letter home. What kind of grammar were they teaching up in the villages that summer?

cold shower technique for learning Greek

Hemlock, cabin 24, 1964. Back row: Jim VanZant, Fred Partridge, Pete Trias. Sitting on railing: R. Cantor, D.P. Blackford, A. Pinderhughes, Geoffrey Hazel. Sitting on the ground: S. Umberger, Greg Peach. Counselor: T. Brown.

Geoff Hazel remembers: "At night, the counselors would leave and we'd all stay up swapping stories and jokes (yeah, I don't think we want to get into what those jokes were, now do we?). Anyway, sometimes we'd get a little loud, and at least once every 2 weeks, our counselor would barge in and we'd each have to sit in the shower, with the cold water running, and recite the Greek alphabet. And since he was in the Omega fraternity, we'd have to say Omega about 10 times. It was kinda fun, and I learned the Greek alphabet along the way."

why slight 1964?

At right: Art Harmon at the 2001 reunion.

The blogging software I use - provided by Blogger (www.blogger.com) - enables me to see a kind of index of all entries. Since I have coded each entry with mentioned years (both individual years and also decades), I can see how evenly or unevenly I've made entries across the eras. I see that not one entry so far mentions 1964, but why slight '64? It was a very good year....at Wawayanda.

Here is a partial list of staff from that summer:

Mike Braun of Westfield - counselor
Henry A. "Bud" Cox of Westfield - counselor
Sue Cox (Bud's sister) - Castle Girl
Paul Cypert - maintenance director
Mike DeVita of Baltimore - Boys' Camp program director
Sandy DeVita - Assistant Camp Banker
Carol DeVita - Girls' Camp Director
Albert Fey - chef / kitchen manager
Gail Foster - Girls' Camp Program Director
Lynn Garrison of Memphis - VC ++
Bev Gross - counselor
Art Harmon of Roselle - counselor ***
Ralph Holt of Montclair - craft shop director
John Ketcham - counselor
Ray Kremer - "Castle Houseman"
Gerry Lester - nurse
Jeff Mitchell - counselor **
Al Parsons - Boys Camp Director
Richard "Digger" Shortt - CIT director
Bill Starmer - Trail Blazer, counselor
Jack Starmer - counselor
Gordon Weidow of Jacksonville FL - cousenlor
Jim Whyte - Executive Director
Jim Wilkes - Trail Blazer Dir., Assoc Exec Sec'y ****

** Jeff was related to the family that eventually supported the creation of the Mitchell Family Complex (of which Lakeside Lodge and Geyer Hall are a part).

*** Art Harmon was - famously - our Waterfront Director for several summers in the mid to late 1960s. I remember that occasionally Dave King called Art "the water rat" (affectionately, of course).

**** Did you miss the photo of Jim Wilkes in drag?

++ By 1966 or '67, Lynn was our Program Director.