The Council Room

[Mike Freeland]

"This American Life" devoted a whole program today to camp (camps in Michigan and Wisconsin, which, I'm sorry, just don't count - the kids all say like "like", like, all the time instead of "by gorry" and "ay-yuh"), and here it is, the 4th of July. Those two things, and the fact that I just dropped a gob of mustard on my shirt, sent me right back to Wyanoke and opened the writin' floodgates. So, I offer some random camp ramblings until the fireworks start about a mile from here, when I'll quit and go out on the deck and slap mosquitos.

To this day, when I hear the words "Fourth of July", I want to append "Track Meet". The 4th-of-July-Track-Meet was where I learned what is to me the absolute, definitive NIST-accurate standard measure of 100 yards. Say "100 yards" to me and I instantly visualize the track by the Sr. tennis courts. I left plenty of elbow-meat on that track over the years. Twenty-five yards, to 13 significant digits, is the span between the Junior and Senior docks.

The track meet. Ugh. As a non-ath-a-lete I really hated the track meets. I was the master of false starts, but I did kinda like the gun. As a really good swimmer, I really hated the swim meet too, but I wasn't making the decisions at that point. They always seemed to me to be too close to opening day -- I didn't even know the kids in my tent/cabin, let alone feel like competing with them on a hot field or in the cold water. I know the ice went out June 25th every year. We were usually there by the 28th (by noon anyway).

Funny how the details of such things soften with the years. Any of you remember when we had the track meet? Was it always on the 4th?

That doesn't seem likely because if the 4th were on a Sunday it would screw up the whole Sunday schedule (which I chershed). Not to mention that the Catholics, whom I considered lucky, wouldn't get to go to town. Going to town was enviable for whatever reason, at least in my book. I firmly believed that if you went to town, you weren't allowed to come back to camp unless you'd gone to Blacks's first. Best little balsam pillows and penny candy in the north country. I digress.

Was it on the Saturday or Wednesday nearest the 4th? I'm sure it would have been criminal to have not had a parade on the day of the track meet (equally criminal to have subjected us to more than two in one week though, I aver.)

I'm thinking Sarturday because I seem to recall an evening meal of cold cuts (which produced boy-built moist, sloppy sandwiches made with peanut butter, grape jelly, potato chips, Homogeneo-Brand meat flaps, lettuce(?), mustard and ketchup, accompanied by a dainty snifter of randomly hued bug juice (with just a hint of impertinance) - all colorful enough to trash the white shirts required of us band people). It could also have been hot dogs and potato chips and brown bread from cans. In that case, the mustard was enough to take care of my shirt. Whatever, those were meals I associated with Saturday evenings and 4th of July track meets. I could be way off. Let me know.

Hmm. Here it is, 50 or more years later and I'm just now thinking that wearing a rain slicker or poncho at dinner on parade nights would have saved me a hell of a lot of generic-floating-soap-and-towel dabbing.

Parade: "The manly boys like them, the other boys need them". I needed them. I don't think I ever met any manly boys because it seemed to me that we all hated parades. At camp you forget what day it is until after skipping happily down to the dining hall for bacon and toast, and you see "7:00 - Parade" at the lower right of the schedule board. "Awwwwww, um, drat!", we all said in unison. Speaking of guns, I really liked the little cannon at the parades. Made it all worthwhile, to see the facial expressions of the people in their cars out on Forest Road when that thing went off in their direction.

More often than not kids need to be forced into doing stuff they don't like, like parades, because that taste of military discipline we got from parades and manual of arms turned out to be very useful in the years that followed. For some more than others.

I marched in the ranks of the Gray platoon or division or crowd, whatever we were called, until I took up the trombone in the spring semester of my 6th grade year. The very ownership of that trombone immediately qualified me for the marching band at camp. No nerve-wracking auditions or competing for first chair! That got me out of the ranks, for which I was grateful because we could slap mosquitos. All eyes were on the rank'nfile so we got away with murder over there by the Little Guest House.

The band, from my start at Wyanoke in '56, was stoically conducted for years by Burt Vaughan, followed by Walt Scheirer until his death in 1970, and finally by Dennis "Denny" or "Pad"" Stires. He was the one who added football-halftime-style routines (and Dairy Queen-like band hats) to the military mix until parades became a thing of the past in the late Viet Nam years. Pat (my bro) might have waved an arm at the band for a couple of parades, but not often enough to be even mentioned here.) We (the band) weren't good, but we did provide a rock-solid beat to which the rank'nfile could do their precision marching.

Good or not, we always got to go to the Huggins Hospital Street Fair in Wolfeboro every August. That was sweet. We even got to run around the fair for a while ("Remember, you represent Camp Wyanoke...") Before my time, the Wyanoke Band would march in the Wolfeboro parade on the 4th. I have 16-mm movies of that.

Well, sounds like they're startin' to blow things up. I'm going to grab my 6-12 stick, grease up and head down to the campfire site, get some pine needles in my W. H. Brines and park my coccyx on a root.

Happy Independence Day to you all, and many more.

Taps in 15 minutes.

Mike
_________________
'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6

[DavidAyars]

Great piece, Mike! Lots of memories there. I enjoyed it very much.

I do remember the 4th of July track meet, but I don't remember what we did when the 4th fell on a Sunday. I think you're right though--probably moved it back to Saturday.

For me as a camper, the 4th was a day when I felt a bit homesick, missing the Real Parade and the Real Fireworks my hometown had there. It seemed kind of subdued at camp. But then, I wasn't a track star either. I do have one fond memory at camp associated with the track meet. As a senior, running in a 100 yard dash heat, with other boys who were not track stars, and really trying to win, and having BMB at the finish line cheering us and yelling, "Great race, boys!"... and meaning it. And that's a big part of what BMB was all about. He cared as much if not more about effort than he cared about talent. And I still remember that personal touch over 40 years later!

You can't mention the Camp Wyanoke Marching Band without a nod to Bart Griffin wielding the Golden Arm Mace [oooh, now there was an opportunity we missed!].

Camp did have at least a few manly boys, i.e. Doug Neidermeyer (Animal House) types who got drunk with power and enjoyed tormenting Midgets who swatted mosquitoes or broke step at parade after a loss. The real die-hards even enjoyed doing this after a parade win. What do you call a camper who enjoyed parade? An officer.

My favorite parts of your log for the day were the little asides: by noon anyway...HaHaHa I get it. 6-12 stick. Yeah what the fizzat was that stuff all about anyway?? A landing strip for mosquitoes, Right This Way. The liquid 6-12 camp cologne wasn't much better, unless you think alcohol keeps bugs away. We'd a been better off guzzling it and going blind so we could get out of parade.

A Happy 4th to all!
_________________
Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Mike Freeland]

Good point about Bart Griffin. I didn't forget him, just didn't think to mention his name. He's featured prominently in the DVD, only with a broom instead of baton, and flippers rather than white bucks, leading the band down the Road to Cabintown (starring Crosby and Hope) for the C-town fair.

Speaking of the track meet, there was a Senior camper at one point (whose name I remember, but won't mention), who was running the relay for the grays. Grab the baton, run out from around home plate about 25 yards and around Bob Fox, then back and give the baton to the next runner. Well this kid took the baton and took off running like a bat out of hell. He made it to the Little Guest House before someone stopped him. When Garth asked him what the hell that was all about, he said "I was blinded by determination." Grays lost that one.

And, by way of excursus, here's another embarrassing moment suffered by a guy I knew really closely (again, no names, but I can tell you that his initials were Pat Freeland). When he was a Senior, maybe an Aide, he was selected for the coveted task of leading the cheer for the kitchen after the Sunday dinner (3 "Wyanoke"s, 9 "Rah!"s, and three "Kitchen"s). Pat stepped up there on cue and shouted loudly "Ready? Hip Hip Kitchen!", then stood there in the deepest silence that ever rocked that building with 200 campers, staff and kitchen crew inside it.

As I recall, some of the boys couldn't count to nine anyway: "...Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!"

And I sure do remember the Niedermeyer kids. On a couple of occasions when I was a Midget (I think), the grays lost so bad to the Blues that the Neidermeyers made us stay on the field right up to first call, ruining what was left of an already too-short "free evening". Man that used to piss me off.

Oh, and some of the ossifers used to say "All present and accounted for." I knew it should have been "or", but there was no correcting those guys.

Funny, I used to feel the same way about "real" parades. I remember being a little excited when I saw the word Parade on the board for the first time. Wow! What a disappointment when I found out what that really meant.
_________________
'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6

[jshall]

David: Don't think that our trails crossed, but I must respond to your wonderful comment about BMB. " He cared as much if not more about effort than he cared about talent." That was the key to the Wyanoke experience, no matter when we were there, and that was his gift to us all. I do not think that I have ever seen as good a distillation of the Wyanoke experience...and I sincerely hope that David reads your statement. Thank you.

[Jim Culleton]

Great posts Mike, Dave and John! And I have to agree with you John and Dave that BMB very much valued effort even more than talent. Most of us didn't even know what talents we had until the Wyanoke experience and Brad set an example that filtered down to most of us kids.

One particular HOT 4th of July (1960) was an eye-opener for me when I happened to win the blue ribbon for the 100 yd dash in the senior camp as an Aide. At the time Don Badger, a JA, was the fastest kid in Camp. No one was going to beat Don and I don't think most were even willing to try. Mentally I certainly wasn't, so that was that for the 4th track meet. What kid wants to get sweaty and exercise those forgotten muscles on a holiday when most of us wanted to be on the waterfront??!! Anyway . . . . . . . Dick "Goose" Tatum was also a contender for the dash and a quick footed guy in his own right.

To make a long story short some older campers and councilors were pushing us to take part. As you can imagine few were rushing to take part in this once a season exercise. I was one of the ones pushed into it by some unrelenting peers so I said "what the heck". Did they really want Don Badger to lose since he had won so many times before? I'm wondering if Brad also did some coaching to increase participation?!

Most will remember the rudimentary Jr./Sr. track made of gravel, stones, a few weeds and quite narrow only allowing one person to run at a time. We were each judged on our individual times. Geez, if two of us ran at the same time we surely would have crashed into each other raising Wyanoke's liability insurance.

It was a thrill to receive the recognition and a blue ribbon at the next campfire which were all conferred by Brad. John, this win was a direct result of Brad's concentration on effort. It was a talent that I didn't know I had! If it wasn't for the Wyanoke experience I don't think that I would have run track in H.S. (3 years) and one year in college. Anyway, the beer and cigs ended my running career as a college soph!

As an aside I truly missed watching fireworks at Camp. We could hear them but rarely see them. I thought our tuition might have covered a Wyanoke sponsored fireworks display up on the ball field ? Surely the West Pointers would have been adept at lighting those things and we had 2 nurses on staff ! Maybe the camp insurance didn't cover fireworks while every Thursday night there must have been no less than 30 or so fires lit for cookout! Anyway sand worked better than those "Curly Kates" for cleaning those pots and pans!
_________________
'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 W. Dan, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[Tom Shirley]

The other thing that BMB valued so highly was sportsmanship. I often recall the story he used to tell about the camp tennis championship. I don't recall names or even when the match actually happened but I remember clearly how BMB proudly told the story several times over the 6 years I was there.

Some of the detail may be missing of altered in my mind but as I recall he told the story of the camp championship. There was one player who was generally known to be the best playing in camp. He was played first singles on the inter-camp team and was at the top of the tennis ladder. During the championship match he got out to an early lead winning the first set easily. In the second set his play suddenly dropped off and he eventually last in a close third set. As the set ended he placed his racquet against the fence at the far end of the court and approached the net to shake hands with his opponent and the officials, grabbed a towel and then retrieved his racquet covering it with the towel and eventually leaving the court. BMB noticed the cover-up and asked the player afterwards why he had done that. It turned out that the strings on the boys racquet had broken and he had continued to play with out any complaint or request for another racquet. He had covered the racquet so that the other player would not feel any less proud of his victory.

This story has always stuck with me and I think it may have been the way that BMB told the story and the pride that he showed as he told it that impressed me.

I hope I have remembered this correctly.
_________________
J-1 1970, Marc Liddle from Scotland
J-1 1971, Bob Vaughn
S-3 1972, Steve McDavitt
S-2 1973, Charlie Thomas
JA-2 1974, Dan Mannis
JA-1 1975, Dave Ayers

Proud to be Gray

[Jim Culleton]

I agree Tom. Besides effort Brad was big on sportsmanship and also leadership. I can remember when Roland (Rusty) Evans and I were chosen to be the Gray and Blue Company Commanders respectively for military drill/parades for the summer of '61. We were both JA's and I can't help but believe that these positions were directly chosen by Brad and Edna. I don't know who else would have had input into those positions during the days of military drill at Wyanoke. Dave Bentley surely could shed light on how these positions were decided.

Anyway it was a lot of work, practice and staying "after hours" learning all of nuances of marching up with color guard to the "grandstand" to be awarded the ribbon for best parade by Mrs. Bentley. Parades were 2X/week back then so we must have had at least 14 during the summer.

I forget who was the overall winner for parades that season but it really didn't matter in the end as Brad took both Rusty and me to Baileys for ice cream sundaes as a gratitude of thanks and a job well done. Brad rewarded effort, sportsmanship and leadership to a great degree, and I don't know if we fully realized at the time how important that was to us kids and to our future development.

Anyway, I still want to find out who pushed me into that position during the summer of '61. It was a blessing in disguise. Although I still have dreams of yelling . . . . . . . . . . "Blue Company . . . . . Forward HAAarch, Halt . . . . . . . . Right Face . . . . . . Dress Right Dresssss and Fall Out"!! Just keeping the "gigglers" in line was an effort for both the Blues and Grays so I think that evened out in the end. The winners of a particular parade always tossed their hats in the air and no one ever wound up with their own!

Great memories for sure!
_________________
'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 W. Dan, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor