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HYDE BAY HOME LETTER Volume XX 1946 No. 3
APOLOGY: This weekly communication by the Director has been an institution in Hyde Bay for many years. The Editor endeavors to give each parent some idea of what has happened in the week which has passed. He aims to supplement the letters which boys write to their parents. This is Number 3 because a letter has already gone out telling of plans, and another followed it giving th details of arrangements for reaching camp. A supplement will be included with this letter giving you all manner of business details and telling something about the council and staff of this year.
TRIP UP: The Director left camp at three o’clock to take the 4:28 out of Fort Plain, forgetting entirely about the difference between standard and daylight, time. The result was an hour and a half at Fort Plain and the subsequent award of the plumbers medal upon his return to camp. Arriving in Washington via a torrid Pennsylvania lower berth at 5:30 A.M. the weary Director almost immediately encountered Bobby Russell. Boys starting from Washington to the number of five presently appeared. We left at 7:01 and picked up thirteen boys at Baltimore. Fritzie Geiger joined us at North Philadelphia. A group of eight was waiting for us in the Grand Central. The Pennsylvania gave us all the space we needed in a coach while the Central set apart plenty of room in the end of one of their coaches. With only the usual incidents, we arrived at camp in time for supper. (Breakfast at home! supper at camp! What price the New England cramp with its over—night trip! adyt.)
NUMBERS: At present there are fifty—eight boys in residence at Hyde bay. Blaise de Sibour arrived Sunday afternoon followed by Eddie Kunkowski, late that evening, rounding out our numbers.
WEATHER: We have enjoyed the finest imaginable weather ever since camp started. There have been two delightful sudden heavy showers. All the rest of the daylight hours have been warm, bright, and sunny - just the sort of day to drive us all into the lake. Nights have been cool to cold.
HEALTH: We have plunged at once into the vicissitudes incident to group life anywhere. While the health of the group is excellent in general, Dan Lindley is in solitary dignity in the infirmary while he recovers from a case of measles. The camp has been canvassed to determine likely candidates for the continuance of this type of illness. We expect to have other entries in this column.
ANCIENT INSPECTOR: Al Kerr, battle—scarred after years in the U. S. Navy and his previous experience as an inspector, has been installed as Inspector General, whose morning visitations are awaited with proper trepidation.
FOURTH OF JULY: Independence Day was celebrated in a safe and sane fashion with a red-hot soft-ball game and the malodorous burning at night of a pile of hay cut from the campus.
OUTING: Olie Tomson, Lin Gray, and Hank Hosley led out Tents 6, 7, and 8 for a picnic supper under the willows. As this is being written on Tuesday, a fleet of canoes is on its way around the lake for the first of the famous round-the—lake trips.
TENNIS: The tennis court is in excellent shape. Councilors Hosley, Waters, and Stephenson are swamped with eager clients. This seems like quite a tennis camp.
MASTERS EQUARIAN: All five horses are now in camp. Sue had to be destroyed during the winter, but Silver and Ebenezer have come to join the old stand—bys Punch, White Star, and Fanny. If Fanny were a male, she-he would be Dean of the Cava1ry.
CIMEMA: On Saturday night an annual rite was observed. All the movies of previous years at camp were shown to an enthusiastic audience. This year for the first time since the war started we will take more movies. These pictures were so ancient that Lin Gray appeared in one of them as a very small boy indeed.
NOCTURNAL GAMES: After supper it is the custom of boys and councilors to indulge in various group games. The most popular so far as been capture of the flag, although the program has been varied on certain evenings.
SUNDAY AFFAIRS: Those who attend the Catholic church went off in the station wagon at 9:30. Subsequently the rest of the camp met in a service led by Head—councilor, George Chandlee, The day was ushered in with the usual soap—dip and inspection. The former is an important ceremony in which all boys report at the dock to cleanse themselves thoroughly with soap and brush.
VETERENS RETURN: Carl Hartzell, who not only taught French for many years at Hyde Bay, but also invented, instituted, and carried on the mammoth bonfires on the closing night, was a welcome guest at camp for two days this week.
STONE GAME: On Saturday afternoon it was announced that two hundred stones numbered in red had been distributed throughout the camp. Boys were told that these if recovered would be worth one cent each. The one who found the most stones secured $l.00, the next 50-cents, while a quarter would console the third. Winner was Dixon Hills, followed by Averell Carter, with Harry Coultor getting the fourth part of the dollar.
INCREMENT: For the first time in many years Hyde Bay has two goats. The veteran, Naughty Bumppo, has been augmented, or supplemented, by Star Dust, loaned for the summer by one of the pupils at Cooperstown Academy.
CONCERNING AGES: The youngest person in camp is very young – Meg Kiphuth - who looks upon life mostly over the edge of a play pen. Jan Rosendaal is the youngest legitimate camper. Incidentally, he passed his “D Test” on the first day.
“D TEST” EXPLAINED: Thirty—four boys have so far passed the “D Test”. This means swimming out around the tower and hack - a good 150 yards. Just to show that this could be done by an elderly person, Al Kerr made the run the other afternoon.
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