T-Shirt Logo. Again Jonathan Rodwin has the cool stuff.

Cool shirt.


This style logo with the straight block lettering is a newer generation than I remember. I have photos of t-shirts and sweat shirts in the early sixty's where the Camp Clark lettering looks like the letters are made from logs. Notice that the bugler and the bugle have been re-worked from the version that was on Jonathan's hat.


This is the version I remember.
Does anyone have a t-shirt or sweatshirt that shows the logo clearer than this shot.

Two submitted photos.

Bill Pulver. Circa 1970-1971


Paul Daffinee. Circa 1998

Thanks for the photos.

Wayne

I found the Hastings family.

For several years now I have been trying to locate the Hastings family. All of us I'm sure have fond memories of Uncle Bob and most of us have memories of his wife and children.

Today I had a light go on. The 62 year old brain doesn't work as quick as it use to.

So a couple of phone calls later I had a lead. It was my lucky day because I was able to get the YMCA Retirement Fund to call Alan Hastings and ask him to call me.

Twenty minutes later the call came in.

Alan Hastings... the 3 year search for any family member was over. I found them all.

It saddens me to report that Mrs. Hastings and Uncle Bob have passed away.

But the kids are still here.

Alan, Donald, Warren and Janet.

Alan and I spend twenty minutes on the phone talking about his dad the camp and yes some of you guys.

As luck would have it Alan will be attending a family wedding this weekend and his brothers and sister will be there.

Alan gave me his email address and I have added him to our growing email list. I gave him the website address.

Hopefully we will get additional informations from Alan and his siblings.



Uncle Bob. This is the way I remember him. I'm sure he has a pipe in hand and his breast pocket contains his tobacco pouch. May he and Mrs. Hastings Rest in Peace.

Thanks again to all

Some comments and picture ID's from Dan Murphy

Dan writes.... I'm Dan Murphy, 54 years old, currently living in Hopkinton MA (where the Boston Marathon starts). I was at camp from '64 (10 years old) until '71 as a counselor. I worked mostly on the waterfront, boating, and sailing. Camp years have given me some of the best memories of my life. After the camp was sold, I went to Camp Burgess just down the street on Spectacle Pond, and was a counselor there for just one year. Burgess had a little bit more money than Clark, and also had a great bunch of people working there.

These photos are from a previous post (March 08)

PHOTO #2

Dan ID's two guys in the above photo.

Two guys holding kids in the water are Mike Robinson (with hat) and Dick Riley.

Riley's name has been bugging me all day, and it finally popped into my head. He was probably the waterfront director at the time.

Mike Robinson was part of the Maryland contingent, and was my counselor at Ike Babbitt in '65, my second year. He was a very large guy, all muscle. Huge. Was a wrestler in college and I think he played football - would have been a great running back. Very intimidating guy because of his size, yet had a very quiet demeanor, perfect gentleman in a southern kind of way, big ear-to-ear grin, an "aw shucks" kind of guy. But don't piss him off. Mike actually had at least one date with my sister (6 years older than me). In later years, I think he had his wife with him at camp. Mike also became the waterfront director after Riley left.

I was in a junior lifesaving class with Mike as the instructor. Part of the class involved learning how to release holds a panicked victim may put on you. One requirement was the "water wrestling" component. You go out to deep water with another swimmer, he (as the victim) tries to drown you, and you try to break his holds. Very simple. Now, imagine your opponent is the captain of the U of Maryland wrestling team, you're treading water face to face, about 3-4 feet from his 22-inch neck and shoulders as wide as a pickup truck, trying to figure out how to get out of this alive.

PHOTO #4

Dan writes... There's a line of kids on the right side of the table. The fourth kid (blonde) has his arms stretched out holding a bird feeder(?) and wearing a striped shirt. I'm pretty sure that's me.

PHOTO #5

Dan writes... That's Harriet behind the counter on the right.

Another nugget from Jonathan Rodwin.

Yet another great piece of memorabilia from Jon.



Maybe we can get Jon to auction off this great hat. What do you say Jon?

Anyone else jealous?

Well in any case Thanks for sharing.

Three recent views of Camp Clark (now Camp Lyndon)

Google Earth view of Lawrence Pond. Looks kind of like the shadow of a bird or a bat. With that in mind. The camp is in the area of the "head". The small square is the swimming dock.


The junior section from the boat house. Left to right the cabins were:Kiwanis, Rotary, Craigleigh and Co-Wah (above the arts and craft shop). Thanks to Dan Murphy



The top of Brownbread hill. Looking across the lake. The camp bay is to my right side in this picture. The back bay is to my left. I'm standing on the crest of the hill that is now mostly over grown. I remember a set of log steps that formed an amphitheater down the hill toward the back bay.
None of that appears to be there now it is all over grown.

A question answered. Fifty years later. Circa 1957 Rotary Cabin

      Wayne Griffiths Circa 1957 Rotary Cabin

 
 Tonight has been a great night. Over the last few days several new ex campers have contacted me. We have been exchanging emails and memories. More of these exchanges in days to come. But tonight I found the name of the cabin behind me in this picture. It was the Rotary cabin. I have search my memory for years but could not remember it's name.

Another piece of Camp Clark history.

This "history" was originally written on February 23, 2004 by Pete Mandell and can be seen on this website.

Pete Mandell writes...

I know where it was. I was there for about 14 years – 1940 – 1954, as camper, counselor and finally Assistant Waterfront Director.

My best guess is that the year is about 1944 - because the tent just visible on the extreme right (“Tent Two” ) was replaced by a cabin (“Gordon Cabin”) in 1945.

Camp Clark began on that site, operated by the New Bedford (MA) YMCA in 1928 on the former farm owned by a Mr. Clark. It was sold by the New Bedford Y to the Cape Cod YMCA in 1971 (’72?) and renamed Camp Lyndon – as a memorial to the late, youthful Lyndon Lorusso.

This information added by Shutterwi.

Additional charitable works of The Lyndon Paul Lorusso Charitable Memorial Fund can be seen here, here and here. The Lyndon Paul Lorusso Charitable Memorial Fund honors the memory of Lyndon Lorusso, who died in 1971 at age 17. It was founded by Lyndon’s parents, Paul and Lila Lorusso, and has provided millions of dollars to help the youth of Cape Cod.

The Lorusso family provided funding to the Cape Cod Y to purchase the camp. It’s current address is 117 Stowe Road, Sandwich, MA. Basic info on Camp Lyndon can be found here.

Camp Clark maintained a mailing address in Marstons Mills throughout the 1940's and ‘50's, changing it to Sandwich sometime following that period.

The New Bedford YMCA wanted to sell the site to private developers in the early 1970's. The writer and a group on concerned former campers and staff banded together to prevent that from happening and were finally successful in having the campsite sold to the Cape Cod YMCA.

How I rediscovered Camp Clark.

In a previous post I promised I would explain how I rediscovered Camp Clark. Well here it is.

I spent many summers at Camp Clark in the late 1950s early 1960s. My last summer was probably 1961 or 1962. In October 1965 I enlisted in the USAF.

Sometime during that four year enlistment I received a call and I believe a written correspondence from former Camp Clark campers via my parents. The campers were trying to save the camp from being sold to a land developer. I believe my parents and I sent money or made a pledge to send money to the committee. At that time I was a medic in the USAF and did not have direct contact with the organizers of the group trying to save the camp. I do remember at some point receiving a message that the camp had been sold.

I know my parents and I believed for many years that the camp had been sold and we imagined it was now a housing development. Over the years my mom and I often talked about Camp Clark.

After getting discharged from the Air Force in 1969 I moved back to my hometown. I got married and started a family. In 1973 my wife Donna and I had our first son Scott. Life went on. I would often think about the camp usually in the warming spring and summer months. The thoughts were joyful and depressing at the same time. The joys of remembering the great days of swimming, boating, crafts and nature walks were quickly accompanied by the depressing thoughts of a housing development sitting on the shore of Lawrence Pond.

In 1978 we moved to Wisconsin. Many times over the years I would think of Camp Clark. I'm sure I told and retold some of my favorite stories. The stories of learning to water ski and sailing a boat. The stories of the time my mom volunteered to be the camp cook after the camp cook left one morning between breakfast and lunch. Stories about Uncle Bob and DC (Dave Cowell). I know I tried to find gimp on more than one occasion so I could make a lanyard. A craft skill I learned at camp. I know I've made more than one lanyard over the years and still use one as a key chain.

For the next 30+ years life moved on. Thoughts of the camp were never far away especially during the warm summer months.

Over the years when we would return to New England for a visit we would always visit Plymouth and the Cape. Oh how I wanted to see Camp Clark just one more time. Unfortunately I never had the desire or the courage to seek out the site of the "former" Camp Clark. Instead I choose to hold on to my memories of that great place.

On one visit to home in 1997 I was "down on the cape" visiting my nephew who, at the time was living and working on the cape. Ryan was working at a local Cape Cod lumber yard in the Sandwich area. Ryan, his mother Cheryl, my wife Donna and I were out doing a little sight seeing.

At some point along the way I started to talk about Camp Clark. I'm sure over the years Ryan had heard some if not all of my stories. I'll bet he even started to roll his eyes and thought here we go again the old camp stories. But, this time something was different, this time I said something that may him pause and ask me exactly where the camp was. I said somewhere around here on a small clear water pond. I then started to describe the camp as I had remembered it. At the entrance it open to a large field on the left with a large building, the chow hall, on a small hill with a flag pole out front and the water front on the right and....he stop me and said that camp is still there unk (short for uncle).

Then we started an all to common give and take between Ryan and myself.....No it's not!....yes it is unk!....I've been there delivering lumber.....You couldn't have it was sold in the late 1960s.....unk it IS STILL THERE!....It's not!.....It is AND I'll show you!

Twenty minutes later we drove down a long sand drive that didn't look at all familiar. The drive open onto a large gravel parking lot that was not an entrance to the Camp Clark I remembered. On the right I could see water but it was to open and to treeless to be Camp Clark. Then there was a sign at the back of the parking lot that read Camp Lyndon. Nice try Ryan but this isn't.........wait STOP! On the left the chow hall, the flag pole, the field, on the right the water front, the boat house. Camp Clark oh what a feeling of being there again. I told you Unk it is still here. He was right and he had a I told you so smirk on his face.

I'm sure I was getting out of the car before it stopped. I head straight toward the chow hall. The moment I walked in the front door and heard the screen door slam behind me I knew I was in the place I had remembered. It even smelled the same. Tears of joy and laughter.

For the next few hours we all wander the camp grounds while I told new stories of the nature shack and the sail boats and the early morning swims we all had to take each morning.

Then in the middle of all the joy of seeing the camp for the first time in 30+ years I suddenly had a moment or real sadness. It was 1998 my oldest son Scott was now 25 years old and he didn't get the chance to spend anytime at Camp Clark. If I had only known it was still there In April of 1973. Or the summer of 1980 or 1981 when he was 7 or 8.

Later that day we went to my parents home and picked up my mom and drove back to the camp so she could see it. Later that week we returned to the camp and stayed a couple of night in the new family camp ground built adjacent to the junior area.

A recent visit

Scott and I did get to spend a great afternoon at the camp this past February. This is the same chow hall and flag pole I remembered from my first summer at camp. I hope that we will get to spend a week at the camp. Maybe next summer.

The original Camp Clark entrance sign!

I want to thank Jonathan E. Rodwin for contacting me and sending these photos. It sure is good to see that entrance sign again.


What a great treasure for an old Camp Clark camper to have. I'm jealous!


The sign in Jonathan's basement.

Jonathan writes...
"Its only been on display a few weeks, after spending 37 odd years in my parent's attic. I brought it back with me to Buffalo a few months ago, when my parents insisted I finally clean out some of my old stuff from their house, and I put it in the utility room in our basement. But my wife, sensing that the sign had a mysterious hold over me, surprised me one day in early August by putting the sign up in the basement. Maybe that's what got me thinking about Camp Clark, and made me decide to Google the camp this past weekend."


Jonathan's memories:

I was a camper, CIT, Junior Counselor and Counsel at Camp Clark. At the last council fire of the year, each of us threw pine cones into the fire, one pine cone for each year we attended camp. I believe that in my final year at camp, I had 7 pine cones to throw into the fire, one for each year I was there.

I loved Camp Clark -- even today, many of my fondest childhood memories are from Camp Clark. I was at Camp Clark as a counsel in its last year, 1971, before the camp was sold.

I have what is perhaps the "holy grail" of Camp Clark memorabilia -- the approx 3 foot by 4 foot sign that was against a tree by the dirt road entrance to camp. I found the sign abandoned at the entrance to the camp in the late fall of 1971 (my last visit to the camp property), so I rescued it. For many years the sign was in the attic in my parents' house in Connecticut, but I re-found the sign, brought it back to my house in Buffalo, New York, and it is now on display in my basement.

I have a variety of other Camp Clark memorabilia at my house and some still at my parent's house. I'll make an effort to take pictures and send them to you. I know I still have my Camp Clark hat (red hat with the camp logo on the front) because I brought that back to Buffalo with the sign. Somewhere, deep in my dresser, I think I still have my Camp Clark counselor's polo shirt (very worn).

And finally........

Did I see something on your blog speculating about how the council fire was started? I can give you the details of how the "exothermic chemical reaction" was created if you are interested -- it was my job for a time to prepare the council fire!

Current directions to Camp Clark. Camp Lyndon.

Cross the Sagamore Bridge onto the Cape.


Camp Clark (Camp Lyndon) is located at the red arrow on Lawrence Pond.

Do you remember this!

Thanks to Ron Sousa for the photo of the Camp Clark patch.

Here are some of Ron's memories

I went to Camp Clark around 1970-1971, the picture of the Camp fire and awards ring sent shivers up my spine ,it looks exactly the same except for the picnic table,I remember we used to do archery somewhere behind the mess hall also,I am 47 years old now,and just last night I had asked someone I know who lives near sandwich,if he knew where camp Clark was because I too want to go back and revisit,he told me it was located at Spectacle pond,I remember we used to sleep about 8 kids to a cabin in bunk beds,I remember that there was an arts&crafts building right near the swimming area,the ball field was to the right of the mess hall,I remember the boat house and the house that was up a hill just past it,I remember having to get naked and bathing in the pond,with a bar of soap,I don't think there were any girls there except maybe one that lived in the house past the boathouse,my mother told me today that she still has a letter that I sent her telling her to stop sending me bubblegum because it was getting me in trouble,she also has a letter that I had sent my grandfather,I still have a patch that was on a hat from camp Clark, I hope there is a date on the letter to confirm what year I was there, I am so happy to see these pictures, I live in New Bedford,MA. the city never should have sold that Camp,what a mistake that was. I loved Camp Clark it played an important role in my
growing up as a youngster.The two things I liked best as a youngster was Lionel trains for Christmas and going to Camp Clark.

Aha! .... Mrs. Johnson and her daughter Juliet.

Click once on the photo above to see the larger version. Look in the upper left corner of the group. I believe that is Mrs. Johnson.

For months I have tried to remember the name of the camp cook. Tonight for whatever reason out pops "Mrs. Johnson". Strange how memory works. Struggle for month to remember a name with no luck. Then out of the depths of memory pops Mrs. Johnson. I'm pretty sure that was her name. I'm also fairly sure her daughters name was Juliet or Julia. Hopefully one of the visitors to this site will either confirm that and / or correct my mistake.

Update:
Marshall R.
Mrs Johnsons daughter was named Lydia. In the group picture right in front of the flag pole is Warren Hastings. The tall guy to the right is Pete Upton. Next ot him is his brother Joe,then Spike Denny and Uncle Bob with Janice right in front of him. 2 kids to the left of Pete Upton is Clark Dagget. The 6th head to the left of the flag pole is Allen Hastings, the 8th is Bill Eckert


Marshall R. Please email me directly at shutterwi@gmail.com.  If memory serves me right you and I were at Camp Clark at the same time.

Swimming Awards.

In a previous post I wrote about learning to swim at Camp Clark and "Award Nights" at the end of session Campfire. These are the patches that were handed out at those award nights. I can still remember the feeling of hearing your name being called and walking up and getting your award.

Another website about Camp Clark.

While doing a Google search for Camp Clark I stumble on this website.

Where Was Camp Clark?

Quite a few old campers have left comments including the following:

1. The camp has been around since the early 1940's
2. It was built on the site of the "old Mr. Clarks farm".
3. One of the cabin names was Gordon Cabin (1945)

The best comment was:

"I'm here to tell you that it was one of the greatest camps possible. It was populated by a corps of counselors who had largely been campers themselves, which led to long traditions and a corps of campers who came back for years."

That was the Camp Clark I remember.

I emailed the web master and hope to hear back.

A special thanks to PJ Richardson and his staff.

Thanks to PJ and his staff for their hospitality during my recent visit to Camp Lyndon. PJ has provide me with a box of old photos and color slides from the Camp Clark era. I will be sorting, scanning and posting these photos up at this web site. I hope to attract former campers and their families. I would like to organize a reunion of old Camp Clark campers at Camp Lyndon.

Recent photos. February 2008.

This is the sign at the front entrance. The road between the beach and the chow hall / flagpole is in the same location. The road is now lined with a split rail fence.


Looking toward the swimming beach. My son Scott and I in late February 2008.
For the "old timers" the beach should look familar although more open, less trees than I remember. Notice the junior cabins to the right of the photo.


This is the dedication plaque that is on the rock in the picture above.


My son Scott at the flag pole. Same flag pole and chow hall. I recently spent sometime inside wandering around. Old timers will still feel right at home. It brought more than one tear to my eyes. Same wooden floors. Same stage area. Kitchen and dish room have had a face lift but still look the same. The ceilings have been sheeted. No more open rafters.


Junior section taken from the boat house dock.


View toward the chow hall and softball field.


Camp fire and awards ring. Just over the hill from the back of the chow hall.


The boat house taken from the swimming beach.


Current Nature Shack. I think this is a new Nature shack. The old shack was in the same general location as I remember it.


This is the back bay it was a "secret swimming area" used by the some of the workers. It was behind the Nature Shack and at the foot of the hill where we would have Sunday night services.

Old photos. Do you know anyone in these photos?

PHOTO #1

Circa 1967. This photo is a photocopy. I believe it was supplied by Brian E. Sandlin.


Update: April 19, 2008 - Back row far right is Jim Whitehurst. He was a PE teacher some where in the Baltimore area during the year. His wife's name was Harriet. Thanks to the Anonymous poster.

Back row center. Striped shirt..Paul D. Back row left..Dick Lindsey. Far right second row from top..Janet Hastings. Thanks Paul D. IDing these individuals.
I believe back row second from left...Spike(?).

PHOTO #2

Circa 1965. Notice the boat house now has a deck on the front. See the photos above.

PHOTO #3

Circa 1965. I learned to row a boat, paddle a canoe, sail, and water ski from this area.

PHOTO #4

Circa 1964. From the craft shack I learned to make and lanyard using gimp. I'm proud to say 45 some years later I can still whip out a lanyard. Water skiing however isn't quite as spontaneous and easy.

PHOTO #5

Circa 1963.

Update: April 19, 2008 - Back - Women is Harriet Whitehurst the wife of Jim Whitehurst (Assistant Camp Director). Thanks to the Anonymous poster.

PHOTO #6

Circa 1962.

PHOTO #7

Circa 1962. I believe the boat driver Bill Eckert. This is the Boston Whaler I learned to waterski behind.

PHOTO #8

Circa 1962. The adult in the upper left is Uncle Bob.

PHOTO #9

PHOTO #10

Circa 1962. Most of these photos were taken by: Commercial Photographer David L. Richards, 16 Davis Road, Braintree MA. Anyone know if the studio still exists?