memorial service for Marie Hess

I just now returned from the beautiful memorial service for Marie Hess. Here are some photos of photos on display at the service - including early photos of Carl and Marie together than I had not seen. In the final photo you see most of the Frost Valley people who were able to come to the service, although not, alas, including John Giannotti and Keara Giannotti who had to leave just before we snapped this group shot. That's of course Bonnie Hess Hirschmann between Frank Rutan and Jenny Brown Bickart.

Glenn Kreismer

I've mentioned Glenn Kreismer here before. A long-time camper from years ago (1970s), he re-connected a few years ago and is now (for session 3 this summer) sending three of his children to camp. I saw him yesterday as he dropped them off. This morning he wrote me a note:

Attached is the photo of your "68" - "75" alumnus [Glenn himself, that is] pointing to his signed oar and wood log in your administration building, with his three kids that are going to session number three. My daughters Ava and Sophia are on their third year and this is my sons first year of many to come.

Yes, a few years ago and he came with memorabilia, which we now display in the "historical room" of the main office.

tobaggan run

Here's a photo sent to me by Ken Nathanson. I'm guessing that it was taken in the early 70s. What is now the tube run - the grooved hill running down from the cabin 21-25 area (between 25 and 24 on the south side of the area) - used to be our tobaggan run. And, oh boy, when the snow was hard and slick a tobaggan, especially one loaded with people, could really move fast and, often, a little unpredictably. Down at the bottom of the run, just off to the left, was a shed we took to calling "the tobaggan shed" (although in the summer it was for years called "the Nature shed").

Leading the way here was Tom Ricciardi, patriarch of a sturdy family of Mountainside NJ-based Frost Valley friends. Tom was a member of FV's trustees. His son Pat was a longtime camper and then staffer. The Ricciardis, during the winter, come up to FV nearly every weekend as part of a snowmobile club, and they often otherwise spent a fun weekend in the Castle. Tom ran a construction firm and I believe provided the construction materials for building Turrell Lodge, Hird Lodge and the little (now-gone) house that came to be called "Ricciardi Cabin." And I believe Tom and his friends and family themselves built Ricciardi Cabin along with Carl Hess in - I think - 1969.

Pokey '69

A village in Girls Camp (Susky?), fourth session, 1969. Later: no, no, it's not Susky, but Pokey. Here's what Sandy Bohn, then Sandy Shapiro, says: "I am in that Susky pictue on your blog from 69 it had to be Pokey since I was in it. I'm the one with the pig tails on the bottom right, can't believe I didn't notice before!" And that's Karen Krop two kids over from Sandy, with short hair.

mowing the Castle Hill

Doug Kerr, now of Lewis, NY, was a camper in '68 and '69, then CIT, LIT, Counselor and then joined the maintenance staff. Eventually he worked year-round on the maintenance staff. Doug writes: "Did you know I had the record time for mowing the Castle Hill with a hand mower solo? Carl [Hess] trained us well!"

In those days the Castle Hill was mown by hand. I suppose that's because tractor mowers in those days were not built flexibly enough to handle riding sideways at such a steep angle. For whatever reason it was done by hand - tiring, hard work, and terrible on the ankles! Andy Kremer, I recall, wore spikes (like soccer shoes, or baseball cletes) when mowing it, to keep himself from falling over and tumbling down the hill.
Doug is our source for the spectacular photograph below. Top row, left to right: Bill Van Zandt, Carl Hess, Morris Slater, John Kremer, Norm Gurfinkel; bottom row, left to right: Mike Schiffer, Dave McBride, Andrew Schiffer, Doug Kerr.


John Kremer writes: "This would have been my first summer on the Maintenance staff - Norm and I lived in one of the dorm rooms in Hayden - I think the younger Schiffer is actually John, who would have been my age. Andrew is the youngest and he did not join the staff until years later when Chuck had the crew."

has Forest got the spirit? (yeah, man!)

The camper here in the pink tie-dye shirt is Gary Gold, the older brother of Fran Grayson. The year, we think, is '69. The blonde in the white T-shirt is counselor Doug Cresson.

Gary earned 5 Wawayanda W patches. "I was in Forest, Outpost, Lenape, Hemlock, Catskill Explorers (2 years with Bud Cox), Trail Blazers with Pat Ricciardi.... and spent winters at the castle. My Dad (I think) donated and built the horse barn after the old one was on its last legs."

Gary also was there in late July '69 when we all sat on the Castle hill and watched a tiny black-and-white TV as Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the surface of the moon.

Gary was in cabin 19 in '69 and left his intitials in the top left bunk. Perhaps they are still there.

The more we talk about J. C. Pony, the more Gary remembers. "JC Pony yessiree," he writes. "He put the Forest cheer to 'Land of a Thousand Dances.' He sang, 'Oh the boys from Forest... they really got the groove!' And we responded, 'Na na na na na!'"

"When I was in Lenape," Gary continues, "I remember having the Live Cream album (and knowing about Woodstock). I remember the songs and the feeling I had listening to them on a portable phonograph with an extension chord we ran into the middle of the village. Look what happened: www.myspace.com/garygoldmusic. Were you there the summer that we put the big toilet paper 'X marks the spot' on the flagpole field? One of the campers parent (a hobbyist pilot) dropped a care package out of the plane... and then unsucessfully tried to land in the field across from the castle."

And more: "On a sad note... and I am sure all know. I sad Kim Connell in Elllenville hospital about 10-15 years ago. We talked for a long while. Ladd Connell (his younger brother) and I were on Trail Blazers together my first year (Frank Meigs and Pat Ricciardi led the expedition to Lake Treb... La Verendrye Park in Clova, East Abitibi Canada... 250 mile Northwest of Montreal). Ladd used to stay up all night reading Newsweek magazines from cover to cover. I heard he wound up in DC doing something political. I heard Kim (who was my fly-fishing hero) passed away."

Gary's younger sister is the super-talented Fran Grayson, who had her own stellar FV career.

Hemlock '69

From a 1969 photo of Hemlock village, here is a close-up showing some of the Hemlock staff that summer. At bottom right is Mark Kramer. Just above Mark is Stu Sherman (I'm guessing Stu was an LIT or JC that summer). Just to the left of Stu is Pat Ricciardi. You can't tell from this photo that Pat was literally the strongest person in camp. He could move anything, lift anything - built like an ox, as we used to say. To Pat's left is Sven Grotian, mentioned earlier in this blog--one of my favorite camp people ever. I cannot recognize the person standing above Sven. Is he Rick Schermer? The camper at the bottom left, with the long dark hair in a middle part, is Peter Pappas.

Mark Kramer is now a businessman in southeast Florida. His wife and kids visited FV at one reunion in the 90s or another. Other than that he hadn't been to camp in some 30 years when he spent two wonderful days visiting during the summer of 2006. He loved seeing at all again and spoke eloquently of the values he learned during his time. During his visit I told a late-night story (to a village) into which I somehow weaved Mark Kramer--and then revealed, at the end of the telling, that the very same Mark Kramer was sitting right here, whereupon Mark scarily stood up and introduced himself, nearing sending the kids out of their skins. Here was this guy, from way in the past, right there once again. Mark has since been very supportive of our campaign to raise funds for the new Wellness Center, and I'm personally grateful to him for his continued interest.