The Council Room

[Bob Kennington]

A search here turned up two Camp Kehonka references: one under "Near-Disasters", and one under "Food". Although "Food" is a very popular forum, I'd better start afresh here—with info I received today.

It was a girls' camp, and owned by Mr. (Bally) & Mrs. Ballentine. An early Director was Mrs. Mattoon.

"Ballentine" relatives still operate in Wolfeboro, but now as a firm related to investments.

More—as I get it.
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Gordon B. (Father) Wyanoke ~1929-1937
Midget C-1 (1952, 53) (Belden, Edwards)
Junior J-7 (1954, 55) (Scheirer)
1967-1971 Military-Naval Security Group
Sister: Winnemont 1955-56

Blue: there's another color?

[Tom Shirley]

My sister attended Camp Kehonka but if I remember correctly she did not enjoy it. She had a much better time at Camp Se Sa Ma Ca in Raymond, NH.
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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

[Mike Freeland]

We had a reunion in 1995 on the site of Kehonka and had a lobster mess in the lodge and grounds, and a "campfire" (VERY small flame in a tiny hibachi because of the tinder-dry woods). Althea Ballentine was kind enough to let us use the property, though I understand that she could be really irascible at times.

And of course you all remember the "Dance with Kehona" announcement on the Midget dining hall Activity board. Then it was Se Sa Ma Ca and Kehonka went down the tube.

[Edited later]. Um, that didn't come out right. I didn't mean that Kehokna went down the tube -- it just seemed that we didn't have dances with them any more at some point, and Se Sa Ma Ca took over that spot in our program.

Althea died a few years back, didn't she Dave? That might have actually been posted here.
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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

[David Bentley]

Over the years, the Bentley family of Camp Wyanoke and the Ballentine family of Camp Kehonka enjoyed extremely close personal and professional relationships. My father, and my grandfather before him, held the Ballentines, and Miss Matoon before them, and their camp philosophy and leadership in very high esteem. Both "Bally" and Althea took their role in life very seriously, and the well-being of "their girls", both campers and staffers, was first and foremost in their efforts to successfuly run Camp Kehonka.

Members of both families still live in Wolfeboro, albeit, not socially involved, but, nevertheless, still members of the Wolfeboro community. Both Camps enjoy positive reputations in this Town, and this is a pleasant way to remember those days.
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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

[Chris Gill]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed on the forum before.

July 20, 1969, It may have been one small step for man but it was one giant leap for Wyanoke campers. S1 and J8 were on an overnight at Kehonka and we were invited to watch the moon landing on a little B&W TV set with the girls.

If I am totally honest the only thing I remember about that night was the moon landing. I was 11 and probably more interested in Apollo 11 than in the girls. I'll bet the Seniors from S1 were a bit more preocupied.

7/20/69 is probably only 1 of 2 in the ten summers I spent at Wyanoke that I can say for sure where I was. My little sister was born on 7/11/67 and I remember having to go to the dining hall during quiet hour to talk to my Dad. That was also memorable.
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1965-1975
C7,C8,J8,S4,S3

[Mike Freeland]

I remember that very well too. Garth and I used to take our tent groups together on overnights around the lake, in the mountains, anywhere we could get permission to go (and thank you BMB for letting us stray from camp property when others didn't, in the interest of some great experiences for us AND our tent groups). When we first started doing that, I was concerned that the mix of 11- and 13- 14-yr-old boys would be contentious at best, with the "big kids" picking on the little ones, but that was never an issue, which speaks well, in general, for the kind of kids who went to Wyanoke.

I don't now how we picked Kehonka's beach for an overnight, but there we were, and they were gracious enough to come down and invite us up to the lodge. There were, of course, the cautions and caveats about the boys and girls thing. It was never an issue. Everyone was in PJs, straining to see that little scratchy screen. Garth and I were really grateful to Kehonka for that opportunity. History in the making.

Rumor has it that some of Garth's guys came away with a phone number or two. I don't know if that's true.

This post has really strained this keyboard's ability to accept a "K". Time to try to fix 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]

We talked more about the moon landing July 20, 1969 and the Mike-Garth overnight at Kehonka on that date in this thread:
http://www.wyanoke.com/newforum/viewtopic.php?t=43

My little sister went to Kehonka after BMB recommended it to my parents, and she loved the camp. I got to see Kehonka up close and personal on some of the brother-sister exchanges and parent visits. Kehonka was slightly more upscale than Wyanoke in its physical plant-- I remember they had a particularly nice waterfront-- and had a very good staff, too. Their staff and campers generally looked up to the Ballentines as Wyanokers did the Bentleys. As I mentioned in the Food thread, I thought Wyanoke's camp food was pretty good, compared to school cafeterias, anyway, but Kehonka had us beat there.

One of the saddest days in my sister's childhood came when I was a Senior and she showed up at Wyanoke for a brother-sister exchange on a day that I happened to be up in the Presidentials. (Oops. I'm sure it was Mike's fault.) When I got back, BMB and others told me my sister just became inconsolably unglued when at first they couldn't find me, and then realized and had to tell her that I was away.

When I got back from the mountain trip, somebody ran me over there in a car for my own day with my sister to try and make amends. That didn't come out right. They might have liked to run me over with a car, but they just gave me a ride to Kehonka instead. During that second chance visit, a lot of Kehonkers did a double take at me and my sister and said to her, "Oh so that's your brother." Then to me: "She was so upset with you..." Yes ladies, that's me... Mr. Jerk P. Stoodherup! As you can see, I paid a heavy price for that mountain trip. After that misfire, both camps were more careful about coordinating those visits so there were no more missed engagements.
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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

[Bob Kennington]

[Mike Freeland]

Hi Bob,

The K is going to be the death of me. I have to quit drinking milk.

There should be an "edit" button on your posts (not others) up next to the "quote" button on the upper right hand side of the text area. I just tried it by registering with a new name and posting a test message. Let me know if for some reason you don't see it on any note you've posted.
_________________
'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