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."

the longest hike he took in six summers at FV

Bill Madden was sorry he missed the recent reunion. But it got him thinking about influential leadership and in particular about Bob Whirty when Bob was Bill's fellow camper in Sequoia (Adventure Village). I'll let Bill himself tell the story:

I have been visiting your alumni blog and saw the picture of Bob Whirty and his daughter. Seeing the picture reminded me of something remarkable Bob did as a camper. Here is my memory of what Bob did:

It was the longest hike I ever recall making in six summers at Frost Valley. The counselors leading us were a fellow we called “ Beefo” and another named Charlie. As it often happened on hikes, there was a somewhat overweight camper who could not keep up with the group. We frequently had to stop and wait for this slow fat kid to catch up. When he would finally arrive, at least one, and usually several of the campers would harshly ridicule him about holding us up. With head down, the poor, thoroughly exhausted camper would ashamedly offer a typical excuse of “my back pack is broken” or something along those lines. A counselor would make the obligatory check of the backpack, on occasion maybe even repack it and give a few items to others to carry. It was customary on camp hikes for one counselor to bring up the rear. But on this hike, even the counselor bringing up the rear grew weary of pushing the slow camper and took to calling over his shoulder to hurry and catch up.

Late in the day, we had walked so far ahead; this camper was no longer even in sight. Eventually a small dot appeared and as the dot grew closer we could see Bob Whirty walking with him. Bob was a regular on hiking trips and we all knew Bob had no trouble keeping up. When they finally arrived, we were well rested and would have already resumed our hike but for waiting. The counselor’s tone reflected the feeling of many of us when he impatiently told them to take only a short break as the rest of us were ready to go and it was getting late in the day.

Bob Whirty replied “no, you guys keep resting, we are going on”. The slow poke, although soaked in sweat, was no longer ashamed and echoed Bob. “Yes, we’re going to keep on going”. Bob never said the obvious. He did not try to deflect criticism from himself by pointing out that he was making sure the fat kid kept up.

NO. Bob said WE!! And we all could see Bob’s new friend believed it. The young camper’s face clearly showed he no longer considered himself a burden to the group. Now, he was a hiking companion of Bob Whirty and they were accomplishing a rewarding and challenging hike together. The rest of us were so impressed we remained where we were and allowed them to build a good lead. All of us, campers and counselors alike, were now anxious to do our part to follow Bob’s example and make him feel an equal and not an outcast. Bob gave us the opportunity to be part of one of those “Hallmark Moments” that happen at summer camp.

catching up with Rick Cobb (FV 1971-80, 82)

Click on the image for a closer view. Catch up with Rick Cobb, Frost Valley years, 1971-1980 (& '82 for a guest stint as a Lenape counselor). Click here for much more about Rick's life and work today.

AdVill glam

Here's Eric and Julia of the Adventure Village staff, showing off a little AdVill glam at lunch today.

adventurous welcome

Took a walk out to Sequoia this morning. As I was crossing the old bridge out there I noticed that the Adventure Village staff have created a lovely welcome sign.

Geronimo!

The other day I played Geronimo with Adventure Village (they live in Sequoia but prefer being called "Adventure Village" or "AdVill"). Tons of fun; what a lively positive group they are during session 1 here. Anyway, for a few minutes we made a recording of the game, our Geronimo Podcast...just for you. You can hear the fun in the sound of the voices. Have a listen: mp3. The photo below shows another village playing the same game in the same spot, so while the pic isn't specifically illustrative of the audio, it's good enough. Enjoy.

now

Photo taken during a recent (Memorial Day weekend) early staff training for Junior Counselors who will miss part or most of the regular training week because of late-ending public school.

Andy in both

Last night Andy Szymczak came up to me to say that he'd looked at the blog (busy camp director but time enough for the blog!) and saw the great Woodwise "Mudwise" photo - and noted with pleasure that he as a camper was in that picture. And then he went on to say that he was always a Sequoia camper and a Woodwise guy and eventually came to run Woodwise - earthy, communalist, woodsy all the way.

Then this morning Karin Turer emailed me to say the same thing - that Andy is in that picture. She herself had seen the photo of Andy as the painted director, and put two and two together.

Long live the internet for helping us re-tie the ties that connect us.

all things connect, if you just ponder long enough

A little while ago I posted a photo of Sequoia Village taken in 1981 (in an entry called "googling Robinov"). Marc Robinov is in that picture and it was Marc who sent it to me. Since then two others in the shot have emerged.

One is Rob (Robbie) Iverson, shown above. The following summer he and Marc Robinov were CITs and that year ('82) was Dari Litchman's first season at camp; she's the one who, just today, remembered Iverson, who was truly a camp star, a great kid. Rob, where are you now?

Another figure in the old Sequoia photo emerged coincidentally. About a week ago I saw a small van parked by the Neversink River down by the old Haunted House camp site. Being vigilant, and worried about trespassers especially on evenings when many of the villages are out on overnights, I slowly passed the van to see if I could discern who these folks were. Anything amiss and I'd say, in my best Chuck White as Sheriff voice (The Voice), "May I help you? You do know that this is not public property. This is a summer camp and please pardon us but we must be very careful about visitors passing through. Please move along if you have no business here." Etc. This speech was rehearsing in my mind when the driver got out of the car and wandered toward me, slightly hunched over to catch my visage as I sat behind the wheel of my own car, and then a surprised expression, and then a gleeful shout. "Al! Al Filreis?! Could it be you?"

The guy surely did look familiar. But he was a guy I'd known briefly 27 years earlier. I met him somehow in Charlottesville, VA, and somehow he applied to be on the staff for the summer of '81. Andy Huttner. He was a counselor in Sequoia, among other things (I think he also led an Adventure Trip). And now that I've been staring at the Sequoia group shot, I realize that he's in it. The connections are crossed an interlaced. Two things converge here: the coincidence of him passing by on the road in 2008 and my being there at that moment, and feeling the prosecutorial urge to investigate his reasons for stopping; second, the emergence, via Robinov, of those old Sequoia shot.

Proust, you go. There are no discrete memories. If it's not quite a family (Huttner and Iverson unrelated, thrown by together by accident) it's certainly a community. Not 6 or 7 degrees of removal from each other, but 2 at most.

Duff returns

"Thank you so much for the blog," Stuart Duff writes me. "Every time I log on memories come flooding back of the years 1984 to 1987 when I worked variously in Sequoia, leading Adventure Trips, and as a Counsellor and then V.C. of Forest."

Mike McNamee and Duff had been threatening to come back for years, and Duff finally managed to come to Family Camp with his wife Karen and children - Jamie (11) and Ceri (10). "Arriving for the first time after 20 years was both nostalgic and uplifting, and I was thrilled to find that the family loved it as well." There is now a realistic possibility they will come back next year. Kids Jamie and Ceri want to experience summer camp session 4, and for all the rest to attend Family Camp again. Duff might even persuade McNamee and his family to come with them.

The photos are Stuart's shot of Giant Ledge at dawn (stunning) and the Duff family on the day after Family Camp finished at Niagara Falls.

"Hoping to meet with you again someday," he tells me, "and I hope not another 20 years hence."

For a photo of Duff in his camp days, go here.

hike and talk at the same time

I love this. Just love it. We're hiking one cold early September Sunday morning, up Pigeon Brook. I enjoy taking old-time FV'ers up Pigeon. Eight out of ten times these veterans have rarely or even never hiked along this gorgeous, little, digressive, sometimes steep and always, around the next bend, a little surprising in its turns.

Such was true of Rick and Phyllis Kaskel. Been in and out of the valley since 1978 and yet had never walked more than a little bit up Pigeon.

It was such fun to be with them - and also Bill Abbott who joined us - that I just had to talk with Rick about his long association with our dialysis program, its meaning and impact on his otherwise straight-ahead ambitious professional medical career (he's a big-timer in pediatric nephrology nationally and internationally--in case you didn't know). That impact is huge, but let me have Rick say it for himself. Please listen by clicking here. If you don't know the history and rationale for our dialysis program, this recording is very much worth a listen.

Earlier I had something to say about Rick's visit during camp this summer.

On the way back we hiked back through Sequoia from above. It was quiet, empty, gorgeous. Just a few weeks earlier, in the heat of the late summer, the platform tents, the meetinghouse (a nicely decorated yurt), and the Sequoia barn (used as a showerhouse) were teeming with activity. The scene we saw: it was as if they had just left that morning. Everything was just as it was, only no counselors and campers.

Sequoia's back

At left, Lee Griffin, Sequoia counselor--photo taken on the last day of Sequoia '07

In the middle of my recorded conversation with Brian Sense--who brought Sequoia back this summer as the Adventure Village--Brian does a Brian: he turns the tables on me. Why hadn't I visited Sequoia during any of my many visits to camp this summer? Well, literally the night after I spoke with Brian I was invited to give a talk/devotion to the CITs who were living in tents out there, and got a good look around. It's wonderfully well set up.

Sequoia ran for three sessions this summer and, although the first session had low enrollments (as one might expect for a "new" program), it thrived thereafter, and it seems pretty certain that it'll be back for 2008. Any old Sequoia partisan reading this who wants to lobby for that, feel free--and you can say that Al sent ya.

I also caught up recently with Lee Griffin, a very talented counselor who spent his summer out at Sequoia after having come up through the regular resident camp ranks. I think you'll enjoy what Lee has to say.

So here's my audio recording of Brian and Lee.

Note that Lee's Adventure t-shirt says: "get your trip together". There are 3 shirts this summer, each with a different motto and, as you can imagine, they've been in demand.

Sven, Bill, Bob

From left to right: Sven Grotrian, Bill Walton, Bob Davis. They're standing at the edge of Big Tree Field and I'm guessing the year is 1978 and--given that Bill is smoking a pipe--the photos was taken during a "holdover" weekend. Sven was a Hemlock staff member and LIT Director in '76. Bill and Bob co-ran Sequoia Village one summer, and I believe both led Adventure trips at various times. I've lost track of Bill. Bob is a clergyman in, I believe, Massachusetts, and Sven is in NJ somewhere (and in touch with email with me periodically). None of these guys have been to a reunion lately. We hope to see them again soon.

Sequoia '82

Dari Litchman sent me this photo of the Sequoia campers and staff of 1982. You can view a larger version of this photograph here. Dari is the dark-haired kid with the bandana right in the middle. This summer--2007--Sequoia has been revived. Brian Sense and his staff have set up a FV Adventures blog, and you can keep up with Sequoia's doings by going here. Dari, with some help from others, identified these folks in the larger photo: Dylan Frankel, front row kneeling 2nd from left; Sue Geller and Dari Litchman, 2nd row leaning over with bandanas; Jon Bell, Debby Geller, in row behind Dari to the right; Conrad Soong and Ted Guild, two tallest campers in the back row; possible Mike Gold, to the right of Debbie Geller.