The Council Room

[Jim Culleton]

Just a fond memory of stopping at that "little store" in Fryeburg, ME during our Saco River canoe trips. As I remember we hit that store at some point during the 1st day of the trip and tied our canoes to the small dock on the river next to the store. It seemed like "Christmas in July" as we scarfed up all those bags of potato chips, soft drinks and anything else that was available. Root beer was a favorite and no diet soft drinks back then! I'm sure that our parents paid dearly for our expenditures that day ! We must have had a $5 limit in those days which went quite far considering todays inflation.

I sometimes wonder why we were allowed to load up on all that great sweet, fattening stuff and then run the risk of getting sick on the trip? Didn't seem like anyone got sick, though.

I do remember carrying a bunch of 6-12 with us to keep the horse/deer flies at bay!

Could it have been the Fryeburg General Store?
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'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, 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

[DavidAyars]

Ah, yes! 6-12, liquid or stick, sold at the Camp Store. Had a rumor of DEET about it and lots of isopropyl alcohol or some other fragrant but useless ingredient. I swear the mosquitoes, deer flies, and horse flies would laugh at us and swill that stuff down like it was sody pop before gouging our flesh. For real insect control you needed Woodsman's Fly Dope
http://www.predatorpee.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=BUG
...no Deet, but a fair amount of essence of asphalt and ball sweat off a woodsman who hadn't seen a shower in 12 months... but not sold at the Camp Store, out of mercy to fellow Wyanokers... or at least Cutter's Insect Repellent, which did have DEET.
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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

[David Bentley]

The first stop on the Saco River Trip was actually not on the River at all, but, as you said, the Freyburg General Store. On any of the trips I was involved with we stopped there with a shopping list of "fresh" food to eat later that day and evening and in the morning of the second day. This usually included hamburg meat (is that redundant), whole milk, some fruit, some eggs, etc., etc. Generally, this was not a stop for "supplemental personal nutrition", however, I'm sure some of that took place. Once on the river, there was a mid-trip stop at the East Brownsfield (Maine) Bridge, and at this time usually a staff member and some of the campers stayed behind to guard the canoes and gear (you know how those river pirates were) and the rest of the crew walked into the store at East Brownsfield to replenish a few supplies. At this stopp some allowance money was handed out and much "SPN" (see earlier full spelling) occurred. Then the walk back to the canoes and the resumption of the trip on to the second night. THEN, the big day, day 3. Usually, if everyone did it right, you could be up, fed, and packed and on the river rather early, thus creating some time at the end point to visit the Creamery in Hiram, Maine, our terminus, before the pick up vehicle arrived, be it the yellow bus, or in earlier days, the rack(ety) body green GMC truck. The Creamery afforded many opportunities to spend allowance money, and most of it went to the largest ice cream serving available, and a large container of carbonated drink. Many a camper had an up close and personal experience with what happens when you consume a large amount of ice cream, slosh it around and down with a carbonated drink in excess, and then stuff yourself into a vehicle not designed for comfort and lacking atmospheric controls, usually over-crowded and quite possibly hot, and embark on the many-mile trip home. Might I conclude by saying that this "life's lesson" was usually learned in one trip, and not forgotten for a long time (if ever).

Generally speaking (as a Waterfront councilor) the Saco River Trip was one of the more popular trips. I'm sure that for every one who ever went on a Saco there are at least twice as many stories.
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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]

Great topic. I loved the East Brownville stop. It seemed like about a mile down that sandy road, and I had the impression that that store, and maybe a house, were what constituted the entirety of E. Brownsfield. Was there more to it than that?

There was a rope swing on, I think, the 3rd day. I remember all of us asking Henny Knowlton at every turn in the river, "Is this where the rope swing is?". Shortly after that point in the river, I quit swimming because the water started to get kinda turgid and slow, (dam at Hiram), and with the stillness came the LEECHES! (See "Stand By Me" for a vivid protrayal of what happened to a lot of guys, though not necessarily in that anatomical location.) Yup, after seeing one leech on a guy on my first Saco trip, I sat in the canoe.

I always liked the 6-12 stick. Greased you right up. Sort of turned you into human fly paper. The smell of that stuff is one I'll remember forever.

Say, did the Camp Store gouge us innocents by selling the 2-oz. bottle for $17.95 at the height of the mosquito season? I don't seem to recall...

Oh, and speaking of mosquitos, when I was a Midget, we used to go whining to Scotty the Nurse with every bite. She applied Witch Hazel, whatever the hell that is, to make it better. That's another smell I'll always associate with Wyanoke.

The river in those days was virtually unpopulated, so we spent a lot of our time sans clothing, with nary a worry of discovery. One awful consequence of all that sun and reflecting water hit Kevin Wiggin, if I remember correctly, in 1960 when I was a Senior. He returned from the Saco trip with 3rd degree sunburns extending the entire length of his thighs. Really, 3rd degree blistering and festering right down through the dermis. God that must've hurt. He was a red-head, and really susceptible to sunburn. No SPF 15 back then either. The Coppertone we used was more like a basting fluid than protection.

And three whole days of river canoeing without the encumbrance of any kind of wearable flotation devices!
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'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

[Jim Culleton]

To this day I can still remember a stint in the "Infirmary" back in '57 or '58 with a fever and Scotty and maybe Mrs. Farrey (?) being the nurses. They were always so kind to us and the beds were "hospital tucked" way better than we could do it! The Saco River trip was coming up! I still had a 99 degree fever, but they let me go anyway.

The point of this story is what most of us guys fear most of our lives . . . . . . . not picking up the toilet seat before urinating and not putting it back down afterwards! As I recall the toilet in the Infirmary was in the back, similar to the layout of those cabins in CabinTown that had toilets. I remember Scotty asking me to be sure to raise the seat before using it so as not to get the seat wet! She never said anything about putting the seat back down again and figured that I was too young and would learn later on in life!

Mike, yes I do remember the Witch Hazel! It was a cure all for so many ailments we suffered! Loved the smell so it must have worked! I also remember the nurses applying tincture of mercurochrome (that red-orange colored stuff) to the many cuts and scrapes that we used to incur.
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'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, 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

[Guest]

I certainly recall nude paddling (of course I mean travelling, don't get those nasty thoughts, boys) on the Saco, and Scott Creelman, JA or JC at the time, ending one fine day with what he referred to as "a real hot dog." And the walk in the summer sun down that long baking-hot asphalt road to the Brownsville store, where we'd load up on those well-known juvenile thirst quenchers like Root Beer Barrels, Bonomo's Turkish Taffy, Charleston Chews and Lik'm Ade.
And stripping the north woods of pine and hemlock braches, thinking that by making a layer of them on the ground they'd be springy and cushion our sleeping bags through the night. And the devastation we wrought on the birches of NH-Maine by peeling their bark to use as a fire-starter.
Fortunately I never encountered any leeches. A few of the great scenes in The African Queen involve those beauties, and I can do without. We have our own scourge down here in the form of deer ticks and their various diseases. Everyone knows at least several people who've had Lyme Disease, to say nothing of ehrlichiosis or babesiosis. I do a lot of running in the woods, and I've been one of the great supporters of the insect repellant industry over the last many years. It's a good thing that 6-12 has been improved upon. What the hell was in that stuff, anyway, camphor? And how could they get away with selling it for so many years when it just didn't work? I remember the woolen shorts and greasing up with it before parade, and even now can't decide which was more uncomfortable. But that's what we Blues had to deal with and overcome to stay on top, I guess.