Olympics 1967

A race during the 1967 Wawayanda Olympics. The "field events" took place in the Big Tree Field. For the "track" a swath of grass was mown short. I remember running some of these races myself as a camper. The Big Tree Field - then even more than now - was full of hillocks and bumps, and it was impossible to run really fast without stumbling or going wobbly in the knees. (Photo by Geoff Hazel.)

Eric Blum - four photos

As we prepare to bury a time capsule in/under the new Blum Center at Frost Valley, I quickly went through some of my old photos of Eric. Here are four of them. One of these I will send to camp now to be among those put into the time capsule. Fifty years from now when our successors at Frost Valley open it up, they will know exactly who these people are. Why? Because Blum and his colleagues did legendary work for kids, unforgettable. For a larger view of any of these photos, just click on the image.

waving their flags

faces of the Frost Valley Olympics, 2013

Readers of this blog likely participated in the Frost Valley Olympics. Each year I've chronicled this major all-camp program. If you search here and also here for "Olympics" across the many blog posts over the years you'll find similar faces and familiar sights - painted bodies, sprayed-on T-shirt designs, national banners, happy screaming people, get as into it as it is possible to get into something so utterly contrived. But contrived? Well, not entirely. Our values here are international cooperation and sharing, and the glory of full crazy release (running, jumping, playing, cheering). Here are the faces of the '13 Olympic games.

Olympics - closing ceremonies

photos by Dan Weir

the Wawayanda Mile - more Olympics

The Wawayanda Mile is the oldest continuing event in the Frost Valley Olympics. Here's the start of one of the heats of this perennially favorite event. The course runs in front of Margetts Lodge, in front of the laundry, turns left on the dining hall road on the eastern edge of Big Tree Field, turns at the Turrell Way rock, continues to the Ad Office/Welcome Center, cuts in front of the Olympic Circle, in front of Smith and then Hayden, and turns left for the last few feet to the area in front of the front doors to Margetts. You'll hear a reference to "the green team." This is not an Olympic team; these are still countries represented by international counselors we have here. No, it's an age designation. Blue, for instance, is for the oldest campers on all teams. So when "blue" campers can compete in an event, the participants are all roughly the same age and size. So this was the green group's running of the Mile. The Wawayanda Mile, by the way, is about 1/3rd of a mile.

Olympic day

MAC lights up our world

Olympic torch

Looking back a week at the middle of second session: found a good photo of the moment when the 2010 FV Olympic torch was lit, and here you go. Not bad, eh?

Greg and Ulla back again after 30 years

In 1980 and 1981, a young man from Australia came to Frost Valley to try his hand at the American experience. At the same time, a young woman came from Denmark for the same reason. He was Greg and she was Ulla. Greg was thrown into the role of village chief - in Forest. And Ulla was a counselor in Susky. They met. When their Frost Valley years were done, they wondered whether they could make a go of it in Australia. A few years later they moved to Denmark. Now they have two sons - Thomas and Simon - and they are back here for the first time in thirty - yes, thirty - years. They chose to arrive on Olympic day, and wow was that ever an accelerating Proustian wormhole into memories of this place, floods of them. I introduced Greg to the 2010 Australian team as the coach of Oz from 1980; they were amazed and embraced him. Here you see a picture of Greg with this year's Australian counselor. At another point we went to show the boys the cabins their parents lived and worked in. We found Greg Aggs' Forest cabin, now up the hill--but still, ol' #10. He walked into his counselors' room and proudly showed his sons where he spent two summers of 10 weeks each--that little living space. Amazing. Tonight I'll take them over to the East Neversink valley, to visit the Farm Camp (which of course didn't exist during their time here), where I'll tell a story and will hope for the stars (after an alternately rainy and sunny day).

Greg and Ulla had recently visited Greame Sephton and Helen-Ann Hickey - in Massachusetts - and they brought along some of Helen Ann's old photos from the early 80s. From here they will drive to NJ and spent a few days with Jody Ketcham. During our chats I got to hear about the happy post-FV life of Greg's brother Ron Aggs, who works as a journalist in Sydney and commutes to his family (including twins) in Canberra.

host country: Chile

As winners of the 2009 spirit award, Chile has the honor of hosting the 2010 Olympics. The team--consisting of program staff ("activity counselors"), directors, VCs, all of Step village, and a few others--danced just now during the opening ceremonies. But it was too dark to catch them then. Thus I present this video made earlier on the Olympic Circle, during a practice run.

...and it begins

Olympics 2010. It begins as I type this. Teams marching right now toward the Olympic Circle, one team at a time, Olympic theme playing over the sound system. The photos above were taken this afternoon--day one: painting banners, learning cheers, getting into it. In the middle of all this, just now, the CITs came back from their long multi-day hike. Dirty, smelly, romping around, delighted with their good timing. They'll shower and come back to watch the second half of the Opening Ceremonies.

gymnastics circa 1980

Here is Fran Grayson**, doing some gymnastics on the Olympic Circle. I'm going to guess that the photo was taken in 1980. Yes, we had this trampoline-like jump-off thingie. We taught the kids to run up on it and fling themselves in the air. What to land on? Well, mostly the grass of the Olympic Circle and sometimes some old foam mattresses. Don't know how many sprained ankles were the result of this activity, but I do know that the Health Center (in Smith Lodge) was just 60 feet away.

** I'm about 95% certain it's Fran. (Later note: Now I'm 100% certain. Fran herself just confirmed it!)

cage ball, that Olympic sport

The 1978 Olympics. Yes, Cage Ball was an Olympic sport that year. All the teams were gathered together for the Field Games all morning. During the Cage Ball round-robin, each team sent thirty campers to compete. Chaos! Wild! But fun.

post-O mode

Ah, but before I go back to Sunday/Monday's Olympics, let me first present this priceless pic - of a Pokey girl at breakfast yesterday, the morning after Olympics. She was not unhappy (I spoke with her at some length) - just tired and not quite ready to move on. By the end of breakfast, you'll be pleased and not surprised to know, she perked up and was skipping out of the DH with her buddies. Clean up, wake up, see what the sunshine brings. That's the post-O mode.

the big O

The 2009 FV Olympics are covered amply on the Frost Valley summer camp blog here. Check out photos of the team shirts and video of various of the teams in action, including Chile which won the coveted spirit award. I'll be back sometime today, I hope, with a longer entry presenting my particular p.o.v. on the fab event. Which is to say: this year I asked to be on one of the teams rather than the host country. The program director, Mike Obremski (kudos to Mike and Megan L. and Matt on putting on such a great show), suggested that Wales might use me to advantage so it was to Wales I went. W-A! L-E-S! Wales is the best.

wrapping oneself in the Olympic flag

Olympic mania begins anew. This afternoon it begins. Teams gather for the afternoon and evening - and, my oh my the weather is perfect: sunny but breezy and cool. Tonight the opening ceremonies, tomorrow the "games," tomorrow evening the pageant. Maybe all of it outdoors this summer, finally, after a stint of rain-hampered festivities. Yesterday, there wasn't quite yet lots of buzz, but here and there yes. On some kind of bet or dare, the program director sought experimentally to name someone in the FV administration a Head Coach...and found Jim Tisch, our CFO, who really actually truly will lead the team from Wales. (This I want to see.) And then there was the buzzy presence in the dining hall yesterday of Matt, the crackerjack new assistant to the program directors, who wrapped himself (literally but also by now figuratively) in the Olympic flag.

old Olympics

Wawayanda Olympics 1959, photos by Mike DeVita. Notice the flags set up around the Olympic Circle. For many years--at least through '68--these would be set up for Olympics and also for every check-in day. Note, too, how rocky the soil is in '58. It took a while to clear some of the rocks and grow some grass on some of the fields and along the paths.

Dimitris from Greece

Dimitris Emmanouil, an international counselor from Greece, was a counselor with us for at least two summers--I'm guessing '82 and '83. At one point, I think his first summer, he came to me to say that his girlfriend, also Greek, was "stuck" at another camp and was very unhappy. Somehow we arrange for her to leave that camp and join us. If I'm rememnbering correctly, the two of them returned together the next summer as well. The photo here was taken in 2008. I'll try to dig up a shot of Dimitris at camp. He was quite the soccer player. Ah, I found one. It was already in this blog--that great 1982 U.S. vs. The World game. Below you see Dimitris in the middle of the shot - around him, counterclockwise, starting from the bottom, are Paul King, George Lordi, Tom Franzkowiak (Germany), Gorm Fosdal (Sweden), Todd Payton, Walid Sakr (Lebanon).

One of those summers, '83 I think, Greece was the host country of our Olympics. We made a big deal of that--since of course the ancient games, and the "modern" games since 1898, were held in Greece.


And now Keara Giannotti has come along with a photo taken one night at Cold Spring Lodge. Here are Bill Abbott, John Giannotti and Dimitris.


A note from Dimitris a day after I posted the above....tells me that he and Aliki are happily married (after 29 years), that they have three children--one of whom is old enough to be a counselor at Frost Valley. When we knew Dimitris in the early 80s he was studying to be a dentist, and in fact helped out around the Health Center quite a bit. Today he is indeed a dentist.