Marshall Roper adds names and history to camp photos.

Wayne, good to read your still alive.  Yeah I think we worked in either the Kitchen or dishroom together.  I do remember staying at your house for a weekend and never getting out of the pool.

I was reading the local Cape paper and saw a little article about Camp Clark and it had your name in it so I went to the blog and there you were.  I've renumbered some of the pics and remember some more names.

In Pic 1 the guy with his hands on his hips is Jay Steptoe.  The little kid to the left is David Ables' little brother but I can't remember his name.  I'm not sure but I think the kid hitting the ball was the son of the Nurse for that year.   I googled Steptoe and there is an "Old Guy"  ( see pic 4) who looks very similar that works as a lawyer for NASA.  If my memory serves me right the attachment point on the tether ball hurt like hell if you punched it.

Pic 2 shows Bill Eckert driving the ski boat.  I did that too after my dutys in the kitchen were finished.

Pic 3.  The guy in the glasses was the councilor in Gordon cabin and the Nature guy.  I remember him to be real smart and I think he had someting to do with the Boston Museum of Science.  I say that because he brought down a porcipine named Herkimur and a sparrow hawk for the summer and they were really exhibits at the Museum.  I think the kid in the stripped shirt was the little brother of on of the othe councilors.   I think his name was Doug.

The Group Pic.  Sitting cross legged in front of the flag pole in the stripped shirt is Allen Winkler, to his right in the long sleeve shirt is a kid whos last name was Monk.  2 guys to his left (also in a stripped shirt) is David Able.  Standing behind and to the left of Mrs J is Renie Lyonaise I think.  He could swim forever under water.

Kneeling directly in front of him might be Bill Cuddy.  Don Hastings is the 5th kid to his fathers right.   I think they took the white out to me.  Next to Bill Cuddy is, I think, is a guy named Zimmerman and in front of him is his brother.  Zim was the Athletic Director that year.

Thats all I remember for names but the camp always brings back memories.  

Marshall.... let me add this ID front row 5th from the right kneeling is me Wayne Griffiths. 6th from right is Donald Hastings  and back row just to the right of the flag poll is Warren Hastings (I believe that is right in both cases)

Marshall continues.........

I remember getting picked on for not saying my "Ahs" properly, according to the NJ contingent.  

I remember pulling brush down the road to the swamp by the Junior area at the start of the waterfront improvement project.  I remember pulling roots in the middle said project and I remember picking rocks and stones at the end.  After that was done we went up to the new baseball field and picked stones and rocks there. 

 I remember trying to get all the sand out of your bunk so you could win cabin inspection and be first in line at the candy store. 

My kids and I are going to be looking at a bunch of photos taken over the last 60 plus years and if and camp stuff shows up I'll email them to you. 

Take care, Marshall

Wayne with Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay in the background.

Don Johnson 40's & 50's camper.

I was a camper in the 40’s and was a counselor in Rotary Cabin a couple of years in the 50’s and work the Waterfront with Tom Tollefsen, Carl Johnson and Clayton Farnham. I will dig out some pictures and scan them. 

Maybe add some to the history.

In addition, I served on the Camp Lyndon property committee for several years and on the Cape Cod YMCA board.

Don Johnson


Thanks Don ... looking forward to photos and more history. Wayne

Camp Clark Cooks I have Known - by “The Guy in the Upper Bunk”

Camp Clark Cooks I Have Known – by “The Guy in the Upper Bunk”

One of the most important people at any summer camp is the cook. All of the various activities at Camp Clark – swimming, hiking, athletics, frog-catching, etc. – made a person pretty hungry. I think most campers would agree that our camp was lucky to have a long string of good, capable cooks over the years, cooks who turned out nutritious and tasty food. Please feel free to comment on and add to the list below if you can and share any stories about the people and goings-on in the mess hall over the years. I’m sure I’ve left out several cooks, including those who labored from 1956 through 1971.

“Ma” (first name unknown) Jennings was the cook in the almost brand new Beaman dining hall when I first arrived. She was a smallish, gray-haired woman with a great sense of humor who turned out delicious and hearty meals. If a former camper named Lou Rodgers reads this, I’m sure he could add reminisces. And. Cliff Jennings, her grandson (?) who was a camper/counselor in the ‘50s would be a great source, too.

In 1945, Mrs. Barbara Johnson arrived for her first summer. She brought along her daughter Lydia and son “Jolly” (Jonathan) and began a fairly long stretch of years in the camp’s kitchen – not consecutive years, but off and on, as she was available. She came from Fairhaven, as I recall, and when necessary would remind folks that the camp was a YM-C-A camp, with the emphasis on the “C”.

The late 1940s or early 50s saw the arrival of Floyd Reed from Amherst, along with his wife and teen-aged daughter, “Frannie” (Frances). A very large man, Mr. Reed cooked for a large fraternity house at UMass during the winters and seemed to enjoy the change of scene at camp in the several summers he turned out truly great meals.

I seem to recall that the wife of brand-new Camp Director Andy Hume started as in 1955, but someone else finished out that summer, which was the last year that I attended.

(Perhaps webmaster Wayne Griffiths can add to this list, since I understand that his Mom took over in the kitchen in mid-season at one point.)

The Guy in the Upper Bunk is right.  Here is the quick version... more to come. My mom did 'volunteer' to fill in when the regular cook left.  I was a worker that summer when the cook left.  I spoke up and told Uncle Bob "my mom can fill in she works in catering". A phone call later and if memory serves me right she managed to pack her stuff and enough stuff for four of my sister and she still made it to camp for the evening meal.  


I will collaborate with Marshall Roper who was also a worker that year and try and expand on the tale. Once again if memory serves me right I remember a water fight between the kitchen and the dish room.  I seem to remember balloons and that it involved aerial attacks from the rafters (that were open at the time).  And I remember passing a fellow dish room worker through the dish washer.  I remember late night raids in the kitchen for evening snacks for the worker's tent.  Marshall ..... ?

Tom Tollefsen offers up his memories. Thanks Tom keep them coming.

Thanks again for the memories, especially of Pete Mandell and Joe Larson.  A correction:  in the Rotary Cabin picture, the senior counselor is Jim Whitehurst, not Jack Paxton.  Jack was an age contemporary so he would have been about twelve years old at that time.  I ran into Jack at Union College in 1958 when Union played Kings Point in football.  Jack was wearing a fedora hat he had inherited from Ben Wilson.  Ben Wilson was known for his formal chapeau's around the Camp and somehow Jack "acquired" an original.  I heard later that Jack fell out of a third story window in NYC and was badly injured.  Jack was part of the New Jersey" contingent with Bobby Zimmerman, Busjager, Clayte Farnham and a couple of others who developed into wonderful Camp Clark counselors from full season campers as they matured.  Bobby Z was the nurse's son and went on to Princeton and an aviation career. 

Look in the Reston, VA area for Bob Hastings second son.  Allen and the youngest son became YMCA Directors like their father.

Fuzzy (Camp Clark knickname because of (then) red curly hair) Johnson sent along your Camp Clark information which brought back many fond memories.  I was a scholarship camper at Camp Clark for two years with sponsoring arranged by Mr Paul Favor, an "original" at Camp Clark and the YMCA Director at New Bedford.  Mr Favor believed in developing work ethics at a young age so I became the dishroom worker at age eleven along with my cousin Bob Caswell.  Bob and I are now neighbors in The Villages, in central Florida.  Mrs. Johnson the camp cook was our supervisor and spent time teaching us kitchen duties so that we could upgrade the next season.  Bob and I became junior waterfront instructors and counselors instead and I continued on to become the waterfront director after earning my Leader Examiner qualification at Springfield College in my senior year in high school and  combined it with the Red Cross Water Safety Instructor qualification earned at the New Bedford YWCA.  

  

 We had a Scandinavian Village in the junior section with Carl Johnson,  Fuzzy Johnson and myself as counselors. We flew a Norwegian/Swedish flag at the pole sewn by Fuzzy's mother. I still have the old ring buoy with Camp Clark labeling, which hung from the life guard tower.  Some pictures also, which I would be happy to send along to you by mail, if you provide an address.

 I graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy (not Mass Maritime) and enjoyed a career as a Naval Officer mostly at sea and later as a civilian with the Navy in Washington involved in small ship and boat construction. I have a graduate degree from the George Washington University and also graduated from the Naval War College at Newport. RI.  Happily married with three sons and a daughter working at successful professional careers and scattered about the U.S.

When Bob Hastings passed away, I attended his burial here in Florida and met the Hastings boys and Bob Denny.  Bob Hasting did not make the burial however, as his coffin was delayed  in transit by the airlines.  Conversations with the sons was fascinating as they dressed and acted in so many ways like their father.  Bob had hired me to run the game room at the New Bedford YMCA and also at Camp Clark on the waterfront so I was pleased to attend the funeral and informally represent all of the campers and staff members who were guided by "Uncle Bob."

These memories could go on into a small book but I will cut it off here and say "hello" to all 

my friends and associates of that mid-fifties period.

Thanks to Pete Mandell and .....

his great news releases in Cape Cod and New Bedford newspapers we now have some new Camp Clark camper who have found us and the website. Thanks again Pete.


So over the last month I have been contacted by the following campers.

Marshall Roper, Don Johnson, Tom Tollefsen, Carl Johnson, Bob Caswell.

I have added them to our email list.

Marshall, Don and Tom have added some of their memories via their emails. I have ask and in two cases received their permission to post their comments. I will be doing those posting over the next few days.

I am really excited about these new contacts.

Thanks to Pete and thanks to those individual for taking the time to make the initial contacts.

For everyone who has joined us let me again invite you one and all to offer up your memories and photos for us all to share and enjoy. I will make every effort to get them posted so that they reflect your memories.

If I haven't said it before please consider this website to be yours as well as mine. It is ours to share the memories we all have. Yes I took the time to "build" the original but since then it has been the combined effort of all of you who have share your (in many cases) extensive memories.

So if you have something you want to share the space is there. If you have questions about how to contact me directly email me. For now look to the email that I will send out later today. It will contain complete contact info.

Every time someone offers a new piece to the puzzle I am so thankful to learn things I didn't know about the camp the people and the stories about the special place we all shared. Keep them coming.

My new information is the Uncle Bob Hastings is buried in Florida. I did a rather extensive search in the New England area to find him and his family.  To date I was only able to locate Allen in New York State.