archery awards, 1971

Bill Madden dug up his archery awards from the summer of 1971. The archery director that summer was Ko (Jakob) Van Wouwe, as you can see from the "membership" card Bill received. These awards was (time-consumingly) handed out at each session's closing campfire.

when Sequoia first started

Here's a photo of Sequoia - during its first-ever summer. (Was it 1971 or '72?) The barn out there had been known as the "Trailblazers Barn" at first, home base for our Canada-bound canoe program. At some point in the 1960s it was also the home of the "CE's" - "construction engineers." Then it was "the CIT Barn" for a few years before the Crafts Shop barn was renovated into Hayden Lodge ('70). Once CITs moved into Hayden, Sequoia was created as the Adventure Village and that's--again--when this shot was taken (by Sven Grotrian). The guy you seeing wandering into "the lair" was Pat Ricciardi, one of the early and most avid Sequoia guys.

Ken Nathanson says the first Sequoia summer was '73: "I was in Sequoia the first year it was formed. The year was 1973. In addition to Pat and Sven, Rick Cobb was also a staff member that year. Perhaps in time another name or two will come to mind. It was perhaps one of my favorite years as a camper."

droppin' off the staff

Yesterday was busy. The main body of the staff arrived - counselors and junior counselors. That means in some cases parents driving them here, and so, for me, a series of mini-reunions. This gang took a long walk with me - for the purpose of showing the place to Alexander (guy with the long hair) who directs a YMCA in Macedonia and is creating various partnerships with the Y run by Bob Lamauro.

From left to right: Bud Cox, Bob Lamauro, Nick Lamauro, Alexander (sorry, I didn't catch his last name), Ben Connell, Ladd Connell.

Nick decided to work at camp somewhat at the last minute. He's a counselor, having JC'd in Totem two summers ago (in the most challenging little boys--cabin 24--I'd seen in a long while). Through the Totem fire and now into the easy light of Outpost. Ben Connell will be a counselor in Outpost too. Ladd, as I've mentioned in this blog before, was a CIT with me in 1971 and we've stayed in touch ever since. Ladd is one of the neighborly Connells we've known for a generation: the family has owned the land west of FV, between FV and Claryville along the Neversink. Ladd and his family now live in northern Virginia.

The very talented former VC Lauren Lamauro was here yesterday too, but managed to evade this photo moment.

power lines in the middle of everything

I took this photo in July 1971 with a little Fujica half-frame camera. Sorry to have done such a bad job with it. At left you see the laundry in the old Forstmann bullpen (still there and still the laundry). In the center, across the field, you see the old Rec Hall (now Margetts Lodge). Behind my mother you can see the edge of the circle of grass we call "the Olympic Circle." Above my mother's head you'll see Hayden Lodge, brand spanking new that summer. It had been an old farm garage and served as the Crafts Shop until '70. In '71 the boys CITs lived in Hayden.

Note the unpaved roads around the Ad Office (which is where I'm taking the pic) and notice the power lines right in the middle of everything. Later they were buried and re-strung up the hill and out of the way.

Forest 1971

Here is Forest Village as it looked in the summer of 1971. You are facing the west, and can see the dining hall in the background. To your right is cabin 8 and in the middle, partly obscuring the dining hall behind it, is cabin 10. In the shadows between 8 and 10 is cabin 9. Behind you would be cabin 6 nearby and further behind you would be Totem, cabins 1 through 5. Today Hussey Lodge is roughly where cabin 8 is in this picture, and cabins 9 and 10 are still there but moved back a bit (not numbered and used for staff). Forest is now up the hill, where Outpost 11-15 used to be. Forest campers and staff reside in Hyde-Watson Lodge and cabin 8, which was given that old number but is really the original cabin 12.

Rhode Island disaster

I heard from Jim Beckner by email last night. He corrected an egregrious error in an entry I made back in August about the 1971 Lenape village picture. It's fixed now so go back and have a look.

Jim was at camp with us from 1971 through 1975. He remembered for me an incident from '75 that I had forgotten until now, involving an adventure trip. "During my last summer with the Camp (and you'll probably remember this) two people in Rhode Island were killed when they turned their car directly into the FV van as we were taking staff up to Massachusetts to put bikes together for the New England bike trip. The van was a total loss and several of us were injured."

Lenape 1971

Another year I've neglected: 1971. Here's the Lenape village photo for one of the sessions that summer.

Among the campers shown here is Ira Sasowsky, who was later a staff member.

Wearing number 16 is village chief, Jim Beckner. Jim was from Virginia (Radford, I believe) and was then studying English literature; eventually he became an English professor. Although when Jim and I got to know each other (in '73) and we talked a lot about novels and poetry I didn't have a clue that I'd also end up an English professor, there was nonetheless a strong connection between us.

Just in front of Jim is camper Lee Fleischer (FV 1969-1980) who also later became a staff member and whose son attended camp this past summer.

Ira Sasowsky is now a professor at Ohio State, and Lee Fleischer is a medical doctor in the Philly area. Probably the rest of the people in this pic have terminal degrees too. Maybe there was something in the Lenape drinking water that summer....