The Council Room

[Jim Culleton]

Here are a few more sounds that were common during the time of Camp parades. I'm sure more will come to mind!

1. Kids laughing in formation during parades (either at attention, or at parade rest) and the company commander and others looking at the "offenders" with scorn. Even though this practice was probably consistent across Blue/Gray lines, it still counted off on total points for who won the parade that night.

2. The big bass drum that was used by the Wyanoke band during parades. It seemed that this drum pretty much over shadowed the other instruments in the band, or maybe the camper playing it was hitting it too hard!

3. The sound of the film breaking during Tuesday night movies in Boyden Chapel and everyone groaning! Remember the hard wooden chairs we sat on for the duration of the movie, and for every other event in the chapel?

4. John Mallery (kitchen boy) who played "honky tonk" tunes on the Boyden Chapel piano after Senior taps for a half hour or so. He was GOOD and one could hear him well into the Senior Camp and part of the Jr. Camp. That was in '59 I think.
_________________
'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

[Jim Graves]

1. The sound of rain pounding the tent.
2. The sound revile in the morning.
3. The sound of an excited camper describing his days activities.
4. The sound of a councilor reading a story after taps.
5. The sound of Mike, Pat and Gang singing, "Something, something, gonna sing a little something."
6. The sound of BMB making announcements.
7. The sound of water lapping a canoe.
8. The sound of OD's talking and laughing after TAPS and trying to hear what they were saying.
9. The sound of the bass quartet that played every now and then.
10. The sound of the camp song at the end of Saturday night campfire.
11. The sound of the Mt. Washington’s whistle
12. The sound of lightning hitting a tree 50 feet away from S-5.
13. The sound of echo Taps being performed after the Farewell Banquet and straining my ears to listen to it played all three times through the camp.
14. The sound of trunks being closed for the last time and being dragged across the tent platform.
15. The sound of tires crunching the snow while driving into the camp parking lot in the middle of winter.
15. The sound of my heart breaking when the camp closed.
16. The sound of my heart beating when I last visited the camp grounds three years ago (I went there with my wife and daughter and they laughed at me because they said it was like I was 17 again as I related various stories about the camp).
_________________
Jim Graves
67 J-2 Jerry Hoyt
68 J-5 Todd Whittimore
69 J-9 Charlie Thomas
70 S-1 Bob Arnot
71 S-5 Russ Vaughn
72 J-2 Dan Mannis
74 J-? (The small cabin across road from J-2) Councilor
75 J-5 Councilor

[Chris Gill]

How about the Cicadas on hot August days? The old springs on Freddie's truck when he deliverd ice to the bubblers. Mike Freeland used to burn plastic bags in the cookout fire because it made a cool "whoop" noise. That reminds me of getting the cookput pan wicked hot and then putting it in the lake, it would sizzle and steam and we loved to watch it. Listening to the accent of the kids from Winchesta. The roar of those old Svea stoves on backpacking trips. I can still hear kids doing that old African cheer that Charlie Thomas taught us. How about the quiet sound of a counselor blowing out a kerosene lantern, or listening to kids talking in thier sleep while you were "on duty". There must be lots more that I can't think of now.
_________________
1965-1975
C7,C8,J8,S4,S3

[Tom Shirley]

Chris, You mention Charlie Thomas's cheer. As I coached soccer over the past 15 years I have always taught that cheer to my teams. The boys would look confused at first but loved to do it.

One day at a tournament in Natick, MA my team did the cheer after a game and to my surprise a father of one of our opponents approached me to ask about the cheer. He wanted to know where I had hear it because he had done it as a child at a summer camp in NH. It turned out to be Bruce Fitzsimmons who I had played with on the intercamp teams. We talked for quite a while.

Gamba-lai-oh

Yeah

Gamba-lai-oh

Yeah

Watini

Whoa
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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 Graves]

Here is a link for Echo Taps: http://home.att.net/~militarysalute1/music/echotaps.wma
_________________
Jim Graves
67 J-2 Jerry Hoyt
68 J-5 Todd Whittimore
69 J-9 Charlie Thomas
70 S-1 Bob Arnot
71 S-5 Russ Vaughn
72 J-2 Dan Mannis
74 J-? (The small cabin across road from J-2) Councilor
75 J-5 Councilor

[Mike Freeland]

Wow, that brings back some great thoughts. That was among my favorite times of the day (even as a camper), and Echo Taps, being something of a special occasion thing, is really bittersweet. It usually meant the end of something you didn't want to end (or if you did, Echo Taps made you wonder if you really did want it to end). Thanks for digging that up Jim.

Chris mentioned "the quiet sound of a counselor blowing out a kerosene lantern", which brings up that distinctive squeak all of those kerosene lanterns made when the chimney was lowered. It fit nicely with Echo Taps as a period at the end of an important day. " 'Night guys... Chapel Police tomorrow."

The sound of chairs scraping on the wood floors wasn't limited to the dining hall. It was a pre-reveille wake-up call for anyone closer than Cabintown when the poor bastards with Chapel Police decided to let their resentment of having to get up early be known. I remember waking up at Reveille on more than one occasion and suddenly saying something like "YAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Jeezzzzussss we got Chapel Police!! C'mon c'mon c'mon..." It was usually discussed with me after breakfast somewhere near the corner of the dining hall veranda. And you sure as hell didn't want chapel police on a Sunday morning.
_________________
'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

[Mike Freeland]

Hoooo Boy. Some people should remain clothed at all times.

Now that I think about it Dave, I remember times when I waited for the church call and it wasn't played. It never occurred to me to ask what happened to it.
_________________
'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]

Here was the old thread I was looking for when I stumbled on Tom Shirley's old thread about home movies.

Mike's comment in Chris Gill's thread about nostalgia for the sound of lake water lapping up against the camp's Old Town canoes reminded me of another similar yet distinct sound: the sound of Winter Harbor lapping under the Jr-Sr wharf. Very peaceful. Great for naps, though those were discouraged among waterfront staff. And then I remember a rare summer or two when the lake water level was so low that there might be a week or two that you didn't get to hear it very often. And a few summer storm days when the lake water level would get so high that waves would be constantly jumping up between the boards and we were all told to Stay Off the wharf altogether so we wouldn't be washed out to sea like lobstermen.
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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

[Mike Freeland]

A brief excursus: I forget whether I mentioned this before in here, but it occurred to me that there are some great threads dating back to 2005 and 2006 (I started this site in 2005), when we didn't have many registered members. I'm glad to see some of them coming back. The one about food, this one about sounds and Jim's songs thread, are particularly evocative of camp. There's another one about smells, which to me are the most effective exposers of buried memories there are.

We now have quite a few registrants, with some still trickling in, who probably haven't looked at those threads because they're buried in obscurity way down in the list. I often wonder how many Wyanokers have visited this site without registering. Perhaps I should have required registering in order to view the forum, but I didn't want to be restrictive and it's too late now.

So, if any of you has a favorite old thread, you can revive it by posting a reply and it'll come back to the surface like this one on sounds. There's some really good writing by our contributors and some behind-the-scenes stuff from Dave Bentley and others. That old stuff is well worth digging through.
_________________
'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