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HYDE BAY HOME LETTER Volume XX 1946 No. 6
WEATHER: It is a pleasure to report the continuation of the marvelous weather which has been our good fortune so far. To be sure, it did rain on Monday, but after so many beautiful days it was a real relief. At camp rain never seems to dampen the spirits of the boys, whatever it does to their garments. There have been several mornings when the thermometer was well below 50, but they have inevitably been followed by sunshine so bright that the mercury rapidly climbed toward the 90’s.
HEALTH: As this letter is being dictated, the infirmary is free of all inmates. At least it was when I drove away from camp this morning. All the measles cases have been discharged as cured, and the half dozen or so eligible campers have not yet exercised their option on the diseased. Other than measles the health of the camp this week has been excellent. John Young had the misfortune, to lose a front tooth on contact with the diving board. We have been, spared other accidents of note.
VISITORS: With the return of gasolene, Hyde Bay is once more being visited frequently and freely by parents. In fact, there has been such a list of visitors that we hay seldom had room to chronicle arrivals and departures in this sheet. Parents are always welcome at Hyde Bay. All hours are visiting hours. We like to have you see the camp as it is at any time. We are especially glad to hate you stay for a meal or so with us. In my opinion the comfortable superstition that the arrival of relatives breaks up the routine of the camp is a convenient myth.
TUESDAY’S TRIUMPHS: Heb Evans and Buzzy Williams took Tent 2 to Gravelly. They were home very early in the morning on account of the rain which fell that night. The same natural phenomenon caused the cancellation of the baseball game on Doubleday Field which was to have been held that day and which received a great write-up in the local papers. Old camper, Bobby Hobbs, was bought in by his parents just as Charlie Riepe was graduated with high honors from the infirmary. The great Commodore Lord arrived with some transportation difficulty late in the afternoon.
WEDNESDAY’S WONDERS: The Greens triumphed over the Blues in a swimming meet by a score of 29 to 21. This is the second of our intra-mural (or should we say intra-tidal) swimming meets. Micky Stephenson was awarded the Director’s dollar for his initiative in inventing and installing a soap dish on the dock. Commodore Lord gave to the Director for the camp archives a small casket of cinders from the road bed of the New York Central. In the evening we witnessed the movie known as “A Bell for Adano.”
EXPLORERS: Bobby Pickett, assisted by Heb Evans and Jim Waters, took ten boys down the Susquehanna River in canoes. They shot the rapids, slept out all night, and were hauled in by Chiefy from the waters of Goodyear Lake on Friday. In the mean time, Palmy Williams led the intrepid inhabitants of Tent 4 down for a night on Gravelly. The depths of Otsego Lake were also explored by Ollie Thomson, Ed Kunkowski, and Bruce McEwan, who constituted the crew of the Comet. They were rescued by Kip and the Director in the Hacker. This is only our second sailboat upset of the year.
FAIR FRIDAY ARRIVES: On this day two tents went out to spend the night on Gravelly, Lin Gray and Ollie Thomson were the leaders, with camper Harry Coulter as an able assistant. A very pleasant time was reported on this popular little sleeping Place. It is a beach of pulverized shale projecting into the lake just south of Gravelly Point. It is known to old inhabitants as “Little Gravelly. Boys go down in row boats and canoes, cook supper and breakfast, sleep out, and return. A new trip of older boys went down to Cooperstown in the station wagon. New camper, Pat Mundy, was brought in by his parents from far-off Baltimore.
WEEK’S END: On Saturday night the tent plays were presented. This time Puffy Evans and his Tent 10 carried off the pennant in the shape of a box of Hershey bars, the campers’ equivalent of nylons. Judges Mr. and Mrs. Kerr and Commodore Lord were unanimous in making the award to the mummers who lampooned the various members of the council with no respect at all. On this day also there set out an impressive flotilla of canoes under command of Admiral Jim Latane. Most of the crew were elder boys, or those whose tutoring days had excluded them from previous trips. They reported an excellent time in their circuit of the Glimmerglass. They were more fortunate than their sailing contemporaries, Heb Evans and his crew in the white Comet and Dave Fitzelle in the red one. The latter, alas, had to be towed in from King Fisher Tower, some five miles away. After supper the Tent-of—the—Week, No. 14, was taken down to three-mile—point by Bob Pickett in the Hacker.
THE REST OF THE WEEK*END: Bobby Pickett preached at the camp service. Kenny Palmer and Jander Linen graduated with simple ceremonies from the infirmary. The outstanding event of the day was, of course, the famous “Eight Inch” regatta. This time-honored Hyde Bay event is a sailing race in which all the entries must be boats constructed by the owners not over eight inches in length and sixteen inches in beam. At the word of command, they are released from the diving tower or its vicinity. The first boat to touch the shores of Otsego County is given the prize. This year Peter Elliman’s little craft outdistanced all the others by a wide margin. Words fail to describe the pageantry of the occasion. Chief Judge Chandlee arrived in the blare of horns, clad in most of the garments available at camp. Commodore Lord dashed about with uniformed attendants and an imposing banner. Everyone at camp who bad an article of nautical attire brought it out for the occasion. There were speeches without number and a regatta breakfast, a regatta luncheon, and a regatta dinner. The Commodore announced that there would be a regatta ball at the Elliman’s that night.
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