Cape Cod

Avalon reunions?
dsladepi and dpf,

Can you give me some info on past Avalon reunions? I'm a lot older than you guys - I was at Avalon in summer of 1962 and 1963 and really loved it. I stopped going as I was sailboat racing full time with my Dad on Long Island Sound starting in summer of 1964. I loved the Cape, the band concerts in Chatham, taking trips to Nauset Beach, Provincetown, Nantucket and the Melody tent in Hyannis and the Theatre in Dennis. And I remember the social dances - we had them with Namequoit and another boys' camp whose name I can't remember - maybe Vikings?! I'm in the great Northwest, a long ways away, but I plan on getting back east in late summer, early fall. If you can give me any info on an Avalon site or contacts, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!!

Another Nami alum feeling nostalgic...
I attended Namequoit during the summers of 1984-1988, living in the following cabins: Halyard, Windward, N/Q (switched halfway), P, Chateau. Slader and Ty...I remember you both very well.

Those were the best summers. Fresh water Pilgrim lake to swim in. And Little Pleasant Bay to sail in. Nauset Beach. Dances with Camp Avalon. Those day trips to Nantucket.

The camp closed because the people that ran Avalon (the Laffy's?) cashed in and closed it up. Art was going to keep Nami going during the summer of '89, but without a girls camp, there was not enough interest.

I live out on the west coast now with my wife and 8-month old son, Art Fanham Minton...just kidding, his name is Nate. It's such a bummer he won't be able to have the same experience I did.

I kept going back year after year for the friendships more than anything. And while I loved sailing, what I liked about it was just tooling around in Little Pleasant Bay in those Mercuries, Baybirds, and Daysailors. Not old enough to drive a car, there was nothing better than cruising around with your buds...goofing off, jumping overboard and doing "man overboard drils." In fact, the best part of those races was anchoring afterwards and hanging out with the chicks from Avalon. But maybe that was just my perspective.

Will Minton
[email protected]

Camp Namequoit
Wow! Looking for information on old Mercury sailboats got me here...Just picked up a late '60's Daysailer...not a Mercury, but a great boat with 2 kids to teach! ...was at Namequoit in '73. Kodachrome by Paul Simon on the transistor radio...and some counselor with an electric guitar who could play "Smoke on the Water" I remember capsizing in the bay on the way over to Nauset Beach...we could not right the boat and had to swim it to shore, right it and bail before heading to the beach....we would have been the first boat there, ended up next to last! Great memories--too bad there will never be an equal experience for other kids! Still have my Archery certificate...and I will always remember my trusty l-shaped flashlight--complete with colored lenses and "pushbutton" for signal code! Thought it was the coolest thing ever!!
Fairwinds!!

Camp Namequoit
I was there '74-'76. What a blast. First kiss with Avalon Girl watching 4th of July fireworks at N/A day. Only bad recall was getting smacked in the nose with a tetherball raquet while observing 2 guys playing at Avalon on N/A day. It ended my summer earlier then expected. The kid who lost control of the racquet was Sergio Obadea from Bogata. Ran into him a few years later at DisneyWorld. I digress. What a joyful experience I had there. Grew up pretty nicely, kept sailing on Long Island sound on Rhodes 19 for a few years, then graduated to power boats and windsurfing. What ever happened to the camp?

Namequoit, Avalon, Rhodes 19s
Jons, small coincidence: I went to Avalon (but earlier than you) and stopped going after 2 summers so I could race with my Dad on his Rhodes 19 on Long Island Sound! We raced in the Rhodes 19 Nationals every year, but never won it. I think my Dad could have won with a bigger, stronger crew person than me. Later on when I moved out West to Oregon (after graduate school), he flew out from New York to race with me in the Nationals on a Ranger 20 and we did win first place, but this time with me as skipper! I loved my summers on the Cape and days when I got to sail all afternoon!

Namequoit 81-88
Hey Ty, Slader and Will (and everyone else) --

I can't believe I stumbled across this place. It's like a trip back in time. Bloody Benny, N/A day, PBIR (I guess the girls called it "pibbers"), Saturday races, kissing girls at N/A day, kissing horseshoe crabs at PBIR ceremony, Nauset beach!

I'm going to waste a whole day with all of these memories -- Clipper, Clipper, Port, Halyard, Windward, Q, T, Chateau. It really is like a time machine, and a great shame that our kids won't be able to have the same experience. (I'm still working on the kids part, though.)

Lots of names come to mind immediately: Ivan, you were right about the Fiorello brothers, Mike was the sailing director and Mark was the archery counselor. I don't think they were twins, but they could've been. What about Todd and Greg Schroeder (Todd made me kiss his foot -- the things you'll do at summer camp), Andy Seibert, Jim Barbieri, Greg Schwartz, Beaver Taylor, Steve Monowitz, Drew Levine, the Haddads (I figured Mike would be some Meteorolgist by now somewhere), the Farnhams (Art was a second Dad -- what a true gentleman), I could go on forever.

Anybody keep in touch with other Namequoit people? I'm back in New Orleans and the only other camper in Louisiana that I know of is Matt Saurage who was a few years older than me. He lives in Baton Rouge and we talk occasionally. I used to see Will in college and ran into Peter Levine a couple of times. Aaron Zellman and I share a mutual friend and keep in touch peripherally. I also am close to Stephanie Heilborn from the old Avalon days (and we re-met in college).

I'm going to have to check back in here. What a cool surprise!

O-din, O-din, O-din...
Field
field.ogden(at)gmail.com

Namequoit 78 - 82
What a blast reminiscing! Does anyone remember the name of the head cook? Didn't we have a great meal on the final day, including ice sculptures & Lobster Newburgh- was there a name for that celebration? I've tried, but I can't remember the names of my cabins, only the anxiety of learning knots, studying lingo, and getting my boatswain rank and sailing in the PBIR. Who remembers running aground, bailing boats by hand, friendship bracelets, collecting used rifle shells and putting them back in those triangles, fishing with freshwater clams, etc?? I wish there was a way to have a virtual reunion online to re-live this stuff!! What a shame Camp N is gone!!!

Bloody Benny
I attended Namequoit between 77-83 (I think). My last year was as a CA in one of the younger cabins. Mike Haddad is a meterologist here in Manchester, NH on Channel 9. I ran into him at his graduation from ULowell in Massachusetts years ago. It's been fun to read these messages and remember all of the fun (and not so fun) things about camp. I too am disappointed that the camp shut down. It's now full of luxury houses. My parents still have a place down there, so I go down regularly.

I remember during the telling of Bloody Benny (by the local priest?) a lot of people recorded it. Does anyone have one of these recordings that they would be willing to share? I would pay the costs of duplication and shipping.

If you remember me and would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you. My memories of people are fuzzier than others on this list. I live in NH now and still sail whenever I can.

All the best,

Chris Weiler
cww-nh ,at, comcast ,dot, net

Greetings, fellow Namequoit alumni!

My first summer at Camp Namequoit was 1971. I was in P cabin first semester; we moved to Q halfway through the summer. Counselor Bill Shanahan (of Dartmouth); AC was Paul McCoy. Northeast corner: Dave Nobil (lower), Clark Caplan (upper); Southeast corner Richard Quirk (lower), Peter Nirenberg (upper). Southwest corner John Lauderbaugh (lower), Beanie (upper) (can't remember Beano's surname). Northwest corner: Richard Walker (lower), Charles Herman (me, upper). Why did I type in all those names? Because people will occasionally Google themselves, and will find our Camp Namequoit discussion thread, and (we hope) contribute!

What a kick, all these new a2ker's, welcome everybody. It's a big forum, look around a bit. In the meantime, have fun on this thread.

I remember the CJ! (Cape Cod, page 11, SealPoet)
I've been going through this discussion thread, and I'll try to fill in any information I can out of my (admittedly failing) memory.

The CJ was the largest craft in the fleet at Camp Namequoit. When I was there (1971, 1972) it was usually captained by Doug Kaplan (not to be confused with Clark Caplan). Doug was an all-around expert: riflery, archery, sailing, etc. The rest of us admired him greatly. He went on to become a CT, then a CA. He may have gone on to even greater things!

Camp Namequoit
Just noticed I got a name wrong. It was BRYAN Quirk, not Richard Quirk, in P cabin in 1971. Bryan's Dad came to pick him up at the end of the summer in a Rhodes 19. Bryan got on board, and they sailed right off.

Also in this thread I saw some discussion of Mercuries, Day Sailor, CJ, etc. (If I remember correctly, the CJ was named after Mr. Thayer's father or grandfather, C.J. Thayer.) However, missing from this list is the knockabout, also known as the N7. It was the favorite craft of Dana Bushey; I believe he made Skipper his last year by winning a race in the N7. His younger brother Orin (Orrin?) Bushey also attended Namequoit.

Osso, isn't it fun? I know nothing about this camp, though I did go to cape cod sea camp for a 6th grade gradutation trip. But, it's still fun to read along. Always makes me smile.

Bloody Benny
I don't remember hearing the story of Bloody Benny at CN. I heard it one summer at Dartmouth Summer Alumni College. I suspect it's a story that gets recycled all around the New England college campuses and camps.

It may the that the reason I never heard it was that I never went to the Outpost. Came Namequoit had a cabin of some sort on the outer shore; I'm told an elderly couple lived there. My first year at CN, our cabin didn't go (we were to be the last cabin in the season to go, but when it came time, none of the guys wanted to go. THey were all seniors and had all been there many times. So, we never went.) My second year I was an AC, and we didn't go either.

Perhaps that's where the story of Bloody Benny was told.

Since we decided not to go to Lanse Aux Meadows this year, we are going to "coast sail" down to Woods Hole to visit some friends. We will sail all around the Cape , I understand the whales have been numerous so far, and theyll get nuemerouser as the season progresses

Hey! Will you come ashore anywhere? We did a whale watch a few weeks ago at stellwagon bay (S. Bank website) and there were minkes and our hostess with the mostess, Tongs the humpback. In the distance was another whale-watch vessel which was obviously hanging with another whale.

Have fun and let us know how it's going......

Im going to stay far out the Gulf so as to miss the whale boats and that way we can travel by night. My son (who is quitting college for a while to follow an idea) and his girlfriend are going to join us for the "steam" To the Hole. Now Ill have to buy beer and wine.
There will be a small gathering of research vessels (The Henlopen, The Annandale, The eastward II and some others) My sons been reading about rogue waves and sending me e-mail so, in the Gulf well keep a 25/7 watch .

which gulf?

Where will the vessels gather? Woods hole?

farmerman, you'll appreciate this, probably:
http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/stellwagen/thmbnls/thmbnls.html

Looks like Mr. Archery and I were there about the same time!

I remember the Ewing brothers. The oldest of the four was a year behind me. A brilliant mind! I believe their father was a research physicist or a professor or something. My last year at CN, all FOUR of them won awards at the Awards Banquet! Two were silver cups; the other two were mahogany cups that had been made in the craft shop.

Mr. Archery says he worked for the redhead. Could that be Doug Kaplan? He had red hair. On the other hand, I remember Mr. Farnham as having reddish hair too - but my memory of him is fuzzy.