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HYDE BAY HOME LETTER

VOLUME 38             July 6, 1964                   No. 2

MONDAY: Sunny and warm was the weather for the day - most conducive to a full day of boating and waterfront activities. Junior Life Saving classes began in the morning for all those twelve and over or entering the seventh grade in the fall. A portion of the day was set aside for organization of our newly inaugurated intramural activities program. Four teams were formed by dividing the camp in quarters. These teams will compete on all levels in all camp activities. The names of the teams are: Rubies, Utopians, Zeros, and Beautawfuls. It has been a unanimous success. The ULs, along with Scott Carlton and Frank Pine, spent most of the day erecting two l0x12 tents for Urge in our rejuvenated nature program. An early speciman of a garter snake was brought in by Ricky Schiess. We are in hopes that this program will stimulate collections of wild life and plants throughout the summer. Scott and Frank have already been out on several hikes to find fascinating items. Don’t be surprised if some of these become personal pets of your sons. The first trip of the year went out to Lookout, a plateau in back of camp overlooking the lake. The boys hike up and the supplies are taken up by car. McKee Lundberg, Scott Carlton, Randy Burwell, and Chip O’Brien were in charge of this group of 24 boys. A busy camp day was ended with a before-bed swim.
TUESDAY: Clear, hot, and windy. The sailboats and sailfish were in constant use throughout the day. It was too windy for water skiing and aquaplaning but fine for everything else. The Hyde Bay Theater swung into full gear with practices scheduled for the upcoming Saturday evening plays. At 5:00 p.m. the second Lookout trip set forth under the direction of Bill Bergstrom, John McCay, and Steve Cunningham.
ICE OREAM DAY: Warm and sunny with wind in the afternoon. The Hacker, a 22-foot inboard motor boat, was finally commissioned for 1964. With a few minor repairs and adjustments, it is now running better than ever. Soon after it hit the water, it was pulling skiers singly and in pairs. This will ease the strain on the 35 h.p. speed boat. We will also use it for transporting boys on various trips around the lake. Practice games were held in baseball and football. In the evening, the camp assembled in the theater to watch a feature film, “Annie, Get Your Gun.” (We have ice cream for dessert on Wednesdays and Sundays.)
THURSDAY: Partly cloudy in the morning and the afternoon brought some stormy, rainy weather, but not enough to really relieve the drought in this section of the country. We welcome a rainy day now and then to rest the camp from several consecutive days of busyness. Anticipating a rainy session, Mr. Hilliard took a group of boys to Shadow Brook, a nearby stream, where we have found a very fine deposit of blue clay that we excavate in abundance and use in our craft program. The molded articles are then finished off in our professional kiln. Terry Fisher was among those who returned with almost as much clay on him as in the buckets. The weather was
good to at least one of our fishermen: Mike Tilghman landed a l5” pickerel and thus was the first one in camp to catch a fish.
FRIDAY: brought some more thunder showers, so much so in the afternoon that our lights went out shortly before supper and did not begin to function again until 1:00 a.m. Fortunately this does not happen very often - we really are quite dependent on modern electricity. The craft shop was busy all day.

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One of the daily nature hikes went out and several more snakes were added to the collection. Also, two baby mice were rescued from one of the buildings, and put into an incubator box. Shortly after lunch a new, 5 1/2 h.p. Johnson motor was installed on our small dingy type motor boat called the “S.T. 37.” As soon as the eligible campers have passed their motor boat test, they will be given the opportunity to pass the S.T. test, thereby having the privilege of driving the S.T. around our boating area. After supper most of the ULs were driven into town for an hour of shopping and eating and then to a neighboring small town for two hours of bowling and more eating. This will be a weekly event for all ULs. The high scorer for the evening was Jim Somerville closely followed by Chris West. Starting next week we will keep accurate scores and a trophy will be presented at the end of the summer.
BOOM - BOOM DAY: Cool winds that increased in the afternoon so that we had to call the sailboats in. Following our practice of former years, we sent out many trips to Snow Gulch in celebration of the Fourth of July. This gulch is a rock formation with deep cravasses - one of which folds a vast amount of snow from the preceding winter. All who wished to see the phenomena were given an opportunity to go. The last trip returned with an estimated hundred pounds of the white material. John Clinnin had the honor of being the first camper to pass his “A” swimming test, nosing out Bobby Tucker by a scant thirty yards. The first group of tent plays was presented in the evening - a very fine group for being the initial endeavor. A panel of three judges from the audience voted the winning box of Hershey Bars to Tent #4 for their play “Parasites Lost.” David Doolittle received the best actor award for his portrayal of a fictitious characterization of candidate_— Gary Bilgewater. The best actress award went to Doug Cornish. The plays for July 11 will include Tents # 9, 63A, 1, and 2. July 18 will be taken up with Tents # 7, 8, 6, and 53B. After the plays, we had sparklers for each camper, shot off a few fire works, and ended with a marshmallow roast
SUNDAY: Cloudy and cool. The routine Sunday cleanup and inspection started the morning off. It was followed by our church service conducted this week by Hunt Hilliard. His talk on tolerance and compassion gave us all good and ample food for thought. Once inspection was completed, the hot shavers were activated in full force. All campers must take a hot shower and be inspected in the shower at least once a week. Very little of the morning was left after all these chores. The intramural program provided some sort of activity for everyone in camp during the afternoon. After our outdoor supper, Tents # 53B, 63B, and 12 went to Cooperstown with the Sunday letters as a reward for having the neatest tents for the week. Sunday night movie ended another busy day.
BILLS: We are enclosing the bills for camp tuition with this issue of the Homeletter. If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to let us know. We must point out that his billing includes the full camp fee for those in camp - both full time and four weeks. If it is more convenient for those here all summer, half the tuition may be paid now and the remainder in August. You do not need to return the bill, your cancelled check is your receipt. The second billing will be the last week in July.
CORRECTION: David Doolittle arrived at 8:00 a.m. on June 26 instead of 8:00 p.m. Our apologies to the early risers of the Doolittle family.
VISITORS: Jack Garver and his family spent a couple of days over the weekend visiting camp. He was taking his family to be in New Hampshire while Jack is furthering his art in Spain.

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