The Council Room

Mike Freeland · Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 7:55 pm Post subject: The Grays and the Blues

This continues a discussion which evolved from the Food thread.

Hey, I fixed my "K" ey! See? Wyanoe.

Dave Bentley said:

DavidAyars · Founder W. H. Bentley Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 263

David Bentley · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:52 am Post subject: Blue - Gray thing

I think I can say, quite positively, that no camper ever changed color during his tenure; however, the color lineage may not have been 100% in extended families (beyond bro-bro/son-dad). The initial designation process included trying to have a numerical parity for competition sake, but this was purely a numbers game. Tent assignment, activity preferences, athletic ability, non-athletic talents, home geographic positions - all of these had no (zero) bearing on the color assignment.

Now, with respect to tent assignment, there was a lot of activity involved in this - camp history from the prior year, groups of boys who started together tended to be reassigned as long as they were in the same group, parental requests (actually, working two ways, i.e., "My son sees so-and-so every day at home, could you put them in different units so to expose them to new faces?, or, "These cousins work well together, could they be together ?). Sometimes friends from civilian life wanted to be together, sometimes not. Sometimes a councilor would ask my Dad if he could have the same group back from the year before (assuming they were still in that camp unit). Personally, I had several campers for two seasons. Some tent units, particularly in the Senior Camp, were age specific to camp status, i.e., all the Aides were in two tents, the JAs were together in two tents, and the other seniors were in certain tents.

My Dad tried to keep some equality in age in the living groups. I'm not sure what his reasoning was, but I am guessing it was a maturity/development thing in the pre-teen and early teen years. A first year ten year old might find it difficult to be in a tent with 5 returning 12 year olds, socially. I think, too, that some consideration was given to the Councilor. For instance, one year in J-8 I had Garth Nelson as my JC. We were both gone from camp quite a bit, and Dad assigned us campers who were returning, older juniors, and able to handle us being away. I think, too, the reverse was true. Some new councilors were given a tent of campers who were not a challenge to a new councilor, for the councilors sake, and some councilors seem to rise to the challenge of a tent group who needed a strong counciilor. A true balancing act. I'm sure Mike may not remember all this, but I was a JA in Cabin 9 for 4 of my 8 weeks in the JA program. The councilor (Mr. Feaster) was brand new and Mr. Irons only sent experienced JAs to this Cabin. I'm personally flattered that Mike returned so many fruitful years following his initial adventure.

Maybe some of this harkened back to my Dad's teaching days wherein students were divided by any number of criteria. My grandfather must have started this tradition, and my father carried it on, and, well, we have no way of truly verifying these thoughts.

I guess I could really throw a curve ball to Dave Ayers and ask if he has factored the Winnemont color assignments into his Harry Potter-esque Wyanoke color assignments ???

Well, Wolfeboro is all decked out in red-white-blue, and the weather forecast is trying to get better for tomorrow. Any alums returning to Wolfeboro will find many unchanged memories, some new activities, and some missings memories. Real estate is the big economic engine at this time. Not just buying and selling, but all the associated carpentry, etc., that goes with it. Be in touch with Tom Falcon for the inside scoop - he is a local realtor doing well.

Thursday morning Sherry and I will be taking our 7 year old granddaughter to State College, PA, for a summer camp program. The drive is 525 miles out, and 525 miles back, all good highway, but still, 525 miles. Then Sherry and our daughter, Tracey, will return at the end of the week to pick Hannah up and return to Wolfeboro. Again 525 miles out, and 525 miles back.

Have a Happy Fourth of July.
_________________
C-1 49 J-7 52 S-3 55 J-10 58
C-7 50 J-7 53 S-2 56 J-8 59
C-8 51 J-4 54 S-7 57 (JA) J-8 60 - 64
1965 - 1968 Military service
Pine Cone 68 - 75 (with wife,Sherry,
and daughter Tracey)
Wolfeboro - full-time since 1997

David Bentley · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:29 pm Post subject: Blues and Grays

I forgot to mention that friendship was probably not a factor - particularly in light of the fact that Tom Falcon and I have been friends for more than 50 years and he is a @#*@@# Gray. For the next 50 years I'm only going to tolerate him, and then I'll switch to a mild form of dislike. Peter Gilbert and I were friends and tentmates each summer and he and I were simultaneously the two company Battalion Commanders for parades, and I am sure that color was not a factor in anyone's friendship with others, it only served to distinguish bodies from each other for friendly competition purposes.

The above having been said, "GO BLUES"
_________________
C-1 49 J-7 52 S-3 55 J-10 58
C-7 50 J-7 53 S-2 56 J-8 59
C-8 51 J-4 54 S-7 57 (JA) J-8 60 - 64
1965 - 1968 Military service
Pine Cone 68 - 75 (with wife,Sherry,
and daughter Tracey)
Wolfeboro - full-time since 1997

Mike Freeland · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:26 pm Post subject:

David Bentley · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:55 pm Post subject: Blues and Grays

Sartorial elegance was not a requirement to be a camper, and no one ever lost points because of poor hat management, so, please, unload that baggage and carry on with your life !!
_________________
C-1 49 J-7 52 S-3 55 J-10 58
C-7 50 J-7 53 S-2 56 J-8 59
C-8 51 J-4 54 S-7 57 (JA) J-8 60 - 64
1965 - 1968 Military service
Pine Cone 68 - 75 (with wife,Sherry,
and daughter Tracey)
Wolfeboro - full-time since 1997

Harry Sloan · JA Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 23 Location: Bennington, NH

The Blue - Grey parade was a high point in my life, (lol ) I am glad for my growth spurt that put me in long pants in the Color Guard the insects were very hungry at that time of day.
_________________
68 S-6 ( Jon Crane ) 69 S-6 ( Kent Newby ) 70 JA-2 ( Dan Mannis )

pslack · Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Posts: 1

Speaking of brother colors; my brother was a grey and I was a blue. I think just an oversite since most bothers were the same. At some point we were given the option to "team up" but we were both already firmly entrenched on our individual sides and there was no going back. And since the greys almost always won the military drill I heard about it.

Mike Freeland · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:13 pm Post subject:

What? Grays winning the MilDrill parades? That must've been way after my camperhood, because I can't count the number of times the Gray Company had to remain on the field at least til Midget First Call to get better at smartly facing that-a-way, while the Blues got to finish out the (abbreviated) Free Evening. I guess all that after-hours practice helped in the later years.

I thought I remembered at least one case of brothers being different colors. You think it was an oversight, or did your folks ask for that?

Come to think of it, I now wish the rosters had included the color team we were associated with. That'd be a great addition to the database.
_________________
'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