ping pong in the old dining hall, 1974

 

Bud Cox and Bill Clarke enjoying some free time during pre-camp.1974 Old Boys' Dining Hall. Photo by Doug Tompkins late May or early June.

Bud Cox, Doug Kerr

Bud sunset

One more great shot of Bud leading "Lion Hunt" at CIT Point in July.

Lion Hunt from another angle

Here's another shot--better than ones I've posted here before--of Bud Cox leading a legendary "Lion Hunt" at the huge campfire to celebrate 125 years of Y camping. That's Jeff Daly and Kam Kobeissi making sure the ladder doesn't topple and, with it, our legend.

mail yourself to Bud Cox

Annabeth, a long-time camper now in Sunburst, is really fascinated by the legend of Bud Cox. (Bud recently led the entire camp in a rousing rendition of "Lion Hunt," thus reviving, once again, camp-wide interest in his long tenure here and his famous antics.) Annabeth dressed up for a Sunburst/Forest theme day, and planned to mail herself to Bud. You can see the stamp and Bud's address on her forehead.

the girls' camp staffer who led songs "on the girls' side"

Above is a portion of the photo of the 1962 boys' camp staff. The handsome young guy in the middle on the bottom row is a Junior Counselor by the name of Henry A. Cox, Jr., known as "Bud."

If you click here you'll see photos of the entire 1962 summer staff, along with the names of just about everyone in the pictures.

The other night a member of the girls' camp staff that summer--Kathy Schonmeyer--found this stuff on the web, and then wrote to me. Here's part of what Kathy (who now goes by "Kate") wrote:

I just logged into your Frost Valley blog, went to the "alumni photos" page and scrolled down, and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a link to the 1962 Wawayanda staff. I clicked on the link to the picture and there I was, as I knew I would be. I'm sitting next to Penny Hanna, and the name should be Kathy Schonmeyer. Jumping up one row, Jane Doncey should be Jane Donley.

I have some pictures from that year and the next few. I worked at Wawayanda for four summers, '62 - '65. I was one of the Ohio group. I was a counselor for two years, then waterfront director, then program director, and then I had to get a serious job that paid real money. The fact is, I'd still be happily coming back every summer if I could....

1965 was my final year. Carol DeVita was Girls' Camp Director that year. I just read about Gerry Lester's passing. She was good people.

I also read about Dave King. I usually led the songs on the girls' camp side during my tenure, all the raucous songs from Broadway Y in Cleveland, some of which I'm sure were retired many years ago, like "Titanic." "Hey Look Us Over" was one of the songs that came from Broadway Y, my incubator.

Kate will be happy to know that the campers and staff of girls' camp (Camp Hird) sang "Hey Look Us Over" at least until the early 1980s and that "Titanic" was sung through the late 80s and maybe even into the early 90s.

Hey, look us over, lend us an ear
We are from Y camp, you have heard us cheer
Never a letdown, never a frown,
Whenever we get together life is just a merry-go-round,

For there are two weeks of swimming, two weeks of fun,
We're all in clover and always on the run,
So whenever you're feeling down and out
Remember us and shout
Wawayanda is for you.

The Wawayanda version of the song was imported through the staff women who came to Frost Valley from the Cleveland Y. Dorothy Stenger, Girls' Director of the Broadway Y in Cleveland, wrote the words to the Cleveland version of the song.

after a Sacky devotion

Castle tour to end all Castle tours

It was billed as the Castle tour to end all Castle tours. It might well have been the greatest Castle tour-giving talent assembled in the old mansion's living room at one time. The featured tellers were Dave King (not pictured here), Chuck White, Bill Devlin, Dave Haight, Dave Gold, and Bud Cox. This (again) was Labor Day 2001, the Wawayanda Centennial (1901-2001) reunion. In this picture you see Bill Devlin (white beard), Chuck White (wearing sweater), Dave Haight (next to Bill), and Dave Gold. Bud and Dave King were on the other side of the room.

tall grass, really tall grass

Bud Cox, who (as everyone knows) was there 50 years ago, led a rousing version of "Goin' on a Lion Hunt" today during staff training. Click on the image and watch the video.

Bud Cox goes on a lion hunt (audio)

After Bud Cox finished leading us in a high-octane revival of "Lion Hunt" at the September 2006 reunion, the several generations of FV'ers gathered there gave him a seven-minute standing ovation. It was a great moment. Bud started at Wawayanda in 1954 and this was 52 years later. I made a video of the miraculous performance and will eventually find the patience to make it available here, but for now I've made an audio version. You can download it by clicking on the link; or right-click on the link and choose "save as". Be sure to have this on your IPod! Or you can stream the audio by clicking on the little encircled triangle (if you see it). So here now is your link to Bud.

first time up Doubletop (video)

Hike up Doubletop: late June 2006, with Bud Cox, myself, and Bill Abbott. I have some great pictures of this trip, but I'll add them later. We left camp at 8 am on this particular Saturday in the drizzling rain, and maybe it was 60 degrees, but no warmer. And we decided to climb up a little-used way - up High Falls Brook, which of course comes down the mountain far far above where most folks see the brook (at High Falls itself). Following the brook to its source (which is really a bunch of swampy streams) we walked through mud and brambles, and it was still raining.

So there were nicer days of hiking, but this was fun. When we got to the two tops of Doubletop, the rain and fog lifted and so we were able to see down to camp (you can see the Ad Office from up there!). But...but...now we were hit by swarms of black flies.

Oh, and as a bonus, here's a video of Bud being Bud - hilarious - as we rested during the final ascent (very steep) up the High Falls Brook-side (or western) ridge.

Send me your first-time-up-Doubletop stories.

The first (in several respects, as you'll see) is Bill Sonsin, who goes way back, wrote me about recent posts to this blog: "The 'first time up Doubletop' and 'Hemlock cabin 24' together brought back memories. I was in Hemlock #24 in the summer of 1959. Art Fritz was the counselor. I think we were the absolute first group [from the camp] to climb Doubletop, ever." Fritz was from Westfield and a student at Syracuse University (class of 1962). Other campers besides Bill from cabin 24 that summer were Ron Lochly, Ed Kieling, Chipper Hoeck, Robert Floyd, Joe Allen, and Dave Edsall.

Here are two more Doubletop firsts.

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."

Fir Mountain in January

It's the first of September and I'm thinking of Frost Valley in winter--perhaps this morning trying to avoid all those autumnal death thoughts I mentioned the other day. I'm glum at summer's end (for many reasons, not all having to do with FV), so my mind likes to leap forward fast. I went hunting among my carousels of 35 mm slides for a scene of snow.

After a day-long hike up and back down Fir Mountain in January 1973, Bud Cox pretends to be so tired as to fall asleep leaning against a tree. Fat chance that Bud was tired--then or ever--on a hike. Among those he dragooned into this adventure were David and Becky White, two of Chuck and Joy White's children.

It was really cold that day--15 degrees or so--but we were all young and had just hiked at almost a running pace, so the coats had come off long before this point.

If anyone ever asked Bud how far it was before we reach our hike's destination, he would immediately and in a flat-toned just slightly ironic voice, "Oh, two point three six miles." You would believe this until, maybe a half hour later, you asked again, and then came this answer: "Oh, two point three six miles." Sometimes he would add as a coda: "Give or take a few miles."

can't help but wonder where I'm bound

April 1974: Bud lured a bunch of us on a planned 5-day backpacking trip up and across the mountains (Table, Peekamoose, etc.) "behind" or to the south of Slide--in other words, up the "back way" (via the East Branch Neversink Road at Tison's) to Slide, which we usually approach from the county road as it winds across the north edge of the Catskills' tallest peak. On the first day--April 19th, I think--temps were in the 60s. We took sweaters and jackets but that was all in the way of warm things. This photo was taken that first night out. But then we got hit by 17" of ice and snow. Some of us went a little bonkers and dragged the tents through the ice shards, ripping the tarps. We were hard pressed just to make a fire. Several of us walked back toward what is now Frost Valley's farm - to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ertz (who lived in what is now our farmhouse). We called Chuck White (of course) and Chuck, wearing his usually bemused smile (it said something like: you people don't have a clue), came and got us in a truck, and back we went to camp. Was this the only time in his long career outdoors that Bud Cox was forced to abandon a planned trip? He and I still talk about this journey, smiling and rolling our eyes.

Don't you love Bud's Bob Dylan sunglasses? I always did. And I can hear him singing, as we hiked, "Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now...." Wish it were true.

Bud's thirsty boots

Of course it was Henry A. ("Bud") Cox who first created Frost Valley's Adventure Program. The photo here was taken in August of 1973, about an hour after Bud returned from a summer of Adirondack backpacking. In 2007 Bud still works at Frost Valley, leading hikes, helping Brian Sense with details of the current FV Adventures program, and, once in a while, leading "Goin' on a Lion Hunt" in the dining hall. We have two videos of these "Lion Hunt" revivals and I hope to post at least one of them before too long to this blog.