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!