Summer Camp Memories 1970 (i)

(introduction)

The country mountain scenery in Pennsylvania or Upstate New York may look unchanged from what it looked like in the summer of 1970. But then I was in my twenties and now I am in my fifties.. Although I felt by the summer of 1970 that my youth was behind me, I also felt that my life and possible early death was ahead of me, along with a radical democratic change in the structure of U.S. society. Now I realize that most of my nine-to-five work life is now behind me and neither a quick change in U.S. society in a radical democratic direction or my own early death before the age of 30 happened.

But it now [in 2004] feels like a good time to start writing down what I now remember most about my summer camp experience of 1970.

(1)

After being denied welfare assistance by the white, bearded, long-haired Bronx welfare department caseworker/investigator in his late 20s or early 30s, who visited my cheap slum apartment, because I was an "undeserving" long-haired white hippie, I was forced to take a low-wage East Bronx factory job. Seeing that most of the other workers in the factory did not seem to speak any English, I quickly concluded that it was unlikely I would have much success there if I tried to organize a union. In addition, I was unwilling to do so much hard manual work in the factory each day for such a low hourly rate, no matter how desperate was my state of impoverishment.

So I quit the low-wage factory job after only a few days work, and read through the New York Times Sunday want ads section. Seeing ads for camp counselor positions reminded me that I had spent a month during both the summer of 1961 and the summer of 1962 at boy scout camp. Perhaps I could escape the effects of the post-1969 collapse of the job market for liberal arts college graduates from CUNY in New York City by landing some kind of a camp counselor position? In addition, because I had worked a month during the summer of 1966 as an assistant teacher at a special ed school in Manhattan, perhaps some kind of special ed camp in the country would hire me as a group counselor?

There was an ad for group counselor positions at a camp for "mentally-handicapped and slow-learning children" in the Poconos. I telephoned the number listed to make an appointment for a summer job interview.

Before the day of the interview, I went to the barber and got rid of my long hair and beard. Then, on the day of the interview, I dressed up in a sport jacket, white-shirt and tie and suit pants.

The job interview took place in the office of a special ed school director in Forest Hills. The special ed school director's name was Mayer and he was also the director and owner of the special ed camp.

Mayer was in his mid-30s, was clean-shaven,had short hair and was about 5 ft. 6 inches tall. Initially, he seemed like a pleasant, liberal guy, who was primarily dedicated to the welfare of his campers. After reading quickly through my employment application, Mayer asked me a few general questions and described the nature of his camp and what were the job responsibilities of the group counselor position. Then he said, "You seem a little distant. But I think I'll hire you for one of the counselor posts."

Mayer then agreed that I would be paid $1,000 for the summer because I was a college graduate and had some previous experience working as both an assistant teacher at the special ed school and as a volunteer day care center group counselor during my freshman and sophomore years when I was a student. He also indicated he would mail me a letter of confirmation and further instructions in a few days and that the summer job would begin the last week in June.