Stories From the Brooklyn Scout Camps
Camp Brooklyn Remembered
Bill Dixon
I was in Camp Brooklyn for eleven consecutive
seasons. I do not know if that's the record, but that has to push
it. To do that requires that you worked on staff during college,
which would also mean that you had one of two or three senior staff positions.
All jobs paid poorly, but the program, administration and waterfront paid
better, So a few, like me, stayed around with jobs. Others with long
tenure might be Phil Nelson, Dan Riviera, Marv Antonoff and John Cleary...at
least those that I know.
I joined the Boy Scouts in the spring of l944.
It was a very big deal to me!
I joined 90 days before my 12th birthday, which
was in July. Troop 240 had that as a rule...90 days. I had been turned
away earlier. The troop was in a Congregational Church on 18th Ave and
East 5th street...one block from Ocean Parkway and across from P.S. 134.
The neighborhood was mostly Jewish and the troop at the Ocean Parkway Jewish
Center attracted those boys. Troop 240 had a wide area of participation
since there were not that many Christians around. One of those was our
SPL, Dan Riviera, who dominated the activities of the troop.
Joining was also a big deal for my Mother.
We were a single parent family and money was something you talked about,
but never saw. I was on the free milk list at P.S.134. A scout
uniform cost $12!! Somehow, we got the money and off to Sears we
went. It was a block off Flatbush Avenue, near the Brooklyn Union
Gas Company, where the Board of Review was held. For $12 you got
a big hat (great hat) knickers, a shirt and a pair of long socks.
Oh yes, and a neckerchief with a metal holder that is now probably a collector's
item. The handbook was fifty cents extra. That handbook, as worn
as it is, sits in my library as I write this. I wore that uniform
for a week after!!
Then my patrol started talking about camp.
It was great just to listen. They were going third period. Dan Riviera
was the scoutmaster at Camp Oneida. My patrol leader talked to my
Mother. Do not know how we did it, but she gave me $20 for two weeks
at camp and $4 for transportation, which was the Erie Railroad to Tusten
Station. The Patrol all went down together to 105 Court Street to
pay the money. They had a little counter in the reception area.
That was the first time I saw the Cabin. What a great store that
was!
Well, we had a great time at Camp Oneida
in l944 and returned for two weeks in l945. In l946, I followed the
Scoutmaster (Jim Minor) to Pathfinder and that was the year I was inducted
into the Order. I tried to get a job in l947, but I was only 15,
actually only 14 when I applied, so I returned to Pathfinder as SPL.
And what happened that year?? The D3 name was stolen by a new
Division!! It should have been called D5 and we would have avoided
all the confusion that followed.
Since the D2 dining hall was gone, and a
tiny little place it was to start, D1 took over all the camps, which resulted
in a very fun, but very crowded, D1 dining hall. The new D3
was made up of a few tent camps stolen from the real D3 and lean-twos carved
into the side of a hill. The main area had the romantic name "compound"
and was gravel! The walk up to the new Camps was following a water
pipe. I assume the location was selected because it made an easier
walk to the lake and waterfront. The D1 walk was very steep but we were
young and it worked. Of course, no one ever saw a D1 waterfront staff
person in the Dining Hall for breakfast and rarely for lunch. They came
up at dinner for supplies.
The worst...a patrol has the magical number
of eight. Eight works, and thirty-two works!! But the shelters
only held four...eight to a camp and troop. D1 had eight-boy cabins
and D2 and D4 had eight-boy tents and D3 had four-boy shelters. A
mistake. Of course there was not a level spot in the camps to put
a tent platform.
In l948 for reasons I do not know (Bob Broadwell
had a reason) the staff of D1 was changed significantly. Phil Nelson
went to D4 and Dan Riviera went to D1. Mostly new staff was hired,
and then I got my first staff job as an Ass't SM. It was great.
I was in Kennebec and Tim Laurencelle was Scoutmaster. You could
not find a nicer person than Tim and you could not find a nicer or better
staff (although l952 and 53 was also very good). I met Dick Weidman
for the first time and got to know Marv Antonoff much better and we have
stayed, along with Dan Riviera, life-long friends. Also met Lenny
Marcus who was another Ass't SM and who was in Delaware.
Kennebec had some great campers, and many later became staff like Marty
Stein, Shelly Weil, Neil Spielholtz, Stan Weinstein, etc.. My troop,
240, always followed the senior staff guys, and they came to DI also.
What was great about scouting was: no one cared that it was a Kosher dining
hall, etc. The season was so successful, and we had so many kids
who wanted to stay over that I was made a Scoutmaster (25 dollar bonus)
and given a structure as you come into the camp. I have no idea what
the original use but it was large and I had a camp of 16 boys. I
named it Ticonderoga after the Dixon pencils. Years later heard people
still calling that building by the same name.
But the real highlight was our Nature Director
Eric Reeber! Eric was a funny guy (not Ha Ha). Dick Weidman,
who was Ass't Campcraft to Marv Antonoff devoted the entire season
to bugging Eric. It was not hard. They lived on the side of the ball-field
and Eric soon found his glasses regularly disappearing. urt the highlight,
and there is no way I can explain this in words, was Dick eidman in the
Dining Hall doing an imitation of Eric Reeber giving artificial respiration
to a salamander. And I can hear today the high pitched voice of Eric yelling
"Weidman!!!" It was a fun season. It might have been too much
fun since Broadwell had me go back to D1 as a scoutmaster. but Dick and
Marv were sent to D2 and D3 in order to split us up ( I guess). Another
great season and another great staff at D1. I had Kennebec and my
Ass't was Marty Stein. Marty was young (maybe 15) but he was tall
with that deep voice, but most important he was my friend who lived across
the street from me in Brooklyn. Tim was back, Eric was back, Lenny
was also a SM, as was a real nice guy named Dick Agar. Brian Kandell was
campcraft, I think. Harvey Smith had hired Frank Switokes for administration
and a little guy we called "Might Mouse" for program. Mighty Mouse
had to leave early, and Harvey appointed me Program Director for the 4th
period. As would be like Harvey...no extra pay. But I enjoyed
my two weeks of power and the best part: I got to know Harvey and
Frank much better. Harvey died in the late 80's and I have no idea what
happened to Frank. That year, Dan Riviera had a knee operation and did
not work at TMR. but spent a number of weeks working at Nick Dale's.
All of this brings me to l950 and D 3.
Dan Riviera was appointed the Program Director. Of course, he hired
Marv, Dick and me. I really liked D1 but Dan was such a friend and
then there would be Marv and Dick. I talked Marty Stein into coming
with me as well although that was not his first choice. I really did not
know many of the people there.
I recall the nature man although not by
name. This guy had made the front page of the Brooklyn Eagle. He had a
Boa and a few diamondbacks in his apartment in Bay Ridge. He got
to camp late since he was attending a National Jamboree being held that
year. He was the snake expert! The two of us took a hike one day and we
went up a mountain and just like the Handbook said, he found a rattler
in the sun on the rocks. He put it in a little bag. I was impressed!
Weidman did not fool around with this guy. Weidman was a Scoutmaster
as was I and we were up on that damn hill. I do not recall even the
name of the Camp. Dick was on one side and another new friend to me and
a really good guy was on the other side, George Riordian.
George was the chapter chief. This was also
a new chapter to me. The general guidelines were that the summer chapter
chief was a member of that chapter as inducted or formally became one.
It usually was someone with a scoutmaster or higher summer job. The following
year when I was in D2 (another story) I was the Chapter Chief. It was considered
by all of us a pretty important position. As the chapter was run independent
of the camp administration but by definition integrated into the camp life
in a very big way. George ran a great meeting. I was impressed.
Remember we were still black-balling in spite of votes and that was a sensitive
issue which the Chapter Chief had final say. About the third period
we had the tap-outs on the ball field (the one that really belonged to
D2). I was not involved in anything myself other then attending the
meetings and dinners.
That was l950. Last September Dan, Marv, Dick and I were together
at the reunion (thank you Art) at TMR. That was the first time the
four of us were together since l950...fifty years. We went to D3.
It looked like the bulldozer had just left yesterday.
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Last Updated: January 18, 2003
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