Michael Pitcher remembers Wawayanda in the early 60s

Memories of Camp in the USA

I’m the little boy from Canada in Homer McLemore’s Summer of ’63 Totem group. I follow Al Filreis's blog closely these days because it reconnects me with very fond memories of a very special time.

I lived in the middle north of the province of Quebec in the early 60’s, a town then called Chibougamau….I could spell it long before the nuns at the town’s French School taught me how to read write and such. My Dad and his close friends were young men in a frontier mining town, full of family commitment and small town spirit. They loved to fish and their stories left you rolling on the floor…..sunken canoes, lost paddles, fish that jumped back out of their boats and such. They met Jim Wilkes and the Trailblazers in the summer of ’62 I think. They were awesome…they had this 3-ton Dark Blue Ford Stake truck and trailer full of 8 shiny aluminum canoes….they were like a busload of big brothers and they were full of great adventure…..that summer flew by. We waved goodbye to them in late summer….to the truck and guys that is. I remember they left the trailer full of canoes…..man I was proud of it. And they were from “way down south”. I didn’t know that Canada and the US were really separate countries, I remember feeling more like they were great folks from another part of the same country and we all loved adventure, the outdoors and having a good time. This was the early sixties and we lived outside of town on a small lake at the base of a big hill on top of which was located a brand new Dew Line Radar Station and its Observatory like Radar Dish Building….I had no idea what the Cold War was….I did listen to John Glenn on the radio as he orbited the earth and often saw the multiple contrails of the B-52’s going north “on manoeveurs”. I felt a part of the same world these Trailblazers lived in.

The next summer came all too slow but boy when they rolled back into town I was thrilled….we hung out by the campfire each night they were there and when they went off into the woods on their “trailblazing” trip I waited eagerly for their return…course I missed my dad too.

Then something magical happened…..I got to leave with them when the first group went “home” . Somehow I remember sitting in a school bus learning to sing, “If I had a hammer…” “Runnin through a swamp….” ( it had sound effects), and most of all “This Land is Your Land”……man it’s great to listen to Woody Guthrie singing this on “YouTube” these days….I remember staying at the bus drivers house one night in Liberty, N.Y. and I remember a lot of neat things about my first summer at camp. I’ve got the original picture that Homer McLemore sent to my mother in 2003. It’s the one in Al Filreis’ blog with Homer leading Totem on a hike…likely to the Neversink River or some other really great place. I’m the little guy second in line behind Homer. By the way I also remember the wild “ghost stories” the cabin leaders used to tell us around the campfires in the “sleepy hollows” around Wawayanda.

I got to go to “W” two summers in a row ( I got two “W” patches!) and the second time got to stay in the Castle when I was picked up at the end of the summer. I think it was 1963. That October we moved out of the north and into the Ottawa, Canada’s Capital City and way south of a land I’d lived in for 11 years… I was in public school in November 1963 and I remember President Kennedy.

I remember the morning flag raising at Camp Wawayanda, pledging allegiance to the Flag of the USA and signing the Star Spangled Banner. Most especially I am deeply touched and very grateful for the incredible experiences I enjoyed those summers in the Catskills with other kids who got together to have fun, shoot arrows, eat Fudgsicles from the canteen, watch 50’s sci-fi movies in the “barn” [the “Rec Hall” – now Margetts], be an Olympian from Siam….etc, etc.

Today I live on the West Coast. Actually “off” the West Coast on Vancouver Island. My wife, Bernadette and I own a busy bakery in the Comox Valley…just north of the middle of the island; 2,445 (Google) miles across North America from Frost Valley. We’ve moved in and out of corporate careers, travelled half-way round the world to work as short term missionaries in England, Turkey and Uzbekistan and returned home to live in our busy valley.

I love the Seattle Mariners, The Montreal Canadiens and pretty much everything in between about both countries.

I’ve had a tremendous number of great experiences these past 56 years. Who I am and what I’ve done has a lot to do with the lessons learned when I got to go to camp. I’m sure anyone reading this has similar tales to tell….I know I’ve enjoyed reading the many that are on Al’s Blog . New or old the tales tell the timeless truth…our great adventures start early in life and leave the most meaningful lessons.

I still feel a small part of a big family full of great spirit.

In a few words with much meaning …..thank-you.

Michael Pitcher
The little boy from Canada. 1963

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."

his last summer was 1964

From Michael Pitcher, whose last summer at Frost Valley was 1964:

Hi Al, as always it’s a great pleasure to enjoy the latest from Frost Valley. It's been 45 years since I attended Camp Wawayanda. A lot of adventures around the world under our belt as it were. My wife and I live on Vancouver Island, and refer to North America as the “Big Island to the east..."

My parents were the Northern Quebec connection for the Trailblazers in the early sixties, Roy and Kathryn Pitcher. And my experience at “W” has definitely been a “life-shaping” one.

I have enjoyed rekindling the memories very much as I ramble through your blog. Though we cannot easily attend as alumni, our hearts and prayers are very much behind the spirit of the Frost Valley vision and its impact on the world. All the very best to you and the folks at Frost Valley.

exactly 40 years ago

This photo was taken during the 1969 Trail Blazers trip to Canada. The counselors on the trip were Paul Brown, Jim Black, Charlie Lawrence and Frank Meigs. (Frank sent us the photos.) Above are, from left to right: Pete Canevari, Jim Black, John Closs, B. Clancy and Marc Schaefer, proudly displaying fish caught on the Shingle River.

Above: B. Bunke, C. Berthoud, T. Grenda, T. Suarez, P. Canevari and John Closs: at mealtime on Lake Matilide.

During the second half of the summer of '69, while back in camp we were getting ready for our own Woodstock festival--"Hirdstock," we'd call it--the same group of Trailblazer counselors took a group of campers on a bus tour of the Western U.S. We called this adventure trip "Westward Bound." In the photo above is Jon Sparer, Gary Okladek, Mitch Bobyack, Bob Ulick and Howard Clark in Texas. (Bob Ulick made the Trail Blazers trip in 1970 after being CIT for the first half of that summer.)

And here is Frank Meigs, wearing his Wawayanda Staff shirt somewhere out West that great summer of '69.

and we set sail....

MORE...

Hambone, Hambone, how you been?

The previously mentioned Hambone - Ken Hamlin. What a spirited guy! Here are two photos of him from the early years.

All this talk of Hambone caused Dave King to comtemplate as follows:

Regarding Ken 'Hambone' Hamlin. "'Bone" was from "Slummit" (his term for Summit NJ) and was my camp clerk. He was truly "gifted" mentally, and was extremely loyal to the camp and to me personally. During Halbe's first summer [1966], when the Maintenance Director, Paul Cypert, quit and took his entire maintenance crew with him, Bone stepped up and helped me keep the camp going. He and I made the trash run every other day, he and I made the cookouts for boy's camp and delivered the food and milk cans of "Bug Juice", and he, in essence, picked up for me when I did the mowing 3 times per week. "Bone" also made town runs, and helped with driving out- trips. In addition,he kept the mail flowing and the office going. He also was involved in programs where I needed him. He was a true Frost Valley pro! I last saw him at the previous reunion, and haven't heard from him since. Shirl and I loved him then, and we still do today. He will always be one of 'My Boys.'

we won't forget ya, John

John Ketcham in the early 60s.

more Trailblazers

Pictured are from left to right: Fletcher Cockran, Wayne from Green Village, Paul Augustine, Bill Starmer, Geoff Steck, and Ken Hamlin. The photos was taken on one of the Trailblazers trips in the summer of 1961.

Jim Wilkes has made available this photograph and four more from these amazing early 1960s Trailblazers trips. You can see all five - plus captions - here.

Ken Hamlin hasn't been mentioned in this blog at all, I don't think. He stayed on for many years, into the early 1970s I think. He was quite a character. Somewhere along the line he got the nickname "Hambone." He was known for wild escapades and terrific practical jokes. At least one summer he lived in the Ad Office, and there were some rumors of fun times had there.

In recent years Hambone was or perhaps still is in the green grocer business in the New York area. For a while in the mid-1990s he was involved enough with the alumni association to be an active volunteer. I remember that for a while he drove fresh vegetables and such in his truck up to the camp to donate it or sell it at very low prices.

Anyway, many thanks to Jim Wilkes for unearthing these classy pictures and scanning them for us.

One of the first "jobs" Jim was given when he arrived at camp was to take care of a fawn that had apparently been abandoned by its parents. The photo below of Jim and the fawn appeared in the Newark Star Ledger.


Jim Wilkes on Hambone: "The first time I drove to Summit to pick up Ken, I saw Ken flying (airborne) out the front door of his house, never touching the steps with his Dad in hot persuit. He was a tough kid on all the trips to Canada and the name "Hambone" was well earned. Ken and I worked together for many years. He built a house next to Camp Speers where he lives today ..... when he is not in Florida."

More on Hambone...