36 By the Way ...
Ponte Vedra Recorder ·September 17, 2015
Climbing (what felt like)
an impossible mountain
Mom knew camp was my nightmare. I sobbed for a week before
leaving Grand Central Station for the
overnight trip to St. Johnsbury, Vermont. She had signed me up for eight
long weeks when I was 11, 12, 13 and
14 years old. Back then, mothers won.
In the 50s, kids didn’t have a lot of say
about what they did or didn’t do.
On Sunday, August 16, 1955, we
campers awoke to crystal blue skies
and a cool breez e. I was looking
forward to reading a Nancy Drew
mystery on my
bunk in the
afternoon. But,
oh no. A senior
counselor made
an announcement
after breakfast. “All
Mattagamites (that
was the youngest group and
included me) who
Mims Cushing
are not going to
By the Way...
play in the softball
game at 1:00
should meet up at the hay truck. We
are going to hike up Mt. Pisgah. Bring
a sweater.” He never said a word about
the shoes we should wear. I guess
he assumed we’d be smart enough to
wear Keds. Fancy footwear from Nike
or Adidas did not exist. I opted to
wear loafers. A poor choice.
I was not playing softball that day,
so I had no choice but to go on the
hike. As a ‘fraidy cat, I trembled at the
thought of climbing a mountain. A
mountain! I couldn’t call Mom or Dad
to get me out of the climb. Dad was
on a hunting trip. Mom, on a camping
trip with my sister. Roughing it was her
idea of heaven; she would have made
me climb. I recently found descriptions
on the internet of Mt. Pisgah as having
a “rock overhang 650 feet above the
lake (Lake Willoughby)…The trail’s total distance is 2.5 miles with a vertical
rise of 1,590 feet….Elevation 2,785.”
There were no “fat camps” then, but
Mom spoke to the camp leaders and
told them she expected me to lose 20
pounds over the summer. Which I did
every year for the four years I went to
camp, and then during the school year
I gained back every pound. My final
year at camp, the day after I returned
from Vermont, I passed out in church,
most likely because I had to lose the
last few pounds in a hurry before my
weigh in. “Unconditional love” involved my losing that weight. I would
get $20!
I made it through Sunday morning and then after lunch I lined up
to climb the dreaded mountain. I
envisioned pathways lined with field
daisies, and gentle grasses. But no.
The mountain was largely rock slab.
Rock and loafers don’t go well together. The head of the camp noticed me
struggling, and realized I was wearing
the wrong shoes. He thought it was
the funniest thing he’d ever seen. He
pointed me out to the other campers,
and guffawed as loud as he could.
For a short time, I climbed up an easy
path, and then I had to fight my way,
gasping and sputtering, slipping back
down the sheer rock, as I listened to
the counselor point out how funny I
looked. The kids didn’t say a word.
That night I wrote in my diary,
“Peter (name changed) led an exciting
climb up Mt. Pisgah. It is an exhausting mountain, but fun.” I couldn’t bear
to record how he ridiculed me. But
indeed he had. He was a bully in the
true sense of the word.
I did make it, all the way up and
back down again, and though I never
did like that counselor, I often wonder
if the achievement of climbing up the
mountain helped me gain a bit of selfempowerment. If I’d known God was
on my side that would have made all the
difference. And now I’m sure he was.
SHORT TAKES
Dr. John & The Nite Trippers to perform
at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
The Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, in
partnership with Flying Saucer Presents, welcomes New Orleans blues
and funk icon Dr. John and The Nite
Trippers Sunday, Oct. 4. Tickets for Dr.
John & The Nite Trippers will go on
sale to the public Friday, Aug. 14 at 10
a.m.
The legendary Dr. John is a six-time
GRAMMY Award-winning musician
and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee
Tickets for Dr. John & The Nite Trippers go on sale Friday, Aug. 14 at 10
a.m. Tickets are available for purchase
at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall and St.
Augustine Amphitheatre box offices,
www.ticketmaster.com, all TicketMaster
outlets, or by phone at (800) 745-3000.
Tickets are $70 for the first six
rows; $60 for all remaining rows.
Doors open at 7 p.m.; show starts at 8
p.m. The Ponte Vedra Concert Hall is
located at 1050 A1A N. in Ponte Vedra
Beach.
THEME: TV CHARACTERS
ACROSS
1. HR concern
6. *Like TV’s Oscar
and Felix
9. Roofed colonnade
13. *Where Hawkeye Pierce was
stationed
14. Luau dish
15. Use elbow grease
16. Are not
17. Tiny toiler
18. Haul up
19. *Hair trendsetting friend
21. *Lady Mary or
Lady Violet
23. Immeasurable
period
24. Herring-like food
fishes
25. Commonwealth
of Independent
States
28. Gaspar, Balthasar
and Melchior
30. Opposite of lead
35. Burden
37. *Most of the
characters in Oz
SUDOKU
39. Sound of a fast
move
40. Harbor ill feelings
41. Greyish brown
43. South American
monkey
44. Army doc
46. Good earth
47. State of irritation
48. ____ Trail
50. Functions
52. Fraternity
53. Stir fry pans
55. Indefinite degree
57. *Gandolfini’s
character
61. Ancient theaters
64. Not our
65. Found at the end
of a series
67. More wry
69. What sitcom did
70. ____ Zeppelin
71. Opener
72. Recipe direction
73. Sometimes they
just pop up
74. City in North
Rhine-Westphalia
DOWN
1. Calypso cousin
2. Unit of pressure
3. a² of a square
4. Made of pickets
5. 6 feet, to a captain
6. “Because of WinnDixie” protagonist
7. *Mad Man
8. Dine and ____
9. Flat-bottomed boat
10. Work hard
11. English river, of
Virginia Woolf fame
12. Bohemian
15. What Peter Pan
lost
20. Perform in a play
22. Luftwaffe’s WWII
enemy
24. Like a curvy line
25. *Given name of
Seinfeld’s neighbor
26. Lay to rest
27. Blue fabric in
Elvis song
29. Guarded by Hope
Solo
31. Land parcels
32. Under fig leaves?
33. Plural of ostium
34. *a.k.a. Heisenberg
36. ____ of whiskey
38. R&R destinations
42. Make corrections
45. English playwright Noël
49. 4 ____ Blondes,
rock band
51. *The youngest
Griffin
54. Aussie bear
56. French brass, pl.
57. Bayonet wound
58. Home to Columbus
59. Prefix with scope
or meter
60. Cambodian
money
61. Horse’s chances
62. Things to pick
63. Dehydrated
66. *Eddard Stark, for
short
68. *He played Opie
Taylor