I was 8 when I first showed up at Wildwood. That’s me, front and center in Cedar B in 1959.
I have two annuals still (two, somehow, were lost over the course of the years), but they’re buried in boxes as we have no place to put our books in our current home. I have many memories from Wildwood, mostly good ones! I excelled in areas where my only competition was myself. Riflery was one of them.
We operated under the watchful eye of Hutch, aka Bill Hutchinson. He used to say “Ready on the left! Ready on the right! Ready on the firing range? Commence Firing!”. I worked my way up to Sharpshooter 2nd Bar, and would have gone farther if I had been able to come to camp every year instead of every other.
These are some awards that used to be given out at Camp Wildwood.
I remember Marc Donnenfeld from my group, probably the best shooter in camp, who earned every awards there was at Wildwood. Sadly, with change and time came the end of the rifle range at Wildwood.
Archery was another favorite of mine, but water skiing was probably my most frequented activity. I imagine it is the same today for many boys. I was certainly never the best, but it was something that I could do and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Tripping, particularly in my last year in 1965, was amazing – we took two multiple-day trips that year, one around the Rangely lakes, another 5 days down the Penobscot river including whitewater canoeing, portages, the whole enchilada.
Here’s our group overlooking Mount Hale during that escapade.
When I arrived at Wildwood, our head counselor was Abe Saperstein, and the assistant head was Bob Horan, who later became Head Counselor in his own right:
He was a very kind man, extremely interested in the welfare of his campers. I’ve always wondered what happened to him. I’ve run out of time this morning, but I have a lot more I can share with you and will do so shortly.
Best, Chris DeSantis
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