The Council Room

[David Bentley]

During the past several years I have spent time sorting through some old Camp records, and, today, I came across the following entry (excerpted) in the Cabintown Log Book

Log for Tuesday, Aug. 14, 1945 Police C 8

"At supper time the appearances of a few portable radios, and the words from Mr. Bentley made us aware that important news on the Japanese peace talks was to be expected presently. Then the word did come through just as we went in for the movies; and the announcement that peace terms had been agreed upon, thrilled us. Each gave expression to his joy in his own particular way.

"Only the gripping drama of Hopalong Cassidy in Three Men from Texas could have held our attention for the next hour and a half. When we came back to our cabins we were just full of excitement. Some of us were shooting cattle rustlers; others were still after the Japs. But all of us were thinking - what a wonderful thing to be at peace again and could we really believe it! Our fathers might be home again and other thrilling things would soon be happening.

"All went to bed to listen to the joyous sounds of distant whistles, bells and horns. After a time these died down and the music of wind in the pines and the chirping of crickets along with voices of tree toads lulled us again to truly peaceful sleep."

signed: Stanwood S. Fish

I knew Stan Fish, and his son, and I can say that Stan was the right man to write the Log for this date.
_________________
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

[DavidAyars]

Very cool, David.

The closest thing we had to that, as positive news creating major camp buzz in my time at camp, was the moon landing, already discussed in other threads. That was a highlight but not like the end of World War Two and what that would have meant to many at camp. As Stan implies, if you didn't have close family members serving in the second world war, you almost surely had a close friend or neighbor on your street at home or tentmate at camp who did. And by 1945, everybody was sick of the war and wanted it over with. (Well maybe not George Patton, who wanted to kick the Russkies all the way back to Moscow, but everybody else.)

Most intriguing in the log entry for me is the phrase "the appearances of a few portable radios". I'm not sure what Stan meant by that. Portable, battery operated transistor radios were still a few years off in 1945. I guess some people built battery-operated radios (even before Pat Freeland went all Heathkit on us). The military had battery operated radios in the second world war. But most consumer radios then were AC operated table or console models, and there wasn't a lot of AC at camp. So it's surprising to me that there would be multiple portable radios at camp in 1945.
_________________
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]

That really is neat, Dave.

The daily logs were often pretty mundane records of pretty ordinary days at camp, but by requiring them for every day, Wyanoke had in place a great mechanism to capture historical milestones, kinda like catching a glimpse of a nutrino. I'm curious as to how the subject was treated in the Junior/Senior camp log for the same day.

Dave A., that was I who went all Heathkit on you. To my knowledge, Pat has never operated a soldering iron. He goes for bigger tools.

I was wondering the same thing about portable radios. I remember a portable radio I found in our attic when I was 10 or 11 which took a huge number of D cells (Carbon/Zn which leaked all over the place). It was tube-operated, and I got it to work after scraping the corrosion off the contacts. That thing had its own AC cord and was relatively old when I found it, though I don't know if it went as far back as 1945. Anyway, that was the first I ever saw a portable radio.

It'd be fun to look at the logs for that August day (29th? I forget.) when we landed on the moon. Garth and I had our groups on Kehonka Beach (were you there Dave? I'm thinking you were earlier than '69, but I don't feel like firint up my database.) and Althea invited us up to the Lodge to watch the landing (watch your boys.)
_________________
'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]

Yeah, I was in JA-2 and remember being in the Chapel watching the tiny TV on the night of the moon landing.

And sorry, wrong Freeland on the Heathkits. I remember one of you putting together a Heathkit color TV or stereo one off season in the early to mid-70s, yes?, which I thought was at Pat's place when he was teaching in Hanover and a pretty mind-blowing accomplishment. I'm probably hallucinating this entire thing. Never mind!
_________________
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]

One of the by-products of the fact that Camp closed without any warning (so to speak) is the fact that some things were really not attended to in an orderly manner - one of those things being the preservation of the daily Log books. I have some, mostly from the Midget Camp, but I have been unable to locate the bulk of the Junior/Senior Log books. I checked with the present owner of the Hilltop cabin and he says there are no Log books in there. So, sorry to say, only the Cabintown version of V-J Day is in tact.

Wyanoke preceeded the electronic age, particularly in the record keeping area, and even the year to year management of Log books and other data collection vessels was somewhat sketchy. As I have said in earlier posts, I just do not think that this was something my Dad actually thought about, and I am sure he seriously underestimated the impact of Wyanoke on the boys and men and women. I struggle to find the right words to explain my thoughts, but I really think he didn't feel that what he was doing would travel through time with as much clarity and weight as it has. He took great satisfaction in the advances made by the men and boys and women in their lives, and their connections to others more so than he did in the role played by Wyanoke in all of this. (Since he is not here to explain it any other way - that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.)
_________________
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

[Tom Shirley]

[Mike Freeland]

Ah yes, I can explain that. That ham radio was Garth Nelson's. The two of us set it up in what was formerly a darkroom that you passed as you left the senior pines toward the senior camp. It still had the old pans and stuff in there when we went to clean it out. Freddie stored the entire camp supply (two bars) of "It Floats!!!" soap and some Pine-Sol there too.

I was never a ham (never mastered the code), but Garth was, and he brought his rig one summer. We strung an antenna from the roof of the chapel to a pine tree several yards away, about 25 or 30 feet off the ground. While I was climbing the pine to anchor that end of the antenna, a branch broke off under me and I fell out of the tree. I'd have free-fallen to the ground but in an uncharacteristically athletic move I grabbed onto a small beech tree top, and it bent all the way to the ground, slowly, like an elevator. Jeeze that was fun. I think if Brad had seen that from his office window, he'd have killed me himself. These days, that beech sapling wouldn't lower me so slowly, I'm afraid. Probably come up by the roots.

That ham station was hidden in there (and locked) because Garth didn't want any curious kids fooling with it. He used to take his tent group down there and show them how it worked. Might have done some rainy-day activities with it too.

I wonder if anyone else remembers that.

That part of the chapel always seemed to be off limits, though no one ever said so. I sneaked up under the floor of the chapel one time, behind the pines, and found an old water closet (the wooden tank with the string -- I'd love to have one of those now) and a busted one of those wooden rifles we used for manual of arms. There may have been other treasures, but I didn't see any and I figured I should get out of there before I got caught.
_________________
'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

[David Bentley]

In the late 1950's Fred Kuhns brought a rather sophisticated HAM set-up to Camp and installed it in the roll top desk in the balcony of the Chapel. I think he was a senior at the time, and the next year, as a JA (if memory serves me correct) the system was installed in his car, including a portable generator kept in the trunk. The car was driven to Camp by a parent, and Fred was allowed to run the car to charge the battery to start the generator to power the HAM set-up. The car was parked near the Sears Treasure House, and my Dad knew the odometer reading and Fred knew he wasn't allowed to move the vehicle, only start it for the previously stated purposes. Fred was Morse Code proficient, and also held a license to communicate verbally, anywhere. He would set up contact times with far-flung fellow HAMs and 'meet' them during siesta, Sunday siesta, and other time not in conflict with his JA duties. During the course of the summer he collected contact post cards from many, many HANs around the world. I seem to remember he had a "forty-meter di-pole antenna" and broadcast at the maximum power allowed. I can remember listening to him talk quite plainly with places like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. At the time, all the technology eluded me (greatly), so I am not sure if I am remembering all the details clearly, but he did have a car, and the set-up was in the car.

Over and Out.
_________________
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