The Council Room

[David Bentley]

This is a great post. The whole topic of homesickness was very difficult for my Dad to deal with considering he had never had the opportunity to be homesick, after all, (like me) he had grown up at Camp and it was home. Talking to the councilors pre-camp was tough because some of the counciilors were new to camp, and had never experienced homesickness themselves or seen it in fellow campers, yet they were being asked to be on the look out for it, participate in it's cure, and still be a full-time councilor. This is sort of like asking Charlie Thomas to be on Swim Duty. (No offense to Charlie) Also, regarding phone calls, the prevailing wisdom was to not call home so as to let the homesickness fade away while being kept busy. One unwanted result of calling home occurred one year when a rather homesick camper was allowed to call home and it so upset his mother that she came to camp the next day. Calling didn't upset the mother, but she realized she was reverse homesick for her son and the call tipped it over and she couldn't stand not having him home. Poor guy. Dave A makes a great point, too, in that the Camp experience probably prepared a lot of boys for being away at school later in their lives. Another alternative to homesickness was the camper who arrived via two parents at Camp and flew out the rear door of the car and disappeared into camp life without saying good-bye to mom and dad. This frequently required rounding up the boy, and suggesting to him that he say good-bye. All dads who had been campers understood this, most moms didn't.
_________________
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]

What a great post to both Dave's! I can remember very well sitting at our first meal (lunch) as a 1st year camper ~ J-9 in '56. I was feeling quite homesick after my mom and dad left in their '55 two-tone green Chevy station wagon. John Heald was sitting next to me at lunch and we didn't have to say a word about how we felt as we both were fighting off the tears . . . . but knowing how each of us was feeling at the time. Remember the blue and yellow circular tables in the main dining hall? The first night sleeping in the tent was tough, not being home in ones own bed.

As strange as the feelings were we soon got over them for the most part. I do remember going down to the Camp store each day to see if I got a letter from home and Irving saying . . . . not today!

To both points I agree! We were supposed to be "macho" and to not let anyone else know we were homesick. And, yes, the Wyanoke experience did help me later on to more easily break the bonds of home when it came to college and later.

I do have fond memories of "Parents' Weekend" during the 4th or 5th weekend of Camp. That was always a fun time with at least a trip to Black's Paper Store with parents! I always felt sorry for those kids who didn't have parents visit them due to distance and tried to invite one or more to come along with us during Parents' Weekend.

Great memories!
_________________
'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]

[David Bentley]

Well, David A, my sympathies to your then camper now wife, however, in my humble opinion, the underlying culprit in that story is the dietician who put liver on the menu for a young girl while at summer camp. Long live Mrs. Morin and her extra chocolate cake with extra thick white icing.
_________________
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]

...amen ...and long live the camp policy which said the same piece of chocolate cake with extra thick white icing would still be available to a boy who didn't like the main course. The camp policy that dining hall food could not be a source or object of punishment was very enlightened for the time. Was it always that way, or had that just come into play by the 1960s?
_________________
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

[Jeff G]

I thought I'd chime in with the importance of the the "escorted" bus transportation to and from camp. I believe that Tom N & Jerry H. were the chaperones for the Boston/Winchester bus in the 1967 season, which was my first. My dad dropped me off at Copley Place on his way to his downtown office. I don't seem to recall if there were a lot of other campers that boarded at the Copley location. Anyway, T & J made me feel right at home from the start, so getting on the bus intown was a great choice. By the time the bus pulled up to the Sheffield Road pickup there was no apprehension at all about this developing "new experience".

In ensuing years I picked up the bus in Winchester, as I could have breakfast at my Grandmothers house at 18 Everett, which was maybe a Yaz HR from the Bentleys. Okay...maybe two.

Those bus rides to camp really set the tone for the upcoming summer for me.

I can't really remember being very homesick, other than year I had to have a Latin tutor (1968). That was a real blast.

He-he-he.

Jeff G.

[Jim Graves]

My first summer at Wyanoke was 1967. I can remember having quite a crying spell in front of the shop. I don't remember who consoled me but I got over it and couldn't wait to return to camp the next summer. That was an interesting year for me because I also went to the hospital during the second session for an emergency appendectomy. I remember spending a hell of a night in the infirmary with the nurse checking in on me fairly regularly through the night. I was taken to the camp doctor's office in Wolfeboro in the morning and was immediately sent to Huggins Hospital where I spent the next three weeks in recovery because my appendix had ruptured. My parents had divorced the year before and one of the remarkable things was my mother riding with one of my brother's on his motorcycle all the way from Cambridge (come to think of it she was 50-the same age I am now). I missed out on the end of camp that summer but I sure was excited to be back the next year.
_________________
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]

Hi Jim,

I remember watching as you were hauled out of camp on a stretcher. All the excitement of an ambulance on the property prompted (I think I remember) an announcement at the next meal about what happened. Your 15 minutes of fame.

My bit with homesickness started when my parents dropped us (pat, me and 2 cousins) in West Chester to join the Philadelphia Party on a train to what we thought of as Siberia. "Pop" Henderson was the guy who shepherded us to NYC, where we joined the New York Party at Grand Central (? or was it Penn Station? Anyone?). He was great. There we boarded pullman cars for the overnight trip to Dover, NH, from whence we were school-bussed to Wolfeboro. After the first few hours of crying, I finally got over it and REALLY enjoyed the trip, especially the Pullman sleepers. That was a gas.

I was kind of shy, so I saw all the other boys on that trip as scary threats to my happiness because they were all carrying baseball mitts and fishing rods. I didn't know what either was for. I was 9.

As someone else mentioned, the first meal was really difficult - the awkward councilor and 7 other marginally or abjectly homesick kids trying to gut it out without a tear. The first day or so with that meal, the team assignments, first activities, swim tests and finally Taps, was terribly stressful for me.

And who could forget having to stand in line at the store, then having to try on various uniform components in front of those strange ladies (Celia Vaughan and a gaggle of Wolfeboro-ettes who sewed name tapes on) as we waited in our underwear. That was horrible. I think you had to do that only if your folks ordered the uniforms to be fitted at camp rather than shipped home early.

And there is no question of the immense value of getting used to being away from home at a young age. It's tough, but college, and particularly the military, would be terriblw without some prior experience.

Say, Military Drill and Manual of Arms night make an interesting thread.

Man I gotta get to work. Later I'll type up an anecdote from one of my Philly party trips as a chaperone, an incident which even 40 years later, still has me sitting bolt-upright in the middle of the night. I'll start another thread for that.
_________________
'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]

I don't have first-lunch-at-camp memories (bad or good) but I do remember that first trip to the Camp Store half an hour after arriving and the nametag brigade, and yes, that was kind of grim. Uncharacteristically so because Celia was such a sweetie if you got to know her, but then, you didn't that day. It just seemed so, I don't know, alien and impersonal. I felt like I'd been shipped to army boot camp a thousand miles from home and didn't know anybody. I felt like just a name on the tag to those ladies in the back room of the store lit by one 100 watt bulb dangling from the ceiling on a double-twisted black wire. By the 1970s, as I recall, they'd stopped having half a dozen ladies come in and sew nametags at the store and making guys wait in their underwear, maybe because most boys came with their own clothes and just ordered one required camp shirt and cap and we'd label those with a Sharpie(?).

And yes, I remember Jim Graves having appendicitis. Just about the whole camp was aware of it. We'd get after-dinner announcement updates from BMB looking at his little black book, such as "Mrs. Bentley and I [BMB looks up and into the Jr-Sr Dining Room] visited Jim today at Huggins Hospital [looks in the Midget Dining Room] and had them bring him an extra dish of vanilla ice cream [leans forward and looks downs the porch]. He's doing well and misses you all." A burst appendix is nasty and potentially life-threatening even today, a good kick tougher than mere appendicitis. No wonder they were so worried.

And Jeff, I was picked up at Copley Plaza on that same 1967 bus as you, though it was my third summer. I was the dorky looking kid in the blue camp cap.
_________________
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]

Yeat another great post, Dave. You captured BMB's glances around the dining hall as he performed the announcements perfectly. That's something you don't "forget" per se, because it's not really an event. It does, however, crystallize a recollection which was otherwise a bit foggy after 40 years or so.

I used to call trip meetings during announcements thusly: "I would like to meet with all the boys on next week's Presidential trip by the garbage can after the meal" I was kindly asked to find a more "appropriate" location for meetings. Hey, the pump was always hoarded by Falcon for his meetings.
_________________
'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]

Yet another great post, Dave. You captured BMB's glances around the dining hall as he performed the announcements perfectly. That's something you don't "forget" per se, because it's not really an event. It does, however, crystallize a recollection which was otherwise a bit foggy after 40 years or so.

I used to call trip meetings during announcements thusly: "I would like to meet with all the boys on next week's Presidential trip by the garbage can after the meal" I was kindly asked to find a more "appropriate" location for meetings. Hey, the pump was always hoarded by Falcon for his meetings.
_________________
'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]

Mr. Bentley had many strengths, but a belly-laugh or even snickering appreciation for ironic/sarcastic humor was not high among them. However others of us loved your "garbage can" announcement after countless meetings had been called for the pump, lower baseball bench, Chapel porch, Little Guest House, and far target on the left up at the archery range.

Remember how at some lunches a dozen meetings would be called and some kids at your table would be expected at several of them? Then we'd have staff meeting announcements on the management of dining hall announcements. As I remember, most meals ended with BMB asking, "Are there any other announcements?", usually a rhetorical question that was immediately answered with the sound of scraping chairs and stampeding feet over the hollow wood floor. Ah, I can hear that sound rattling around in my skull even now.

A campfire skit satirizing Dining Hall announcements would have been a great idea, and in fact, I think there was at least one. I remember Jeremy Cripps making an incoherent announcement as part of a skit.
_________________
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