'88 Wawayanda staff

Above: the 1988 Wawayanda staff village assignment list. Notice that Pokey/Totem was combined that summer. Later the two were separated again and in recent years re-combined. Note also that Sacky and Hemlock were part of Wawayanda (now part of Hird). Also Outpost was a girls village that year!

Duff no duffer

Jamie Duff is now a camper in Outpost, and Ceri Duff is a Susky girl. They've been family campers (the final week of the summer) with dad and mom but this is their first time in resident camp. Dad is here too, for two weeks. As dad put it at the VC meeting the other night: "I'm surely up there in the Frost Valley record books: twenty years between the now and the last time I was on the staff."

Yes, dad is Stuart Duff, whose re-connection to Frost Valley I've mentioned here at least once before. Stuart was here in '84 and '85 and again in '88. I hope to get some time with him and my recorder--have him tell his own Frost Valley story.

His wife will join him and the kids after session 4 is done, for another week of Family Camp. Meantime, now Stuart is the perfect end-of-summer uplift. He offers an all-village one- or two-period mini-Olympics called "Gumbo Games." It's gone really well so far. He's also teaching some soccer, it seems, and is helping out variously. I hope to recruit him to be a judge at a few Challenge Nights coming up.

The photos shows Stuart flanked by Fenn Putman, President of our Board, and Tom Holsapple, Operations Director.

Last night I told my story called "Sawmill, 1958" to Susky - late, under the stars, at their village campfire. Most of the girls were mesmerized, a few were (temporarily) scared, but not Ceri. She made some wonderfully skeptical semi-wisecrack at the end. I didn't see the face but heard the accent (English with a family-induced taint of Irish in there somewhere). I thought to myself: "Ah, it's a Duff!"

Hogan invasion from down under

Here is a photo of Elise Hogan (the blonde), counselor in Lakota Village - taken just an hour ago in the dining hall during Wawayanda's lunchtime hoopla.

Elise is a niece of Cathy ("Cath") Hogan. I'll let Cath, with passion, tell the whole story:

Cath Hogan here from the wonderful land of down under.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your most wonderful, engaging and continuous Frost Valley updates.

Your efforts and passion for Frost Valley are greatly recognized and appreciated, especially by me from this end of the earth.

Al, I have never forgotten Frost Valley. The amazing and most wonderful memories of my three visits in the years of ’84, ’85 and again in ’88 for two weeks have remained with me since the day I first arrived.

I have spoken passionately about FV for what will be 24 years this June. My passion has never weathered, but has lived on and been shared with many Australians that I have recommended to Frost, some of which have been fortunate enough to have been accepted to work a summer or more there.

A wonderful Frost Valley story I wish share with you is about a Frost Valley Promise ….

Twenty three years ago, in 1984, I formed very close bonds and connected friendships with Eileen Bradley, Jen DeMelle and Ruth Krotchko.

All three of those amazing young people (at that time, ha ha) made a promise to me, twenty three years ago, that they would visit me in Australia!

In April 2006, Eileen Bradley and Jen Grant (DeMelle) together, side by side, walked through the doors of Coffs Harbour Regional Aiport (where I live in Australia) to be met by the most excited Aussie you could ever witness.

There we were, back in each others arms once again, twenty three years later. Eileen and Jen spent time with me in my beach village home in Sawtell, met my family, sang Four Strong Winds together and spent time face to face (literally) with Australian Wildlife Bradley got chased up a tree by a rather large Red Kangaroo. The girls also spent time with Liz Horne and Nikki and Eileen finally got to see a Wombat living in its wild living environment, which was her long time Australian goal.

A Frost Valley dream …. (apart from the visit)

It has been a dream of mine to have a member of my family attend Frost Valley so that it may always live on …. (for me)

This year, my two nieces, Nicole and Elise and my partner’s daughter Casey have all been accepted to work this summer.

Oh my God, I am thrilled beyond words …. A dream has really and truly come true for me !!!!!

The beautiful Ruth DiGiacomo (Krotchko) and I have never lost our very close bond and friendship. Ruth will be picking up the girls and seeing them safely into Frost Valley.

Another dream comes true ….

My partner Jen and I will be arriving into Newark on August 4th, being picked up by Ruth, staying some time with her and heading out to Frost Valley.

Al, I have kept every letter ever sent to me during my world travels all those years ago and then some.

I found:

1) My letter of acceptance written in 1984 by Terry Murray.

2) The Frost Valley Newsletter from 1984 containing a photo of all staff and the names of the International Counselors accepted that year.

3) I still have in my possession a Frost Valley t/shirt that I purchased from the shop in 1984.

Above: The amazing too-talented 1984 Tacoma staff (cabins 31-35).

toothless roosterman returns

Last night marked the return of an evening program called "The Ichabod Craine Revue," a story night featuring an anthology of three stories by noted FV story-tellers. Most of the Hird villages (older kids) and a little more than half of the CITs were in attendance, sitting in the upstairs of Geyer Hall waiting for spun yarns to delight and astonish them - give them something to talk about later into the night.

First up was Gail Morris, who started here in '92 and is this summer on the administrative team as, among other things, the coordinator of our Newark Partnership Program. Gail casually but mysteriously told the story of strange happenings up on Banks Hill over the years.

Next up was Jeff Daly, celebrating (have I noted this yet?) 20 years since he first came to Frost Valley in 1988 as a Sequoia camper. He's now one of the two overall directors of camping and--as those who know him already know--a person of unmatched summer camp instincts: timing, staff talent, the balance of enthusiasm and sternness, etc. Jeff told a new and truer version of a legend that had (he tells me) come up through the ranks and years starting in (I think) Hemlock in the 90s. The figure in this myth is the Toothless Roosterman, a scary figure who at the same time is utterly ridiculous.

Jeff told "The Legend of the Toothless Roosterman," and the campers and staff loved it. I made a recording of this. Tonight, when you get home from work, build a fire in your Manhattan apartment or Mississippi condo or Seattle suburban house, get out the marshmellows and sticks, and put on this story. Camp again.

Here's your link to Jeff's story: LINK

Oh, yes, I told the third story last night - the story of J. C. Pony (Forest counselor in the 1960s) and the mysterious "Haunted House" overnight camp site. The key lines are: "Does Forest have the spirit?" (to which you answer: Yeah man!) and "Does Frost Valley have the spirit?" (Yeah man!)

borderman Pat "Patman" Brasington

I believe there's a pistol in that holster.

Pat "Patman" Brasington worked summers and as a full-year program staff member in the years around 1986-88 - so Chris Dundorf, who circulated around then too, reminds me. Chris sent me a link to a Slate article about Pat, who is now a ranger for the Bureau of Land Management, and he patrols the Sonoran Desert National Monument, 496,000 acres of heartbreakingly beautiful and lonely desert an hour southwest of Phoenix and 70 miles, as the crow flies, from the border. Carrying a gun in this arid place is a long way from working environmental ed in the green round Catskills. And yet of course Pat's FV experience has served him well. The Slate article is about the U.S.-Mexico border wars. Here's part of the article:

Brasington and I are walking out of a wash in a remote section of the monument, and I'm there when his posture changes from relaxed, with his rifle slung on his back, to slightly bent at the chest, rifle forward, finger on the trigger guard. It's the classic infantryman's patrol position. We hit the top, and he relaxes. I point out his change in posture, and he just looks at me.

"You know," he says, "I didn't even know I did that. It's just instinct I guess, from working out here."

We walk in silence for a minute, and Brasington starts talking.

"When I came here, I used to complain about the cows. They left pies everywhere, they cut trails through what should have been a wilderness area. Now I've got foot traffic and smugglers and someone potentially laying under any tree on the monument, and I have to wonder how they'll react when they see me, because they're not supposed to be in this country."

Brasington's a pretty positive, cheerful guy. But his voice gets an edge to it on this topic.

Here's a link to the Slate piece.