Carl Hokanson provides a new piece of Camp Clark memorabilia.

Carl Hokanson provide a new piece of Camp Clark memorabilia. His brother Richard also a Camp Clark alumnus passed this document on to Carl and Carl forwarded it to me. This piece has a special point of interest for yours truly. So a special thanks to Carl and Richard Hokanson.

As I prepped this piece to get it ready to post (a little Photoshop tweaking) I read it as the tweaks brought out some of the faded words.

For the first time there it was my name Wayne Griffiths in a comtemporanous document from Camp Clark in it's 54th season.  Answering the question "what did you like best about camp?"
Wayne Griffiths "losing my fear of deep water".

If you can date this document that would be a great piece of info. With the passing of my mom and dad I have no idea of when this could have been. Two hints in the document 1. all the campers were 10 years old. 2. The cabin Craigleigh.  I was born in 1947 so this would make this document a 1957 writing. Meaning the camp's first season would have been circa 1903.

Thanks Carl and Richard. Enjoy memories. 

Camp Clark - July 2012.

These photos were taken by my wife Donna while she was on a vacation last week to see her family in the Taunton MA region. Thanks to her and her dad for taking the time to take these photos.

 I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do.

We should all be happy to see just how well the current steward's of the land, lake and buildings are honoring their stewardship.

Although some of the buildings have changed.  And a few old ones are gone.  And some new ones have been built.  It is still the camp we all knew.

Thanks to the Camp Lyndon staff and it's supporters for keeping our camp memories alive and flourishing. 

Respect - Honesty - Caring - Responsibility

    #2012-01  The dining hall from the entrance to the waterfront.

 #2012-02  The dining hall and flag pole from the entrance to the waterfront.

 #2012-03  The "Junior" Section from the Gazebo area. The lake is to the left.

 #2012-04  The Boat House from the beach/ Gazebo area.

 #2012-05  The Gazebo near the waterfront entrance.

 #2012-06  The Gazebo near the waterfront entrance. The "Junior" Section in the distance. I believe the craft shop use to sit on the approximate footprint where the Gazebo now sits.

 #2012-07 The "Dining Hall".

  #2012-08 The "Junior Section" from the Gazebo area.

#2012-09 The "Waterfront and Junior Section" as seen from the "Boat House".

 #2012-10 The "Nature Shack". This was one of my favorite places to hang out. It's probably why I have a BS in Biology.

 #2012-11 The upper floor in the "Boat House". I helped pound nails into the sub-flooring when this building was being built.

 #2012-12 This building used to be the "Candy Shack" in the late 50's and early 60's. If memory serves me right.

#2012-13 The "Boat House".

#2012-14 Camp Staff Jeremy Shea served as Donna's guide for the tour. Thanks Jeremy for making this 2012 photo visit to "Camp Clark" possible.

#2012-15 The "Waterfront". This photo made me smile. It is a great feeling to see "our memories" are alive and well and kids are still there.

#2012-16 The "Boat House".

#2012-17 The "Waterfront" for the "Dining Hall".

 #2012-18 Inside the "Dining Hall".

#2012-19  The "Dining Hall" we all know. The kitchen, fire place and the dish room.

#2012-20 The entrance to Camp Lyndon

Respect - Honesty - Caring - Responsibility
Well Done!

Bob Zimmermann's memories and pictures. Part #1

The following pictures and news articles are from Bob Zimmermann's "Camp Clark" collection. Most of the pictures will be familiar to former campers. Some of the pictures have Bob's handwritten notes. Many of the photos have names for the individuals in the photos. Some of these photos were before my time at the camp so they might have to be labeled as we all figure out what they are. For example is that  an "outhouse" floating on the swimming raft?  There must be a story there? Bob? Pete? Joe? Anyone?

I will try to add additional labels and my comments to the photos over the next few days.

The news story below about Robert S. Dennie ("Spike") was one of my favorite additions from Bob Zimmermann's material.

Reading the article encouraged me to call on Pete Mandell to get me in touch with Bob Dennie. As usual Pete came through. Spike and his wife Sandy live in Florida. Spike is 80 and his wife of 48 years Sandy is 75.

Update 06/20/12: With Sandy and Bob permission.

Sandy and Bob Dennie 06/2012. Bob's 80th birthday.

Excerpts from Sandy Dennie's recent emails :

"Bob loved Camp Clark.  I was the Camp Nurse in 1964 and that is where I met Bob and we were married the same year.  Married 48 years in November.  Bob just turned 80 years old in May and I was 75."  "We have a Daughter and a Son and from them we have 9 grandchildren and 4 great grandsons.  They all live about 14 miles from our home.  We have lived in Florida for 21 years and love it.  We call it our paradise."

"I will try and locate pictures of me as the camp nurse and others. I am enclosing a picture of Bob and I at his 80th birthday.  Thank you very much for your nice letter.  Bob loved Camp Clark so much that he is always glad to hear from someone that went to Camp Clark." 

"I was also Camp Nurse after our daughter was born in 1965 and our son in 1968."  

"There was a reunion at Camp Clark.  I forgot what year.  It was a lot of fun and Bob was one of the persons in charge of it if I remember correctly.  People came from all over.  When it was about to be sold, Bob and Pete along with others tried to persuade the powers that be to not sell the Camp but it didn't work out.  It became a day camp and Bob and I visited the camp and it seemed very nice and active."   

"Camp life is wonderful for children.  It seems that is where a lot of memories and friendships develop as seen from Camp Clark."

"CLICK" ON ANY PHOTO FOR A LARGER VERSION.

David W. Beaman Hall

David W. Beaman Hall with the camp work truck. I remember riding in the truck when I was a camp worker. 

Uncle Bob Hastings (L). Spike 3rd from (R). Camp cook (R).

During my time at the camp the building in the background was called the candyshack. If you had money in your camp account and had no demerits you could go to the candy shack and get some "sweets" after the supper hours.

During my time at the camp the building in the background was called the candyshack. If you had money in your camp account and had no demerits you could go to the candy shack and get some "sweets" after the supper hours.

Bob Zimmermann's memories and pictures. Part #2

Although this was taken before my time there are familiar items in the photo. The photo was taken in the dining hall (David W. Beaman Hall) the fire place with the Camp Clark sign and the stuffed Loon were regular fixtures through the decades.

These two pictures taken from the top of Brown Bread are great reminders of one of my favorite spots at the Camp.

If you know anyone in this or other group photos please email the ID. Email address shutterwi@gmail.com

Ok this is what appears to be an "Out House" on the swimming raft. Some one please enlighten me. There must be a story behind this photo.

Bob Zimmermann's sister circa 1954/55.

Don Johnson offers some old and some very new memories. Kids and Grandkids at Camp.

I have been promising myself to put some words to paper and your latest posting did the trick.  Please keep up the e-mails and site work. Thanks

Camp Clark Reminiscing:

I guess I have to look up the rest of the words to these songs to add to the list:

“I’ve been working on the railroad”

“She’ll be coming round the mountain”

“The old rugged cross” 

“Father Abraham had seven sons”

My first year as a camper, I was in Kowah lodge.  Attached is a picture. We were on the second floor the craft shop was on the first.  I think I was 9 and we lived in Marion, MA and my parents knew Bob Hastings.

I can remember a camp out in the Junior Pines area in an old woolen army sleeping bag under the stars; it rained on us that night.

Another year found me in Craiglaigh Cabin.

We moved to Mattapoisett and my parents enrolled me in the New Bedford YMCA, Saturday program to learn to swim.

Year’s later Bob Hasting asked me to go to Springfield College for water certification and for two summers I was a counselor in Rotary cabin and worked the water front.

Tom, Carl and I took the Duck for a sail in a good wind and running before the wind snapped the mast and ended up on the north end of the lake.  Bob came to the rescue and in about a week my father working for a boat yard in New Bedford had come up with a new mast.  Need to say a learning experience.  Tom has explained our Junior point Scandinavian setting in his posting.  My mother made us a flag with the Swedish flag on one side and the Norwegian flag on the other. We flew that flag at Junior Point every day.

Sunday evening services on Brown Bread Hill and collecting pine cones for every year at camp.

Swim meets and ball games with Camp Burgess.  Camping hikes and overnights in the dunes at Sandy Neck.

Camp experiences set the stage for many years of family camping, backpacking, and many fond memories with my kids and adults in the outdoors.

Camp has had several generations of Johnson’s

My brother-in-law Robert Tenney came to live with us in Falmouth and was a camper and a counselor.  Our two sons’, Christopher and Scott were Camp Clark campers. Christopher worked the water front at Camp Lyndon teaching sailing for a year before going off to the service.

For a few years, we would return for an “Old Timers Softball Game”

Our youngest daughter Karen was a day camper at Camp Lyndon, and we hosted a Spanish exchange student that year.

Karen’s oldest son Ryan attended Camp Lyndon for a season two year’s ago.

This has been a very fun and happy exercise.

Thank you all who have set this stage and carried on an important tradition.

Don Johnson (Fuzzy) (Chief Lono)

My first year as a camper, I was in Kowah lodge.  Attached is a picture. We were on the second floor the craft shop was on the first.  I think I was 9 and we lived in Marion, MA and my parents knew Bob Hastings.


Thanks to Donald Johnson for “The old rugged cross”. This song reminds me of two important things in my life. First my grandmother. It was her favorite song.  She passed away in 1978.

Secondly I always think of the Old Rugged Cross on the top of Camp Clark's Brown Bread Hill. Both memories bring tears to my eyes.

Brown Bread Hill - The Old Rugged Cross
Thanks to Bob Zimmermann for the photo.

So that it is not missed I have elevated two "comment" exchanges to a post status.

I'm the "Jerry" Handspicker Joe refers to in his memories. I well remember the summer of 1948 because it was the first time I was a camp counselor. I had been one at "Camp Stay-as-Home" in Malden, where Mr. Hannum had been director. I came to Clark as a junior counselor that year.

I remember there was a huge snapping turtle in the lake and we worried about its attacking kids while swimming. We got it out of the water then the archery counselor (whose name I can't remember) shot it in the neck with an arrow, and then someone proceeded to chop off its head. Then we buried it. The next morning we found it had dug part way out of the grave before it finally died.

Two memorable events from that summer. First, my senior counselor who I think was crafts counselor, hit a kid in our cabin (the kid was a was a real pain0 and Mr. Hannum fired him. This left me in charge of kids only a year or two younger than me (I was 15 at the time). I had to wrestle with one kid to establish authority--afte than things went well.

The other event happend during an overnight on the shore of the lake. About midnight some of us woke up to the noise of birds and frogs--it was light out! Overhead was the most glorious display of northern lights. We woke up the kids so they could exdperience it as well.

Clark was my introduction to summer camp life as a counselor. I went on to Camp Frank A. Day, the Newton YMCA camp for two summers,two summers at Camp Medomak in Maine as a college students, and finally I directed Camp Claire in Hamburg, CT fro three summmers when I ws in graduate school. But it all started at Camp Clark.

M. B. (Jerry( Handspickeer

January 13, 2011 9:25 PM


Anonymous
Great to hear from you, Jerry. Hope that life has been good to you and your brother, who was another Clark camper. (1) I also remember the snapping turtle event. As I recall, the archery counselor was named Eddie Popelnicki, an outgoing guy with a great sense of humor. During the week after camp - when the counselors brought in the pier and the boat, closed up the cabins for the winter, etc. - most of us, including Eddie, slept in Ted Babbit cabin. Tired after a day of heavy work closing up things, Eddie told everyone to quiet down or he would shoot out the light ( a single bulb in the center of the cabin's ceiling). Everyone ignored Eddie pretty much and were very surprised when he put arrow to bow and just missed hitting the bulb, the arrow bouncing around in the rafters. Ted Babbit became very quiet after that.

Eddie's brother Ted, a likeable but much more laid-back guy, was senior counselor in Rotary cabin the one year that the Popelnicki brothers attended. I believe that the brothers operated a auto repair shop in New Bedford for a number of years.

(2)The hitting of a camper - the only such event that anyone can recall - involved a lazy counselor named Charles M. and a kind of smart-alec camper named Balinger (spell?). Anyway, Charles M. was sent packing before the sun set that day and luckily the camp was not sued. It would interesting to find out whatever happened to Charlie M.

Note from Wayne: I edited out the last name of Charles M. to avoid legal issues.

These two comments were originally added to this original post.

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.

A little teaser of the great materials I recently received from Pete Mandell. WAIT! lots more to come.

Click on each photo & the comments below the pictures for a larger version of the photo & comments.

Alvin Tripp

Alvin Tripp who was actually the model for the bugler in the center of one of the Camp Clark logos.

Another bit of Camp Clark trivia from Pete Mandell. 

I don't know the "kid" in this picture but that sure looks like a largemouth bass.