Some of us spent a long time at Camp Arcady. The memories of those summers remains in us, and come forward in nostaligic glances to our past. We offer some of our own below, and invite you to send in yours. If you want to add to the memories, please email jrussell@thundercom.net and it will be added manually. Read more memories
If you're interested in sending in photos you have of camp, send them!!!!
Download Marc Shapiro's attic find in his parents' house: 1966 yearbook for the 1966 Soph Boys (a/k/a the "Batboys") [Adobe Acrobat file]
I remember the CIT girls learned that two men had escaped from a Burlington prison. They might have been heading to the Lake George area.
They spread the word and the girls' camp was in a panic.
To reassure them Bernie Cropsy established a dusk to dawn look-out. Counselors with walkie-talkies were stationed at the South Point and at the
boat house. They were to watch for these criminals and report to base. Bernie and Dick Schweitzer took the nine to one AM watch. A rifle from
the Rifle Shack was brought out to protect us. Sid Glassner and I had the one to dawn shift. Sid knew how to use a rifle, but I did not. He
promptly went to sleep. I was left with rifle and walkie talkie. We saw logs floating but no criminals.
The next morning an exhausted but safe camp, protected by the forces of law and order went on.
-Ed Grossman
I remember the girl who suffered through difficult menstrual cycles being sent to camp with brandy to ease her discomfort. It was the only time I had
to deal with a drunken thirteen year old.
-Ed Grossman
I remember the mother who came on visiting day invariably complained about her son's mattress. We looked for the best mattress we could find and
gave the next best to this boy. When mother complained we would take the mattress we had held aside and she was assuaged.
-Ed Grossman
I remember Tony who knew where every underground pipe was. He could fix anything.
-Ed Grossman
And from Jeff Grossman --
These are my random memories. I was 6-12 years at Arcady between 1962 and 1968. This list is just things about the camp in general.
Do you remember:
Pops - The very old guy who walked around picking up trash.
The "Conventions" of 1964 and 1968 - The camp was divided into 4 candidates teams for competition. "Candidates" I remember were Walt Disney and Tuesday Afternoon (a robot). I even remember the Walt Disney fight song ("Zoom we're for Disney, hip hooray we're for Disney, he's our man undivided and well never give in. Though there is competition, we'll never know submission, we'll fight for victory right on to the end.")
The canteen, especially the smell of apple pops (remember those?), sugar daddies, and other stuff being delivered in baskets to the bunk during rest hour.
Sleep-outs at the end of the golf course - we'd drag our stuff out there and spend a miserable night. Part of this always involved a "snipe hunt" in which we'd be blindfolded. Some of us would have to carry around open pillow cases. Others would whack the grass with brooms. Still others would bang two rocks together to spook the snipes. The counselors would then go around pinching and scaring us, saying that the snipes were getting us.
The playing fields - Ti field was at the end of camp towards South Point, only used by little kids for kickball and other games. This was a great place because of the horsetails that grew behind the backstop. There was a barbeque area just past the field in a small clearing. The softball fields were up on the golf course, Lake Field and Brandt Field. I remember watching Eddie G. pitch in "over-under" games on Brandt field during rest hour -- the waiters and CITs had no chance. The soccer fields were called Sobol Field and what was the other one called? The baseball field was Bock Field -- we little kids didn't play on this much, but it was cool because it had a fence.
The dining hall - the silverware was mostly plain, but a few pieces were old and had "Camp Arcady" or "Sagamore" engraved on the handle; we fought over these. We played the pig game the last to put his finger next to his nose was a "pig, you're a pig, you're a dirty rotten pig!", and had to stack the plates. At Sunday morning breakfast everybody fought over the crumb buns. The girls used to chant "food, waiter waiter waiter, food waiter waiter!".
Girl's groups would march up the road singing annoying songs ("We are the junior girls of Arcady!", "Thunder, thunderation!"). I think the girls also sang that in the theater all the time.
The large room in the rec hall with the boxing ring - it had a loud bell that I could never resist ringing. Also in this room were the knock-hockey tables everybody loved, as well as ping-pong tables.
The 1-cent weight/fortune machine in the rec hall that you could activate for free if you knew the secret.
The lounge - it had a smooth maroon-colored floor with lots of dimples in it. I always thought these were created by women wearing high heels back in the country-club days. This room contained a huge central fireplace, and the post-office was on one side of this room too. We had socials here (boys vs. girls, at my age). After the socials, the challenge for boys was to walk the girls to the flagpole and get a kiss.
The large, wooden-floored room in the rec hall where they showed movies. The projection booth was high on the south wall, and I remember that the image on the screen always had the shadow of two wooden ornaments sticking down from the ceiling. Movies I remember seeing included Cat Ballou, Thunderball, and every Phyllis Diller movie in history.
The "Little Theater" - an L shaped room with the stage at the corner. Boys sat in one end of the L, girls in the other, and the littlest kids sat cross-legged right in front of the stage. Backstage was a bank of illuminated light-switches I liked to play with, and a lot of ancient wiring. Every year, a musical was staged. I remember Bye, Bye, Birdie and Pajama Game. I especially remember counselors coming on stage with guitars after shows to lead songs (the ones I vividly remember were Blowing in the wind, Where have all the flowers gone, 500 miles, Abbey-yoyo, Way down south by the Yankety Yank, The cat came back, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt, Puff the magic dragon). Also in this theater was an antique pump organ that was my favorite toy.
The Nature Shack, later renamed the Adventure Hut (~1966) - this was the old caddy shack for the country club, and one room had lots of cubbyholes for storing golf clubs. I used to crawl under these cubbies and find old coins from the 1930s and '40s. One memorable item kept in this building was a huge puffball mushroom. Near the shack they tied a goat for several summers [story!]. A bit further up the hill toward the ballfields was a great raspberry patch
The Max truck, which got painted up psychedelically one year, and the Max men.
The big boats, the Ticonderoga and the Mohican, which cruised up and down the lake most days.
The Hague Regatta - speedboats would race up and down the lake, using Scotch Bonnet as the turning around point. The whole camp would turn out to watch this each year.
The infirmary - After breakfast there was a clinic. You'd go in through the back porch, and line up inside in an inside hallway to see the doctor or nurse in the front room. This was a great way to get out of cleanup.
Swim instruction - always at 9:00 AM on a windy morning in freezing cold water. To this day I hate to swim because of this!
Announcements on the PA system - "Attention the entire camp. Will Joe Blow please report to Ludds Shack." And don't forget the bugle calls for every occasion. You could always tell when reveille was going to play in the morning because you'd hear the static on the record for about 5 seconds before it started.
The last night of camp - after the banquet, we'd go down to the lake. A float carrying the year in large numbers would be torched. There'd be singing, always including the song "The Seine." This was the only time during the summer that Taps would be played on the PA.
