The Council Room

[Jim Culleton]

These three trivia items popped into my head last night and wrote them down so that I wouldn't forget!

1. 6/12 ~ Remember the bug repellent you could buy at the Camp Store during the late 50's? It was a solid contained in a blue & yellow cylinder (?) . . . maybe about 4" long. One had to push up on the bottom of cylinder to apply. Don't think it worked very well and heaven forbid if one left it in the sun as it would pretty much melt!

2. Wasmaco ~ I can always remember the Wasmaco (Wasson McDonald Corp.) milk truck driving into Camp 2-3 times per week in the late '50's to deliver all the milk we used to drink. I believe that Jonathan Wasson and his brother attended Camp as well.

3. The Infamous Candy Lines ~ which used to be conducted 2-3 times per week, and on occasion two days in a row (that was heaven)! Were the Aides the one's responsible for lugging all that candy throughout the Camp? I do remember as a JC and Councilor asking that the "candy line" start in the Midget Camp. Traditionally Cabintown was last to be visited and often times with not too much to pick from once the Juniors and Seniors got 1st dibs!

Just a few memories of such a great place to have spent a summer! Hard to believe that it's been 42 years for me.
_________________
'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

[David Bentley]

You are so right about the 6/12. Every post-camp week when some general "large area clean-ups" were done there would be cylinders of 6/12 all over the place. 6/12 was only beaten out in infamy by everyone's favorite: Black Flag in the pump gun, 30 seconds after taps.

Wasmaco was indeed our milk and ice cream provider for many seasons. Home base for these guys was in the Haverhill, MA/Plaistow, NH area. There was an ice cream retail store at the southern end of Rt 125 in Plaistow, NH and they were one of the originators of "size enhancement" when it came to ice cream cones. This is no joke: On our way home from Camp we (BMB, ETB, and I) would stop to get a last cone of the summer treat, and, honestly, if you bought a large, double dip, it would last all the way to Winchester. Wasmaco was a believer in small is large, medium is huge, and large is financially obtainable, but functionally nearly impossible to consume.

Candy line, invented by an unemployed former camp dentist, the bane of all that was right with camping and the poster event for all that was wrong. Personally, I think the schedule of candy line events was an algorithym developed by the ILV family and divulged only to a few others, but not in total, only in pieces.

Mike F mentioned Sam Eaves and Bob Mundsteadt, but what about Joe Brawley. Was Bob M the "#10 can guy", I can't really remember him too well. Once Paul Byrd left from the kitchen I believe he may have visited one time. I never knew the gentleman, personally, but I heard a lot of stories about him.

Watching the US Tennis Open brings back memories of RKIrons and listening to him talk about some of the long-ago greats - Don Budge, Tony Trabert, Bill Tilden - he knew them all. Plus, let's not forget Dale Lash and his woodie station wagon who used to come and fix/restring rackets.
_________________
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

[Jim Culleton]

One of my best memories was learning how to water ski at the age of 13 from Melanson's Beach! Russ and Mimi Whitten were the instructors back then in '58 -'59. Russ always drove and Mimi would sit and face us in the boat. I think I was more preoccupied with her than what I was doing on the skis! But I did learn!

Just one of those memories as a 13 year old!
_________________
'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

[Mike Freeland]

Of course you guys remember the old Louisville Slugger bat the Kitchen Boys used to bang the tops off those aluminum milk cans from Wasmaco. It looked more like some kind of brush than a bat when it finally reached the end of its usefulness.

What were those, ten-gallon cans? Five? When they were full, milk was everywhere when they tried to pour from the can into those aluminum pitchers. I think that milk-can-to-pitcher thing was brought to a halt in favor of milk ceartons by health concerns and the regulators who oversee such things. (Any idea what year that was, DMB?) So, after 50 years or so of nobody getting sick from the milk, it suddenly became dangerous. I guess I can see their point, though. The milk was always distributed from the garbage slide. We sure lived life on the edge, huh?

Some other brand names from our collective past:

1. W. H. Brine - The folks who provided us with the striped and crew camp shirts, blue and gray gabardines and flannels, and hats, as well as those socks which always worked their way down into midgets' sneakers at the heels. And served to collect stones and pine needles in great profusion. I called 'em funnel-tops.

2. S. S. Pierce - who provided us with all the number 10 cans we needed to store cook-out silver(!)ware, worms, paint, the snake Milton caught (briefly), nails, the spider Will Bartlett caught (briefly), and cigarette butts. They originally contained my favorite, wax beans, and those "peas" which nearly ruined Sunday Turkey. I don't ever remember going back for seconds on "peas".

3. Atomic Fireballs, Mint Juleps and Necco Wafers - favorites of the candy lines. The fireballs were made legendary by Tom Falcon. Speaking of Candy Line, Jim, except when it was raining or something, Juniors and Seniors had to stand in line at the store for theirs. The Midgets' was delivered by Aides. And yeah, the pickins' were slim by the time they got to C-9. Mint Juleps were individually wrapped gooey salt-water taffy-type things, and of course, Necco Wafers always had too many yellow and green ones and not enough red ones, and the wintergreen ones gave off light when you bit them (triboluminescence). Wint-o-green lifesavers do too. Try it.

No brands here, but

4. Sheet Blankets Pill much? Great for soaking up urine too. 'nuff said.

5. Dr. Bovaird

6. Blacks Gift Shop(pe?) - First destination for trips to town with visiting parents. Stock up on contraband candy.

I'd forgotten the 6-12 push-up sticks. Remember Witch Hazel? Scotty the nurse used to placate us goobers who came to her with mosquito bites with that stuff. I don't remember it doing anything, but the smell was neat and I haven't sniffed it in maybe 40 years. It'd probably make me light-headed and all woozy-nostalgic.
_________________
'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]

I don't know if the root beer barrel hard candies were available on "candy line"? They may have been brought in by a camper, after a trip to town with parents, and I was lucky enough to grab a few . . . . . . . . always loved them and still do!

I did bring a big box of "Double Bubble" gum to Camp one summer as either a Jr. or SR. . . . . . . . . box count was around 200 pieces! It lasted all summer, at least for our tent anyway! Was BYO candy allowed back then? I usually packed it in the bottom of my trunk so the "BYO police" wouldn't find it!
_________________
'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

[Mike Freeland]

No, BYO was strictly verboten. My uncle used to send me a box of Hershey's chocolate things (usually those peanut clusters) which my councilor always confiscated and doled out as he saw fit. Trouble was that with the heat, those clusters just became one huge cluster by summer's end.

The biggest consumer of bubble gum I've ever know, then or now, was Jeff Fincun. He must've brought 3 or 4 cases with him, and I don't think I ever saw him without a gob of gum in his mouth.
_________________
'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

[Bob Kennington]

[David Bentley]

Say, Bob, I think the ski boat used by Russ and Mimi Whitten was a Penn Yan Swift, about 15', powered by a 35 hp Johnson. I know for a fact that the boat was relatively small, and a good sized skier could pull the boat out of line with a deep dig to either side. Camper sized skiers were fine, but a staff member was probably too big.
_________________
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

[Bob Kennington]

[Bob Kennington]

[Jim Culleton]