Outpost harmonizes

One night recently I was looking for a lighter or book of matches, so I could start up a CQ fire at Lakota and grill for them. I wandered through Outpost (home of many fires) and heard some good sounds coming from cabin 37. I walked in and encountered a preparatory jam session. It was the night before Hirdstock.

Giannotti tells of Hirdstock origins

Yesterday, John Giannotti was here to drop of his son Del for a 2-week session. He met up with Allye Glicker in the dining hall. Allye is a Hirdstock fanatic and, I believe, will be helping to plan the 2010 Hirdstock festival during 4th session. John, one of the two co-founders of Hirdstock at Frost Valley (with Jack Starmer), describes its origins. Allye found a Hirstock t-shirt and presented it to John. And so another connection has been made.

Hirdstock at 40, yesterday

Hirdstock '08

Since Hirdstock Field is hardly ever used for anything else but this annual late-August all-camp program, it's ...well ...called "Hirdstock Field". And there we gathered for the 2008 verison of this all-afternoon/all-evening event. It was a good one. Gorgeous weather (ample sunshine, oool temps, a breeze) and great in-camp talent as well as, in the evening, a local band. Here we are near the start of the proceedings.

Several of the male staff shaved and trimmed beards into Fu Manchus, Giles the program director borrowed a pair of women's bellbottoms and wore a hilarious colorful paisley matching top and hat. (If you click on the first image above and look at the guy standing of the stage, you'll get a sense of Giles' get up.) Flowered skirts flowed, and political slogans were scrawled on t-shirts. But most of all (and remember it's the end of a long summer for the staff and some of the campers) the mellow spirit abounds. The kids get it and everyone is relaxed. You might say, at peace.

There were 15 staff per- formances (I myself sang an old camp song), and a series of campers performed in the air-guitar contest - which, for the uninitiated, is like a lip synch contest only instead of singing it's all about movement.

One heard, here and there, strains of "Na an na na, na na na na, hey hey goodbye" and "All we are saying, is keep peace a chance."

Just to make sure this was a serious bein' outdoors experience, we barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers. We formed a circle of 6 or 8 grills and did the sweaty hot business of producing such grilled meat for 700. We did it, primarily because of the organizational skills and outdoor chefery of Kam Kobeissi and Eric Blum. Kam and Eric are shown here amid the smokiness that we all endured for several hours.

Here are a dozen more photos from Hirdstock '08.

hope you had the time of your life

Brendan Heldenfels put together a beautiful 9 1/2-minute video montage, set to stirring music, of photographs across all years. It's been posted to YouTube. Just get your popcorn, dim the lights, find someone to whom you want to tell camp stories, and click on the image above.

You're tuning into an old-style radio, with a dial. Turn the dial a bit and hear a song from the '60s (and now the cabins are new, the docks at the lake seem in the wrong place, a few crewcuts mixed with some fairly hip-looking characters), finger the dial again and it's another time and set of images. Tune time back and forward.

A number of the photographs date back to the Old Wawayanda prior to the move to Frost Valley fifty summers ago. But for the most part the video traces our work and play across the decades, with songs and photos from the 60s, then the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s. Certain themes merge in and out of the decades: coming & going; the buildings; outdoor education and conferencing; etc.

Some highlights to watch for:

[] Halbe Brown's red plaid pants, circa 1976.

[] wellness-minded girl campers surround chain-smoker Chuck White as they take his blood pressure and listen to his heart.

[] misty sunrise over Lake Cole.

[] Eva Gottscho (co-creator of our dialysis program) with dialysis camper Stevie Bell in her lap.

[] the late John Ketcham blowing on the embers, in Canada, a Trailblazer for all time.

[] Wawayanda camp directors across the decades gather together to lead the noonday grace at a recent reunion.

[] You ain't goin' nowhere.

[] Lenape boys, clad in white Wawayanda tees, head out for an overnight...walking in a perfectly straight line.

[] the old garage before it was Hayden Lodge.

[] the late Oran Giannotti hanging out with good friends.

[] tons of Hirdstock shots.

[] lighting the Olympic torch.

[] everyone wearing really short shorts.

[] Mac guy learns to ride a bike.

I hope you had the time of you life. If so, I'll be joining you in that good company.

Hirdstock redux

I haven't gotten a firsthand report of Hirdstock, which took place a few days ago. By Sunday evening here in Philadelphia it was raining, so it seems to me there's a chance the end of the program was rained out or forced indoors. I'm sure I'll have some sort of report for this blog, perhaps directly from one of the program directors. Meantime, here's my last Hirdstocky remembrance for the moment: a photo Frank Gotz from Switzerland sent me, showing Lenape's performance in '83.

And here is another Hirdstock photo sent to me just a few minutes ago by Mike McNamee. From left to right: David Sunshine, me (check out those shorts!), Kenny Abbott, and McNamee himself. I can't remember what we're singing here. Perhaps it's Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" ("I seen my light...come shinin' in, from the west down to the east").

"Old Wawayanda" sung for the first time

At Hirdstock '84 I sang "Old Wawayanda" for the first time - along with Adam Diamond (then a camper).

When I was a young boy at Old Wawayanda
Just 2 hours from the city, so peaceful, sublime.
In Mr. Carey’s old rec hall, The K Court in session,
Got a pie in the face, and had me a time.

Chorus (sing after each verse)
Well, daddy, won’t you take me back to Old Wawayanda
Down by Biscuit River where paradise lay
Well I’m sorry my son but you’re too late in asking
Mr. Carey’s old rec hall is all laid away.

Got a little bit older, and so did that rec hall
All them pies in the face, they made me a man.
The Chuck White came with the world’s largest shovel
And knocked it all down, for the “progress of camp.”

Sang songs and made friends, in a hall they called “Dining”
‘Till fire burned through her, though the sign said “Build Strong”
Then Chuck White came with the world’s biggest slide rule
And figured it all out, and sang me this song.

When I die let my ashes flow down Biscuit River
Let ‘em roll on in water the color of sky
I’ll be halfway to heaven at a New Wawayanda
Saying “Wawayanda spirit, it never did die.”

[after the final chorus:]
Saying “Wawayanda spirit, it never does die”
Saying “Wawayanda spirit, it never does die”
Saying “Wawayanda spirit, it never does die”

"K Court" in the first stanza refers of course to the old gone (and perhaps lamented) all-camp evening program, Kangaroo Court.

The song was written as a semi-serious protest against the renovation of the old "Rec Hall" (recreation hall)--a rebuilding that was Chuck White's first major construction project...a project that produced Margetts Lodge, which we cynics dubbed "The Halbe Hilton." We couldn't imagine it--at camp? a lodge that had rooms like a Howard Johnson's motel? How could this be? Give us back our old dumpy cowbarn-turned-rec-hall. The old rec hall had been the main barn of the Forstmann-era farm, and when campers first came to Wawayanda at FV in 1958, before the dining hall was built, they used the Rec Hall as a dining hall. John Ketcham once told me that as you ate your meals that summer you could still faintly smell the scent of manure.

The phrase "Mr. Carey's old Rec Hall" refers to Dick Carey, an early director.

I'll have something to say someday about the fire that took our beloved dining hall, especially as I have some photos of the fire and immediate aftermath, pictures that Chuck White gave me a few years ago.

[Sometime after I wrote this entry, I recorded a performance of this song at closing campfire. Go here for more.]

Hirdstock 2006

Last summer I put together a quickie web page featuring photos from Hirdstock 2006. The response to this was so positive that I added some photos that others sent me from a few earlier Hirdstocks.

we are the world

Well, we really are the world. The number of international counselors and program staff at FV has, in some years, peaked at 30 and each year their origins range extraordinarily. The impact this has on NY/NJ metro area kids is incalculable: they meet and learn to love adults from Asia and Africa and Australia. In the lead-up to Hirdstock one year--1985--the internationals and I (and a few other Yanks) learned to sing "We Are the World," a song written that year by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie and produced by Quincy Jones and recorded by a supergroup of popular musicians to draw attention to famine and drought in Africa. We sang it in at least four-part harmony and got quite good at it. On a day off between sessions 2 and 3 we took a crowd of staff to Manhattan and actually performed this song in Washington Square and on various subway platforms. No kidding. Here's the photo of that memorable Hirdstock performance. In white shirts, four over from the left, are Dimitris and Aliki from Greece. In the blue V-neck staff shirt is John Giannotti. The short girl to John's right is Avra Jordano. Moving from Avra's right: Carolyn Doris, Vicki Lewis (Australia), Cathy Hogan (Australia).

Hirdstock

Hirdstock's coming up next Sunday. On that day it's my hope that faithful readers of this blog will do or sing their own Hidstocky thing, wherever they are. Give peace a chance. Be cool. We are the world. You can get anything you want--at Alice's restaurant. You can't always get what you want. Six for the six that never got fixed. There's a place in the world for the gambler. Teach your children. Blow in the wind. Don't be a master of war. Daddy won't you take me back. I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking. And don't worry, the flowers haven't gone...they're right there where you left 'em...in Hirdstock field. I intend to dig around my personal archives and find some good photos from Hirdstock past. My first Hirdstock entry is this photo from 1983, an adorable picture of four people who were really into the all-afternoon concert in the sun. From left to right, justly famous dialysis camper Stevie Bell, Stuart ("Stu") Kaufer the long-time dialysis unit coordinator, Claudia Swain, and Pete Swain. That summer Pete was the out-trip director, and Claudia wasn't working in summer camp (but was continuing her work with our Environmental Ed program) yet she of course wouldn't miss Hirdstock for the world. Behind them (just behind Stu's halo of hair) is Allison Perry, then a camper. Don't you just adore the way Stu and Stevie are looking at each other? I can't do justice in words to the quality of their relationship, which extended over five or six summers, but love is definitely a word that comes to mind. Stevie, alas, hadn't known a whole lotta love in his life so maybe it's apt that the first time in this blog Stevie is being featured is at Hirdstock, with all its talk (and chanting) about love. Not empty, after all, for there, in the first row, there it was.


And here (just above) is a photo of the aforementioned Stuart Kaufer. This photo was taken during a day off, when Stu and Mike McNamee and a few others hiked up to Giant Ledge.

the amazing Dave

Dave Allen spent a few schooling years in Lebanon and learned Arabic. When I first met him here at Frost Valley, I thought him to be a serious, somewhat shy, dour, intellectual type. He was a very good counselor (starting in Totem, I believe). But as a first impression, I thought: This guy is probably too serious.... Then several counselors from Lebanon arrived and I immediately saw a vivacious even wild side of Dave. And over the years came to know him intimately. We worked together, first as director and VC and then as Camp Director and Program Director and finally as Camp Directors of the two camps. Dave and I had many intense long good conservative-liberal/right-left discussions. And when Stuart Kaufer (dialysis coordinator) joined in, it was two left versus one lonely right. I think it's fair to say that I learned for the first time the true heart of a conservative when and as I came to know and love David Allen at Frost Valley. It has been some years since Dave and his family were here, but he and I are in touch by email. He is currently the principal of a school for the deaf in West Virginia and I have no doubt whatever that about his doing a wonderful, thorough and thoughtful job.

The photo above was taken at Hirdstock in 1984 or so. Dave's giving me that mock-stern look. He was really rather relaxed that sunny day. As we sang Give Peace a Chance ("all we are say...ing - is GIVE peace a chance..."), and Dave sang too, I knew again that at Frost Valley there were no serious left-right distinctions. Finally we wanted the same things and Dave embodied them: let's be good to kids, let's have high expectations of and for them, let's take care of them as if they were our own, and let's see what it's like to live peacefully. Hirdstock as an all-camp program never quite worked perfectly but it always reminded us of these things. Dave Allen the Peacenik...symbolized it so well.