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VOLUME TEN  NUMBER FOUR                                       JULY 28, 1937

HYDE BAY IN LIFE.  While we devote so much space to telling all about life in Hyde Bay, we might pause to say that Hyde Bay has been in life.  We mean to say that the old covered bridge. whose destruction was featured in Life’s pictures has been a fixture of interest in all our West Canada canoe trips.  This year its wreckage almost blocks the stream.

NATATORS.  Our record in July was unusual in the field of water training Only one boy in all the camp finished July classed as a non-swimmer. He is able to swim about thirty-five yards,but that does not make him a swimmer according to our standards.

COME AND GONE.  Spence Howard, Murray Mitchell, Douglas Lovell, Gus Thomas, Manley Jenkins, Hunt Williams, and Dick Sparks have joined our gang.  Reddy Raleigh, Mac Campbell, and Frank Ober have departed.  Freddie Brune goes Sunday.  Thus we change, but still the beds and chairs are filled.

BUSY WEEK*END.  Last week-end was positively congested.  On Friday,about a dozen, mostly from Lawry’s and Griff’s tents, climbed the side of Strawberry Mountain by a ravine and spend one night on the plateau at the top. But here, the play must have a paragraph of its very own.

AMERICAN DRAMA REVIVES.  Saturday night saw the new stage make its debut.  Each of the ten tents gave a show.  Most of you should have programs sent you by your sons.  It was a memorable occasion.  Mrs. Dresser and her helpers did marvels.  Lloyd and Frank toiled behind the scenes.  Mr. Dresser pulled the curtain like a veteran.  The prize went to tent C which produced a humerous version of a timid salesman, (Forrest), and an assured housewife, (Walter Dandy). Paul Hudson managed and Ralph Thomas announced for the victors.  The Judges were Miss Anne Carey, Mrs. Tag, mother of Donny and sister to Mrs. Pickett, and old camper Sam George, who drove over from Cornell to wee where his owls once lived.  Billy and his kids did a sailor sketch with a real boat.  Lawry and his gang made us shudder with ghosts who came right through the roof.  Gordon and his men simply and eloquently portrayed how they failed to have a play.  Tommy Tompkins’ idea.  George a s Simone Simon Legree did a very mellow drama.  Sherlock Holmes as Douglas Duer mimed him was the production of Sunshine’s tent with the Sun as Frankenstein himself.  Bill and his took the Director apart in shadow pictures with the help of Bumppo, Hyde Bay’s talented goat.  Bob trained his seals to give us a glimpse of Juliet James wooed by Romeo R. Pickett, with John Finney as the nurse’s off stage voice.  The last three of the famous ten nights in a bar room was the elevating theme of Jack Young and his men.  They were a tough lot who got what they deserved.  Tent J ran to monologue as monoed by Frank Beury who called on his colleagues in various guises.

TREASURE HUNT.  Our first treasure hunt was a short and easy one but so many things came in to bother us that we could not finish it. Six of the nine clews yielded up their secrets to two teams. To settle the tie both were given the last clue.  This called on the contestants to give the name of Bill Formwalt’s great grandmother. George and his team were the ones who guessed Lucile and won. In August we will allow time for a real one. The winners, George, Bobby Dodson, Bobby Pickett, as well  as Bucky   Ober, were given tie gadgets in gold.

TRENTON FALLS.  Bill, Sunshine, Forrest, and Lawry took out another Trenton Trip on Monday. Frank went along again to help drive the cars down. They did all the usual things and seemed to have a great time. Griff and Bill’s tents and part of Bob’s made up the party. They came back at five minutes before six with much shouting on Tuesday. The next day or so were taken up by ship’s carpenter Dewey, a resident of nearby Middlefield Center, in repairing damages to the boats. The rocks of the West Canada must look like Easter Eggs.

BASE, VERY BASE,BALL. No baseball was ever played than that perpetrated on Monday by the resolute fraction of boys yet in camp. Thirteen runs were garnered off the Director’s pitching in the first inning but he rallied to hold the opposition to a mere five hits for the next three innings. The game was then called.  That is if you could call it a game in the first place.

HORSE HIKES.  Billy took out Tollie albert, Mac Campbell,and Tommy Tompkins to the famous mountain. For some strange reason the usual Payne raine was absent and a fine clear night covered the hikers as they slept. Jack Young lead out Jack Clemmitt, Eddie Supplee, and Frank Beury on so many horses to the same lofty pinacle. They came home chanting something about EddieBay’s horse. Eddie Bay is the name Leslie Exshaw gave Eddie Supplee some years ago. It is one of those names one does not know how to spell.

NEW MOTOR.  Thursday the Director and the Directoress made a flying trip to Albany and brought back a new Evinrude four and a fraction “Fisherman” motor for the St37. It has been the most popular thing in camp since. Boys stand in wrangling lines on the wharf. Their turn never seems to come but does.

LIKEWISE NEW AQUA PLANE.  On top of the Plymouth on Tuesday the Director brought in from Cortland one of the famous boards known as the Hawaian Floater made by the Thompson boat company.  The boys seem to have difficulty in staying on top of it.

SMALL BOY BUT LARGE FISH.  Pickerell have started to oblige as of yore. Tollie started the ball rolling with a nineteen inch one. After parading the unfortunate victim over camp the young Isak Walton put to sea again and came in with a somewhat smaller one. Bobby Dodson was his crew. At once thelake was covered with fishermen. Since then quite a few fish have bitten the maritime equivalent of dust.

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