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The lost days of summer camp
(by Walt Brown - July 16, 2008)
I’ve recently noticed a regular phalanx of youngsters marching at mid-day or later from the Stonybrook Field Club to
Beechwood
Park . Ah, day camp.
I had the wonderful good luck to experience the Hillsdale day camp system for several years growing up in the 1950s.
In 1953, I paid my $2 for the summer for “
Camp
Hildaca ” – Hildaca was scrunched down from “Hillsdale Day Camp,” the Hil, for Hillsdale, da for day, and ca for camp. I was 5 years old, but the facilities available within
George
G.
White
School and at the adjacent field were wonderful. The following year, or perhaps 1955, to follow the fad, “
Camp
Crockett ” was begun and the youngest campers went there, so I was demoted from Hildaca and packed off to
Beechwood
Park . Still, a group of dedicated teenagers made for a wonderful summer. Eventually, it came to be that 6 year olds went to “Crockett,” 7-9 to Hildaca, 10-12 to
Camp
Hillsdale (Little League Field), and 12-14 to the
Teen
Youth
Center at Memorial Field.
I don’t think I ever missed a day. The morning schedule consisted of swimming at the then-sand-bottom “Pascack Pool,” where the soccer field now exists at Stonybrook. In the afternoon, after we went home for lunch, we reported to the above-cited venues for a full afternoon, until either 4:30 or 5 p.m.
I can remember the year the price went to $3 for the summer.
I’m certain that today’s campers enjoy their activities and sites, as we did, but the differences reflect the changing times. We didn’t have anybody in camp with a phone, ear plugs (except for some swimmers), or anything electrical for that matter. And when I was 5 years old, we had archery. Real bows, real arrows.
That would never happen today.
Each week featured two special events – one kind of dress-up day (hat day, backwards day, twins’ day), and one field trip (Bear Mountain, Playland at
Rye
Beach ,
Palisades
Park –anyone remember that? – and the occasional museum). The trips were each $2 extra. How much the camp director’s ulcers cost, worrying about six bus-loads of kids at Playland is another matter.
The culmination of the summer was the annual bonfire at the George G. White Field – and it really was a serious bonfire, not just a marshmallow roast – and the soapbox derby down the slope of Hillsdale Avenue to the Little League Field.
I recently visited the Hillsdale Recreation Office and mentioned that I’d been in Hillsdale recreation so long that I remembered camp in 1953. The director pulled out a yellow scrapbook of “camp newspapers” (another bygone item), and I quickly found an item about myself in the 1958 edition. As I said, I never missed a day, so the article was not “Brown Around Town.”
The best long-term memories were of having such a wonderful summer after seven or eight weeks of camp that the idea of going back to school – a dread for many – was totally empty. We had such fun we couldn’t wait to get back to school and our camp friends. Beyond that, when my “camper” eligibility ended, I worked for four years as a counselor, earning a combined total of $425 for the four summers.
I thought I was a millionaire, and in terms of happiness, I was. It was sad when college expenses meant a summer job in a factory and not camp. So when I see the campers trudging from point to point, I silently thank the horde for bringing back some very special memories of a very special time.
I sure hope they get their $2 or $3 worth… I know I did. I wish I could personally thank the teenagers who helped me have such fun, but they are all now collecting Social Security, I hope.
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