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HYDE BAY HOME LETTER

VOLUME 38             August 3, 1964                   No. 7

MONDAY: Clear and cool. Things were a bit sparse on the waterfront with the advent of a cool wind. However, of course, this does not stop the sailors and all boats were busy throughout the day. It was a banner day for the Nature Department. Two small coons were spotted in a nearby tree. Great excitement prevailed until plans were developed for their capture. Finally, midst a great deal of confusion and discussion, one was enticed down from the tree and eventually corralled by Rusty Pickett. The second also was captured in a blanket and both were then introduced to their cage. They settled down and were of great interest to all. Another newcomer to the menagerie was a rather small skunk which wandered into one of the Hav-a-Hart traps with not even any bait in it. (He had been well fed in the tents for the previous few nights!!) He or it (we are not sure which!) is a most friendly little fellow and usually just ignores any of us who are watching him. He sleeps most of the day and frolics in the cage at night. The final Trenton Falls trip left under the leadership of Alton Davison, Scotty Carlton, Tom Mercer, Walter Rogers, Daryl Young, and Andy Astmann. Bobby Peggs, Jim Hubert, Colin Murray were among some of the campers that went. Just before supper Tents # 9 and 63A departed for the Willows. The day ended with various games for various groups of various campers.

TUESDAY: Clear with a brisk wind. Another fine day for sailing and preparing for the final wind-up sailing races. Many boys were occupied on the tennis courts in the starting of the tennis tournament for the final trophies. Preparations were also commenced in the archery program. Junior Life Savers spent considerable time on their projects. A Willows trip left with Tents # 16 and 18 doing the rowing.

WEDNESDAY: Overcast in the morning; a strong wind in the afternoon which heralded a rather cold period in our summer. During the afternoon the baby coons were reunited with their mother whom we had captured a week or so previously. All were obviously overjoyed at the reunion and both mother and babies had much coon talk before they finally all three climbed into the nesting box and settled down. There was too much wind for the Comets but the Sailfish are ideal for this kind of weather. They saw lots of use during the course of the afternoon. After supper the camp saw the movie, “Battleground” — a story with much action.

THURSDAY: Clear and windy. After inspection a small group, including Chris West and George Radcliffe went up Shadow Brook in search of zoo food. In the middle of the morning an exploratory trip left by bus to East Springfield with a destination of finding a known beaver dam in that area. Jared Bernstein, George Helfrich, Clayt Horsey, Jeff Mann, George Mercier, Tenny Sener, and Danny Somerville were some of the campers who went under the guidance of Scott Carlton and John Mercer. The trip was somewhat in vain, however, because the dam was never found - but a good hike and lunch was had by all. In late afternoon a large group headed out for Rum Hill. This was

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led by Lawry Pickett, McCee Lundberg and Frank Pine. Among those hikers were Kevin Considine, David Dube, Robbie Gerlach, Peter Mehl, Chuck Ober, Sandy Pickett, Donald Ross, and Chip Smith. It was a beautiful night out with lots of stars and a view of a satellite. Tents 2 and 63B set sail for the Willows. An intramural challenge between the first—year ULs and the second—year ULs took place in the evening.

FRIDAY: Cool, sunny, and windy. The camp intermediate sailors were towed to Chenango where they competed against the Chenango senior sailors. Although the final score was in their favor, it was by but a point or two and Hyde Bay Looked very well. Immediately after lunch the Hyde Bay swimming team won a crushing victory over Chenango: the Junior score was 29—13 and the Senior was 22—11. Obviously, all our swimmers were at peak performance. Following supper, the bowlers journeyed to Vanhornesville to compete in the first leg of the final bowling tournament for ULs. Steve Lines aud Mike Richardson ran neck and neck with Steve out in front by a few pins in the second-year UL division. Chris west was far out ahead in the younger UL section. Next week will be the finals. Tents # 6 and 53B took themselves to the Willows just before suppertime.

SATURDAY: partly cloudy - very windy. The annual Hyde Bay Nature Hunt occupied most of the day. With the increased enthusiasm in our Nature department a total of 60 boys entered into this day long activity. Teams are made up of not more than 6 individuals. There are various points for specimens in plants, animals, rocks, and fossils. Points are given for the articles collected and the attractiveness of their disp1ay. The winning team this year consisted of Peter Andrews, Tim Bennett, Kevin Considine, David Dube, Sandy Pickett, and Randy Ryan. After lunch a group of the senior baseball team went to Cooperstown for the playoff game of two American Legion teams. Being avid baseball fans they thoroughly enjoyed being spectators, although the score was somewhat lopsided. We were unusually pleased to be able to have a very different type of Saturday evening program. As we wrote in our staff Homeletter, Dick Carlton and his family have just returned from Saigon where they took a great number of 35 mm slides. Dick gave us a most interesting talk along with the slides on Saigon and some of the hamlets that he had visited in the course of his teaching work. Mac Mellor, who visited us over the weekend, played some Viet Namese sheet music that Scott had brought back.

SUNDAY: Cloudy and cool with a very strong wind. With this type of weather waterfront was barren most of the day. We, of course, had our usual Sunday inspection preceded by the church service which was conducted by Alton Davison. His subject material this Sunday was on Truth and its effect on all of us in many different ways and thoughts. After all the routine letters home had been handed in the second string senior ball team played the first string Junior team in baseball. The senior team was enough stronger than the younger ones to end the game victorious. At the end of this activity all congregated at the Russelorum to watch a wrestling meet between the two select teams of grapplers. There were some exciting bouts that gave us a good warm-up for the final tournament which will take place next week. The outdoor supper was followed by three reels of movies — one of which was on mouth-to—mouth resuscitation, in color and very well done.

TRAVEL TIMES: for the supervised group to N.Y. and points south are as follows: the group will leave cooperstown at 8:40 A.M. DST, Friday, August 21 and arrive at Gate #37 in the N.Y. Port Authority Bus Terminal which is located at 8th Avenue and 41st Street at 2:05 P.M. DST. Those continuing on will then board train #173, the Senator which leaves from Penn Station at 3:00 P.M. DST, arriving in Baltimore at 6:09 P.M DST and Washington at 6:50. We will express C.O.D. all baggage of boys going on the train and bus.
COME TO THE BARBEQUE WITH GOOD APETITES!!!