On Saturday morning we gathered in front of the main house for a Choice period - actually it was really Drifting. I decided to go to Archery and Riflery. Some people went to look at the horses - they now live across the brook and the road instead of on the main campus where the horses wee really ponies. Of course we couldn't choose shop or other things like that since all the equipment was put away. For lunch we hike-day food: hardtack, peanut butter, jelly, american cheese, oranges and other fruit, and chocolate bars.

Here's the first shooter getting some instruction. It was a bit tricky since he was left-handed and it was a right-handed rifle. The owner mentioned that he was trying to donate it to camp but because he bought it many years ago in a different state, ATF made it quite difficult to do the transfer.



When it was my turn I was to get two sets of 5 rounds to shoot the first set at the left bullseye and the second set at the right one. Of course I forgot and the first two of the second set were shot at the left bullseye,. I did pretty well after 50 years.
Here's my target. It was a 50 yard target instead of 50 foot one so the bullseye was larger than it should have been. For those of us who hadn't done this in a long time it was probably a good idea. (The icon on this post was me in my ROTC uniform at MIT where we did some work with M1s.)



After this I went to archery where I got some good pointers on form but still missed the target some of the time. I did better at LCFD dance camp at the Woodstock YMCA camp in the spring but the target was closer.

Later I was going to go canoeing but the canoes and kayaks were being used to help plant some trees out on the mini-islands in the lake. In the afternoon I did take a small dip in the lake. It was warmer than Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester this week and I didn't have to worry about the rip current.

John Seeger was my Geography teacher at Dalton, the Director with his wife Ellie of Camp Killooleet in Hancock, VT, and later was Principal of Fieldston Lower School (not when I was there). On Saturday afternoon at his camp there was a wonderful memorial service attended by many people who were at camp as a camper and/or staff during his long tenure at camp as well as some local people from the community in which he was involved. He was a fantastic teacher and leader and had a tremendous influence on many people.

John and Ellie many years ago; John and Kate (his daughter and current Director) recently



The memorial had lots of singing and a bunch of people got up to talk about John - I was one. Folk music was a big part of this camp; it is where I was inspired to get and learn how to play a banjo (sadly long forgotten); a number of people launched musical careers from their experiences at this camp.


Tony Seeger, Dean Spencer, Pete Seeger, and Kate Seeger singing at the memorial



This is more or less what I said:

My first year as a camper at the end of 4th grade was the last year before the Seegers took over. I remember back in fifth grade hearing that they were taking over and being really excited because I already knew John who among other things was known for telling great stories - Seegie's stories we called them. John was a great Geography teacher. (I still have my Goode's School Atlas from 5th grade). It was from him that I learned about what it meant to do research and how to report on what one had found out in a useful way. He was a great advisor. I remember once when I talked to him about choosing my career (at the time I was a Physics grad student at Columbia and had just had a part-time job teaching 7th and 8th grade science at Dalton but was concluding that neither of these were the correct path. His advice was basically figure out what you like to do and then see how to make a career out of it. (This is what worked for me because the next term I took my first computer programming course, fell in love with it and that is was the basis for my career as a software designer, manager, researcher, and staff consultant.) And what a story teller he was. I remember his telling the story of Jimmy Angel who discovered Angel Falls in Venezuela many times. When I went to the reunion in 2008 while sitting around the campfire he told the story again and it was exactly as I remembered it.

If you made a mistake he had a way of expressing himself that was constructive and not the least bit humiliating; you sometimes had to interpret subtleties in language and tone of voice. He usually choose counselors by their character, not what they knew.

In the spring of 1959 I discovered the camp where I had a counselor job wasn't going to open and I called John. He said of course we want you here (I'd remained in touch with him); we'll figure out what you'll do soon. A couple of weeks later he said OK you'll be the oldest boys counselor and you'll do riflery. When I got to camp there were other riflery people so I worked with another counsellor on the lake for canoeing and boating and then became the principal person for the following two years. Various people told about their interviews where they'd say something like - Archery? - I don't know anything about it and it he'd say don't worry - you'll learn and he'd point you in the right direction and get you help from others when you arrived.

What a great person he was and how much influence he had on thousands of people who were campers or students.

The Labor day weekend's camping trip was the same weekend as a camp reunion of a summer camp, Camp Killooleet, I attended and was a councillor at for a number of years. The occasion was the 60th anniversary of the ownership of the current owners. Conveniently it was nearby the camp site (about an hour and a quarter drive) so I went there all day Saturday - leaving at 7am and returning a bit after 1am.

( some background about the owners )

This was one incredible camp - with 8-week sessions for 80-100 campers. I was a camper there from 1948-1951 and a councillor from 1959-1961. (This is not the camp where I was the councillor of Robert's brother!). I was the canoeing and sailing councillor; we had aluminum canoes and small sailing dinghies (obtained at my request) and was also the hike day and trip organizer - Wednesday was (and still is) hike day and we took 2 (or maybe 3) overnighters a year.

Like all camps there was a good mix of activities but here there was a special emphasis on building the community of the camp and allowing kids to have a lot of choice in what they did so the day was not all programmed and kids could develop their personalities and actually do what they wanted. Councillors met frequently to go over kid's problems andi was quite effective - you could see kids blossoming out through the course of the season. A lot of what I learned here as a councillor helped me be a very good manager and participant in other activities. In any work group (or volunteer group) the dealing with personalities and the strengths and weaknesses of the people is a very important component of being successful.

( Morning activities and the great flood )
( Pictures of lake and bent canoe )

( afternoon and evening activities )

Among other things we sung this round at the campfire:
( Youtube of the Imp song (this isn't us) )

( In a hammock )
It is pretty amazing that after 47 years of absence everything looked pretty much the same. Cabin 7 where I was a councillor had been replaced by a new but similar looking building; Cabin 6 where I'd been a councillor in a previous year looked exactly the same. When I wandered in the living room and looked around I did notice new skylights (installed when they enlarged the kitchen) and then I looked at the bookshelves and saw a copy of Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome that I had read (I've since reread it several times since it was one of my favorite children's books). Somethings had changed - for example, the pony corral was gone because they now have horses and keep them at the farm they now own that is across Rt 125.

Of the about 60 people there I knew (or once knew) about 10 of them. It is pretty amazing talking to someone who you last saw 57 years ago when he was 10 and I was 12. At the campfire people told about their camp experiences. One person, an old friend of mine said - Killooleet saved me. I grew up with dysfunctional parents (they certainly were as I remember) and at camp I discovered there were normal people who treated me like a person. Another person recalled that once when she was agonizing about something her councillor said "What do you want?" and she realized that her parents had never asked that question - they programmed and micromanaged her.

All in all it was a great day and it brought back some fine memories. I'd relive that part of my life with great pleasure.