By Mel Noble
 

June 8, 2003

  

I attended Stern's nursery from 1949-51. SSC was my summer home between '51-'55. After that, I spent a decade at Farm Camp Lowy, which also accommodated many German Jewish children. Some of my memories of SSC follow:

Flag raising each AM at the top of the hill, where we sang "God Bless America." (I have placed these words on each on each message board in my school district and the song is sung at every official gathering.) At camp flag raising near the main house,  we'd sing "Tramp, tramp, tramp." I still know the words.

 

Sandra Aleskowsky led Friday night services. Around '53 or '54, a new infirmary and a bunk for the Charmers was built. We played softball on a long, narrow field. A shallow swimming pool was beyond a foot bridge over a brook that overflowed after a hurricane in '55. The swimming counselor was Peter Bucky. 

 

I recall station wagon rides to Pine Bush with "Aunt" Ellen and also remember Walker Valley, where counselors went after hours. And there was an old farm owned by the "Schmultzes"?

 

Bunkmates included Michael Barlow, Georgie (Mike) Kort, Stanley Rosenberg, Peter Roden, Tommy Schwartz and Peter Jessel. In the recreation hall, we played Nok Hockey and "ghost ball" bombardment.

 

I have memories of flipping '55 baseball cards, singing "Heart of My Heart" on the bus and laughing at a hilarious salami skit by my distant cousin, Larry Stempel, and his buddy, Steven Adler. I also recall Larry's older brother Ozzie, Evelyn and Marian Neu (with whom I often laughed) and counselor Peter Hertz, an usher in the old RKO theater on 181st Street.

 

At Tilson Lake, we ate sandwiches and bought birch beer soda at the "casino" as contemporary music played over the loudspeaker, such as "Alabama Jubilee" and "Unchained Melody." Another song of that time, sung at the flagpole, was about a goat who ate six red shirts right off the line.

 

Lastly, I remember the hours of fun we spent playing on the old red station wagon.
 

[ Mel Noble is superintendent of schools in West Babylon, NY, where he lives with his wife Ruth. ]