Camp Wel-Met 1961-65

It’s time for another trip back to the summers of 1961-65 when I went to Camp Wel-Met, a Jewish camp with locations at Barry, Narrowsburg and Silver Lake which were in the Catskills northwest of NYC near the Delaware River. It hard to remember details of what happened over 40 years ago, so here goes:

1961 – I went to the 3-week session at the Barryville location since it was my first time living away from home at age 12. My counselors were Eddie Fisher (same name as the entertainer) and Bob Kipness, a student at Cooper Union. I remember that I had a tough time adjusting since I was a very picky eater.

1962 – I went to the 6-week session at Narrowsburg. My counselor was Ira Levinson who was a medical student. The only campers that I remember from Unit 5 Bunk 92 were Perry Stuart, Joey Heumann, Alan Metzger, and Kenny. The last two were classmates of mine at Russell Sage. I went with Alan Metzger to my first game at Shea Stadium in April 1964. I fondly remember the Wel-Met cocoa that they gave us every morning for breakfast. A couple of times we would go out and sleep in the woods in our sleeping bags. I remember parents visiting day when all the kids, including me, got care packages of junk food from their parents.

1963 – I went back to the same 6-week session and was in Unit 5 Bunk 97 while my counselor was Marty Wasserman. The only camper I remember is Lee Cannon who lived in Coney Island. There was a counselor named Indira who taught the entire unit to sing Blowin’ in the Wind. At that time I was not familiar with the writer of that song. Toward the end of that session I was bitten by an insect on the back of my neck and developed a boil that had to be opened surgically after I came home in August.

1964 – I went to Pioneer Camp at Narrowsburg where we lived in an open tent. My counselor was a tall man named Steve who looked like Abe Lincoln. Lloyd Setlis was the director of the entire unit. The only two campers that I remember are Douglas Kaye, Dave Karp, and Howard Levine. I remember we took a day trip to Scranton, PA to observe poverty.

1965 – I went to the Western Trip. We started out in Narrowsburg where we had an orientation. One of the campers was Phyllis Silverman whose parents were friends of mine from Forest Hills. In 1998 I met her at a Forest Hill High School in Tenafly, NJ. She brought a scrap book of photos and even saved a diary of that trip. Some of the other campers were Mitch, Steve, Mark Solloway, Dick Seltzer, Mark Cohen, and Nancy Yellen. The director of the tour was Jarard while some of the counselors were Bernie, Louise, and Marge. One early morning we left Narrowsburg and drove out to Columbus, Ohio where we changed drivers. We then continued on to St. Louis where we stayed by a Jewish Community Center. The highlight of the trip was the Grand Canyon. Some of the other stops were the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, Mesa Verde National Monument, the Jensby farm in Kansas, the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan and Niagara Falls.

I’m sure that as time goes by more details will come to me, but I’ll close at this point. There is a site for alumni of Camp Wel-Met at http://www.wel-metcamps.com/mainpage.html . Most of the posters are some years younger than I. I found a few familiar names, but I really didn’t want to reconnect. There have been some camp reunions of the years, but thousands of kids over the years went to Wel-Met so it would be unlikely for me to meet someone I knew.