60s staff shirt

The oldest FV shirt I own currently (having given away so many others over the years) is a 1967 (or 68?) staff shirt. Here it is.

'75 staff shirt now worn by '09 counselor

Last night, as a prize at Challenge Night, I gave away another old staff shirt - this one given to me a few years ago by Leslie Black from her own stash. I believe this shirt dates to 1975, but I'm not certain. (Someone correct me. It might be '77, but I know it's not '76 or '74.) The winner of the shirt was, perhaps aptly, Kelsey Wellington, a counselor in Lakota who is the daughter of former camper, CIT and counselor John Wellington - this being the famous Wellington family who have had a house in Claryville for many years. Kelsey's brother Jack was a CIT here in July.

Challenge Night redux

Windsong-Pac Challenge Night last night. A distinguished panel of judges: Kam Kobeissi, Jeff Daly, Dan Goldman, Megan Lawrence, and Kelly Hupp. Since there were five teams, the judges sent up a rep--Kam--to fill out the bracket in the Hunker Hawser competition. The proud winner of the FV History Quiz won a cherished prize: a mint-condition staff shirt from the 1960s. (Can anyone tell me the exact date of the shirt?)

vintage Wawayanda staff shirt

We found a vintage Wawayanda staff shirt in the archives - and John Butler was eager to try it on. Love that orange-and-white canoe-on-lake motif. Don't you?

t-shirt interregnum years

I've had the pleasure as your faithful columnist to comment on several ugly FV t-shirts. Indeed one of my favorite entries overall was a discussion of a synthetic mesh staff shirt that would literally melt on you on a hot check-in Sunday.

But now that I ponder the situation I realize that, where camp clothing nostalgia is concerned, ugliness is in the eye of the beholder.

At the most recent big reunion, we held an auction to benefit camperships. A number of folks brought old FV t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and other old canteen/store items. These went for remarkably high prices. One old Wawayanda child-size hooded sweatshirt (with the old logo showing two campers paddling a long canoe, presumably across Lake Wawayanda) was sold, I believe to Amy Ketcham, for $250! Another hoodie was bought by Eileen Barnes for something like $400! I paid far less for a weird-looking non-logo staff t-shirt, gray background with black lettering and a hasty pink zigzag across. I can't place the year but I'm making an educated guess: late 80s. Can anyone seeing this write me (afilreis [at] gmail [dot] com) and tell me precisely when? From the mid-80s and earlier (and I'm assuming all the way back), there was simply a staff shirt for the summer, and no other. By now I notice there are various shirts and sweatshirts made, especially for the very end of the summer--and some of these quite informal. Village staffs design an item. VCs of one of the camps get together to do one. So I'm guessing that this speciman is one of the early staff-designed supplemental shirts. Am I right?

At the time of the auction my son wanted it and has worn it several times since. But now he's outgrown it and I'll bring it with me this summer--to give away as a prize to a lucky winner at Challenge Night.

[Ugh, I'm told by several reliable sources that this shirt was indeed the staff shirt that summer. Karin Turer confirms it's '89 or '90. Next we'd like to find out who designed it. Was it you, Peter Swain?]

they don't make 'em like this any longer

Dan Weir seems to be vigilantly watching Ebay for Frost Valley -related items. He found one today - a vintage 1980s (I'm guessing very early 80s) Frost Valley t-shirt. Hurry and bid for it. The price is right.

from the t-shirt collections

There are 1,000 t-shirt collections out there. At the Labor Day '06 reunion we held an auction to benefit campership and one of the many things we discovered that afternoon was that old FV t-shirts and sweatshirts have surprising value (to us, I mean). Above you see a photo Dave Lockwood recently took of his own long-sleeve T from the Wawayanda Centennial summer (2001). If you offer Dave a ton of money for it, perhaps he'll sell it to you.

Kudos to Carol O'Beirne for having organized nearly every aspect of the 100th year celebrations that year. Carol also led the team that designed the centennial logo.

staff photo 2000

Here's the summer staff photo for the year 2000. Were the staff shirts that summer really black? If so: cool. (But I don't recall this. Maybe they were blue and the photo is bad.) Fourth from the right in the first row is Matt Buzcek. Fifth from the left, with bandana, rising in enthusiasm, is Joe Elliott. Soon Matt would become our Director of Camping Services, succeeding Sue Goldberg. And Joe would eventually join the full-year FV and serve as Program Director in the summer.

you try wearing one of those mesh synthetic staff shirts

Ah, those white mesh synthetic staff shirts...summer of '74, heyday of mesh and non-cotton. Man, did we sweat in those! But we looked good, or thought we did. I think all the guys wore leather chokers that summer. It's late June, 1974, the Sunday of check-in, first camping session of the summer, and why are these people just sitting and standing around? I can assure you that I was working on one of the luggage trucks--probably snapping this shot from "the White Rat" passing by. From left to right they are: Maurice Penn (Outpost counselor and talented leader of dining hall cheers and songs including a great rendition of "Drift Away"--"gimme that beat boys and free my soul"), Nancy Brady (then a CIT, I think), Keith Brankner (Sequoia counselor--in window), Valerie Bellefatto, Tammy Thompson, Mark Staimer (Forest counselor) - sitting in front of a recently renovated Hayden Lodge (formerly the crafts shop).