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HYDE BAY HOME LETTER

VOLUME 39             July 5, 1965                   No. 2

MONDAY: The morning was fair and sunny with not much wind for sailing, a1though in the afternoon the sailors became very busy. Junior life Saving and non-Swimmer classes started. Jack Poreba and John McCay are both teaching the life  saving classes this year which enables us to split the classes and accomplish more concentrated work. The non—swimmers meet once a day and classes will continue until all have passed their “D” test. Activity continued at a fast pace in all other camp departments. At 5:00 p.m. the first overnight trip went out to Lookout. Bill Bergstrom, John McCay, Bill Holaday, and Ricky Coupe took a group of sixteen boys which included the following: Mike Dern, Edward Rucker, Nick Houston, Tim Bennett, Steve Pitts, and Dyche, Kinder. One of the tasks while on Lookout was to erect one of our large 16x16 pyramidal tents for rain protection. Fortunately, the need did not arise.
TUESDAY: Sunny with scattered clouds in the morning, clearing somewhat in the afternoon. The sun permitted swimming in large numbers and allowed us to start our water skiing program behind the Hacker. We hope to have a large number of boys learn this worthwhile waterfront activity. Sailboats continued to be active. We were particularily pleased to have a goodly number of campers involved who had not been sailing before. Shadow Brook continued to be heavily populated by a variety of boats. The area around the sailboats was also sprinkled with potential and hopeful fishermen. After supper we had some practice games in our senior touch football league. We are following our practice of last year of dividing the camp in four sections. These teams will be competing in football, softball, volleyball, and swimming. Records will be kept and the winning team at the end of the first month will be given a prize.
WEDNESDAY: Was overcast with a little drizzle. The afternoon was also somewhat wet. Most of the sailboats were busy throughout the day. Many trips were made to shadow Brook, a nearby small stream with George Helfrich and Matt Brok traversing the greatest distance up the Brook. Some swimming and a great deal of action in riding, archery, and handicrafts occupied the greater part of the day. The boys visiting the riding ring are being treated to a new experience. Our riding man, Tom Kemp, is an experienced blacksmith and will be shoeing all of our horses during the course of the summer. In the evening, we saw the humorous movie, “The Good Humor Man” starring Red Skelton.
THURSDAY: The weather was bright and sunny but still not quite as warm as we would like it. The only department that is somewhat hampered is the swimming group and there still are always some polar bears who wish to go in. Shortly after breakfast the first Susquehanna trip departed with John Mercer, Scott Carlton, and Tim Pitts as councilors. Their boys had Scott Calder, Richard Stoner, John Patrick, Frank Saunders, Lee Geiger, Jon Sager, and UL George Radcliffe among the group. There were a total of fifteen boys. We are keeping our fingers crossed in hopes that the Susquehanna will remain high enough to allow all eligible campers to make this one day trip with an overnight stop along the way. The rest of the regular activities kept the other campers busy all day.
FRIDAY: Clear, sunny in the morning with a strong south wind in the afternoon. The wind, obviously made for very fine sailing. All classes in

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riding, archery, life saving, swimming, and tennis went on per schedule.  Archery is being temporarily supervised by last year’s head man, Lawry Pickett. He will be leaving the middle of the month for England on a trip with his family. During his absence of two weeks, John Diamond and Scott Carlton will ably fill this void. Lawry will again resume when he returns. Junior football occupied many boys in the evening. After supper twelve of our ULs made the weekly trip to town, then to a small nearby village Vanhornesville, for an evening of bowling. The high scorer for the evening was Bob Erlandson with Randy Ewell coming in with a close second.
SATURDAY: Overcast, rainy, and cool in the morning with some very heavy showers. At lunchtime all the precipitation ended with a nearby thunder shower and heavy rain. The afternoon saw the return of the sun. We took advantage of the rainy morning to send out two small groups to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The craft shop is always filled to capacity on rainy days. Peter Black, John Briggs, and Jamie Flowers worked with boys in the wrestling room which we call the Russellorum, in recognition of Mr. Edward Russell, former wrestling coach at Gilman School. (He also was head of the tutoring school and taught Latin here at Hide Bay for many years before his retirement.) The Director gave an hour’s demonstration on the finer points in the art of wrestling. He will continue to give these talks at interva1s throughout the summer. A group of councilors, headed by Tom Kemp, spent some hours out around the tower diving for the Hacker propeller which bad come off two days previously while being used for water skiing. We had pretty much given it up for lost when, Tom’s big toe touched it in about fifteen feet of water nestled amongst the weed’s. It was retrieved and presented with some ceremony to the Director at dinner time. The Hacker is once more in full operation. In the evening we had the Opening Night of our theater department. Of the four tents who presented plays, the judges (who are usually visiting adults or older members of the staff) decided that Tent #1O had the best play. David Tillapaugh received the award for the best actress, and Randy Ryan proved to be the best actor amongst much competition. The in—between—acts entertainment was ably provided by a talented musical group who call themselves the Beachmuckers. Fred Gale, Larry Sager, and Bill Thomas are on the electric guitars, Bill Schempp is on the drums, and John Briggs is the featured vocalist. Another stellar dance ensemble called the Shindiggers also presented a special performance with one of the instrumental numbers. This organization is made up of several councilors who are subtly talented in the art of currently fashionable dancing (???) The theater managers of John Diamond, Ricky Coupe, Josh Shoemaker, and John Schmick deserve a big hand for their fine beginning of the season.
SUNDAY: A beautiful day!! Our routine tent and trunk inspection was fitted in between hot showers for everyone. The church service at 10:00 a.m. was conducted by Dick Carlton - a fine talk on “live and let live, look and learn, and conservation.” The afternoon saw lots of waterskiing, a trip to Sunken Islands by John Diamond, Chooch Turner, Pete Mehl and Jim Stone, general swimming and boating. Tents # 2 and 10 won the weekly best—tent—inspection — average trip to Cooperstown for purchase of goodies. The educational movies ended the very pleasant day.
BILLS: are, enclosed for, camp tuition and an estimate of hours for those boys who are tutoring. The final figure will be adjusted on the final billing after camp closes. This billing includes the full camp fee for those in camp — both full time and the first four weeks. If it is more convenient for those here all summer, half the tuition may be paid now and the remaining at the second billing sometime the last of July. If your son is registered for July and wishes to stay on for the second month, the tuition will be figured on the full summer amount $520.00. Otherwise, it will remain at the short term rate.
VISITORS: Jim Main, who was with us for several years as a member of the theater department, paid us a surprise visit on Sunday. It is always nice to see former campers and staff members.