HYDE BAY HOMELETTER. SEVENTH ISSUE. Week of August 14. SEASON OF 1933.
WEATHER. We should be greedy to expect the sort of weather we enjoyed
in July. This last week has been a mixture of rain and sunshine. It has
not hurt our pleasure and must have done the crops of the outlying lands
much benefit. The nights have been cold, the mornings so crisp that only
the tougher dipped.
TENNIS. Chenango came up this week to continue the tennis match.
Bucky Turner won to put us two matches to one, but later matches in
doubles turned the tide in their favor. It was good fun.
AFTERMATH( Revised). Do you recall the dismal prediction of telephone
calls and the like as a result of the great Hyde Bay Plague of last
week ? Well, we were all wrong. The parents took it in a way most
comforting to us. There were no calls relative to health and safety.
A number of letters expressed perfect confidence. Of such stuff are
Directors’ smiles fabricated!
HEALTH. This week has been a far different story. Gary Black was
the only citizen to achieve a temperature. He was up the day or so
following and had so far regained his strength as to insert his head
in a partially empty freezer of ice-cream and eliminate the “partially.”
NEW SIGNIFICANCE. Smith Brothers, which so long has stood for a
balmy mingling of whiskers and cough-drops, here at Hyde Bay, now
means bigger and better fish. Hardly a day passes when this redoubtable
pair does not come in with a gangling pickerel. They seem bent on making
the lake safe for the “forgotten fish”. ( A fine mingling of Presidential
mottoes.) The Pickett brothers brought in one. Achilles Black still
sulks in his tent, a promising fisherman gone wrong! A deluge of sun-fish
and minature perch rewarded some of the intermittent fisher-lads one
cloudy day. Even fossilist Howat joined them.
SMALL BOAT. The small boat and motor are as popular as ever. A tired
voice on the phone announced that the owner, a neighboring cottager,
had come to Lake Otsego to rest, not to listen to the constant drone
of a motor. A small boy in a blue shirt seemed the worst offender. We
could not identify the youth. Now we run directly out into the lake
with a motor which has been silenced by the skilled hand of our true
MOTORMUCHUS, Herbert Smelser.
MECHANICS. A brace of the lowly U.L. Jake and Hammy, with the advice
and aid of the Motormuchus, removed and replaced the head of the engine
which irritates the station wagon into reluctant activity.Now to
repeat the funny part, it runs better.
VISITORS. Mr. and Mrs. Turner were here on Saturday and Sunday. T#hey
removed Charley to our Sorrow, in an otherwise very pleasant visit. Leslie
rushed from his tour at the dishes to pass a benevolent dish towel over
the face of the departing youth.
MARATHON. The previously neglected horse-shoe has emerged from its
retreat. Messrs. Marrian and Hartzell set out to play best out of
fifteen games with no pause for refreshments. It is rumored that the
Gonfalon rests over the department of Romance languages. Hammy has
caused it to flutter dangerously.
SOCIETY COLUMN. Mr. and Mrs. Edward T. Russell , who are spending
the summer in their cottage on the shores of Otsego Lake, were seen to
take a dip Sunday morning. Director and Mrs. Pickett have added a porch
for sleeping to their cottage in order to have a sleeping porch and to
make a better infirmary. Garbo Pickett has been ill for a day or so with what
resembles buck shot wounds. She is better today. Mr. William D. Lynn is
appearing in a short with no sleeves once the property of Mr. L. A. B
Exshaw. The garment gives the scandalous illusion that Mr. Lynn wears
nothing else. The tails form a detached panel. Mr. Morgan Cooper Walker
wore his own trousers Thursday. The style demanding a white coat at meals
inaugurated by Mr. John Newell Classen has so far not spread beyond the
“ er.
TRENTON FALLS AGAIN. All the younger boys who had not been to the falls
went Thursday under the protecting arms of George Poore, Fanny Payne,
Doug Wise,and Jack Young . Johnny Boyce also protected. Arriving at
noon we enjoyed one of Mr. Poore’s best meals, steak and warm raw
potatoes, corn on the can, and bread. Swimming below the low falls.
Mr. Payne started the practise of sliding over the falls . It proved
very popular. Innocent bystander Brad went over by accident. Johnny
Smith was washed over while fishing and suffered the loss of two
shoes and the bulk of his fishing equipment. He was rescued. Every
boy explored the gorge. Countless still,pictures supplemented the
hundred feet of movie film taken by the director, who stayed with the
expedition till supper. George and Johnny Boyce scaled the hithertoo
impassible second falls. All crawled under the falls and dipped in the
deep dark pool. At night they all slept in pup tents and under canoes,
but no rain rewarded such efforts. At ten the next day they went down
the rapids. While they probably upset many times a conspiracy of secrecy
enables them to claim no mishaps. Doug assisted by Arthur and Brad came
into the terminus of the trip about half an hour late and there reported
they mistook a cow path for the bed of the stream. Both arrived in time for
supper. We have now carried our canoes nearly three hundred miles by
trailer. I think all agree that Trenton Falls is worth the trip not to
mention the rapids of the West Canada.
MAN HUNT. Saturday was set apart for a terrible test of human courage
the “ “. Older boys went to town to see Mr. Hartzell fail to get the
auto awarded the lucky number. He did stand near the lucky goy who
won it. Close Carl:
Under the aegis of Charley Classen and Nester Russell and
the officialingof Msrs. Al and Ed. The hunt was a huge success. The
out party of Mr. Classen won over the In party of Mr. Payne. The prison
tent was emptied with a facility recalling the palmy days of Coals
Blease in S. C. Fearful grunts, groans,and howls resounded on all sides.
Hammy Welbourn was prisoner four times. Howard Haffner and Herbert
Pickett fought a desperate duel before they discovered that they were
both Inns. Leslie savagely tackled Hugh. While he was making humble
amends two Johnnies chalked his tent. Huidey and Herb Smelzer of the
Inns were captured and sent off to sleep . Freddie Alner slept at his
post , but has not yet been shot at sunrise, due to the fact that it
is hard enough to get the camp up for breakfast hours after sunrise.
No injuries. It was an evening of thrills, sending crinkles up the
spine of the most callous elder…
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