AUDAX the White Mountains and east of the Berkshires. The name means “mountain that stands alone,” and the physical setting was spectacular. At chapel, in a stand of pristine birches, we would sing: “Here at the foot of Monadnock, towering over the plain; Here at the edge of the waters, sing we our glad refrain.” There was swimming, canoeing, sailing, archery, a rifle range, and a nature program. The July 4th counselors’ softball game was between Yale and Harvard, and there were almost enough guys from those two colleges on staff to field a complete team; some assistance from Amherst and Williams usually did the trick. We saluted the flag at dawn and sundown, played ping-pong on the porch and “Thumper” at the dinner table, sang beer jingles and
200 years. Future Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jeff MacNelly was an assistant counselor who drew brilliant posters for the Saturday night movie; Sugar Daddys were handed out three nights a week after dinner, and the season ended with follies performed by the campers and counselors that were almost as hilarious as those in Some Like It Hot. As the buses started up to take us back to Boston or New York on closing day, the counselors would sing to the tune of “Bye Bye, Baby”: “Bye bye, kiddies, just remember you’re our kiddies, when you go back to school.” And we did, often with catches in our throats. At Monadnock, there were Mortimers, von Stades, Hornblowers, Abernethys, Davisons, Montgomerys,
New England. My first year, our gang walked the trail, which followed the Appalachian Trail until it crested at Stowe, on top of Mount Mansfield in the White Mountains, more than a thousand feet higher than Mount Monadnock. It was a good test for a 10-year-old after walking up and down several other peaks in the Presidential Range along the four-day trip. It was a Sunday morning when we walked off the peak and our counselors let us go into the general store at the bottom to stock up on Hershey bars and M&Ms for the ride back to camp. I was also interested in checking out how Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were doing for the Yankees (this was the year after Maris hit 61 homers and The Mick, 54).
From left: A view of Mount Monadnock, which stands 3,165 feet in New Hampshire; a camper takes a canoe out during the summer.
told scary stories around the campfire, contested Indian and Naval War games, read Edgar Allan Poe by a blazing fire in the lodge on rainy mornings, and ended the seven-week season with a treasure hunt that began with the annual appearance of Phineas T. Spalding, a pirate who had lived underneath the pond for the last
and Knapps, among many other family names familiar to Quest readers. Everyone still enjoys reminiscing about those magical summers. The absolute highlight of the camp calendar were the Long Camping Trips (or L.C.T.s), when myriad groups went forth to climb or canoe around
I also invested in a Herald Tribune. The headline was huge: “Marilyn Monroe is Dead at 36.” First love is often painful, but all I can say is that it had been a great three years and I am grateful to Colin Clark and the filmmakers for reminding me so happily of my own affair with Marilyn. u J U LY 2 0 1 2 4 9