Dateline Ten Mile River 1968, "Now Pitching For the Yankees, Rocky Colavito."

Rocky in outfield @ old Stadium
@ 1968 by Gerard Murphy

"I need a Yodel."
"I need a Yankee Doodle."

"I need a rock to throw at your head. Shut up, I'm trying to listen to the Yankee game." I said to Joe Menesick and Jamie Peters, while holding the transistor to my ear, desperately moving the radio around to pick up Phil Rizzuto's voice on an AM station far away in the Bronx. 

Joe Menesick front of 403 E 83rd St. 68

Joe M. Sr. Dennis M, Ed Hauser

 & Artie Betz @Pouch camp 68

We were in Ten Mile River Scout Camp in Narrowsburg, New York. Troop 654, from Yorkville, Manhattan. After one week going on two weeks, we were all sick of the camp's steamed food. When we cooked, we screwed it up. We craved Hostess and Drakes Cakes. One kid said, "I Want a Funny Bone!" The cake with the peanut butter vomit in it.

Someone threw something at him.
"Good."

I thought the guy who invented Funny Bones was the same guy who invented the soda called Wink with the grapefruit pulp in it. Yeah, he must have said, "kids love fruit pulp in their sodas, and I'm going to shove a load of tart pulp in there."

Remarkably, one of my childhood heroes, Rocky Colavito, the smooth slugger who resembled my Dad was pitching for the Yankees against the Tigers at the old Stadium. "The Rock," four home runs in one game was on the mound, it was August 25, 1968. Less than three months to The Beatles "White Album" release. In eleven months, we'd be on the moon, then Woodstock would rock, and the first Giant vs. Jet exhibition game would take place at the Yale Bowl.

With my free hand, I scratched the countless mosquito bites on my legs and butt, then I heard, "Dobson lines a one bouncer to Horace "No Double Play" Clarke, Clarke handles the ball cleanly and fires a strike to Mickey Mantle on first. Heeeee's Out!" Naaaa, the radio voice was fuzzy but I did hear Clarke throw the ball to Mantle and that Colavito was out of the inning with no runs, leaving two men on base.

Yankees were down 5-1, going into the bottom of the sixth, Joe, Jamie and I were supposed to be policing the camp site and working on some kind of Scout merit badge. I had already achieved my badge limit of three, Cooking and Hiking and whatever it's called for using a map properly. I earned a significant goof off period and planned on taking these two guys to hell with me before they we went home. While thinking of the next thing to anger the scout leaders the Yanks scored five runs. Rocky Colavito was the winning pitcher.

Folllowing afternoon, Joe Menesick and I, doing nothing close to nothing, decided to paddle a two man canoe to the middle of the lake to ram a war canoe full of Brooklyn scouts broadside. We congratulated ourselves on our way back to shore by guessing our punishment. Joe's guess won. A formal invitation to the Camp's Scout Master quarters before breakfast the next morning.

Charlie Liska, Ed Hauser Artie Betz

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Post Cards From Ten Mile River

July 26, 1968, Narrowsburg, New York.

Dear Mom & Dad, Camp's Great! I made two friends yesterday and they only hid my eyeglasses for three hours. Tomorrow they are going to show me how to make a splint for the arm they broke for me.

Love, Tommy

Ten Mile River Scout Camp was getting to me. Heat, Mosquitos, Counselors. Every day, we were forced to sit down for a half hour and write postcards. Didn't matter whether you had anyone to write to, during that half hour, you could do nothing other than write in your tent. The first day I wrote two postcards, one to my Nan Dutch and one to my Nan Cuckoo or Kook for short. I was 14. This is embarrassing. Let me explain the names.

My mother's parents were the Ryan. They lived on York Avenue between 85th and 86th Street. They had a backyard off the kitchen of their first floor railroad apartment. The next door neighbors had a German Shepherd named Dutchess. I called the dog, "Dutch."

My father's parents lived on York Avenue between 83rd and 84thStreets. Their name was Pryor Rode; you know second marriage name plus first in front. I couldn't pronounce the last names, so I called them Nan and Pop "Cuckoo," because they had a beautiful antique cuckoo clock in their kitchen.

The nicknames stuck. My parents got a kick out of this, so did the Ryans, not true with the Pryor Rodes. I remember a conversation between Nan Cuckoo & me when I was around 6 years old.

"Tommy, you know I'm a big lady and your other nanny is not so big, so why not call me Big Nanny, and call your other nanny, Little Nanny, OK?"

"That's silly, your Nanny Cuckoo!"

My grandmother ran her hand through her hair and that was the end of that.

My first Ten Mile River post cards to my grandmothers.

Dear Nan Dutch, I miss you, I miss your house. Please send me a Bundt cake with lots of powdered sugar. Camp's great! We swim every day. Love, Tommy

Here's the other one.

Dear Nan Kook, I miss you, you miss me? Are you losing weight? Camp's great! Please send me a lot of cans of Bumble Bee tuna and a ballpoint pen this one's running out of ink. Love, Tommy

A week after I arrived at Ten Mile River, I get a huge box in the mail with a Bundt cake in it. "God bless, Nan Dutch!" And a smaller box with six cans of tuna and a Bic pen. "I Love you, Nanny Cuckoo!" Holding a can of tuna in my hand it dawned on me, I had no mayo and there was no mayonnaise at the post to be bought. The cans were useless, I forgot to ask for the Hellman's. Tuna is cat food without the blue label condiment. Upset, but still happy about the Bundt cake, I put it under my bunk and covered the cake with the box they came in.

We went for our afternoon swim in the lake. An hour later back at the camp site, my tent looked like it had a stroke. I looked inside the flap and saw a humongous raccoon with half my cake in its mouth splitting out the backside of the tent. I hate camp.

****************

more Ten Mile River postcards revealed tonight at the Cornelia Street Cafe storytelling show @ 6pm

Postcards From Ten Mile River ~ John Harvey Remembers When

Thank you, John Harvey, for taking the Yorkville radio listeners back to 1910 Brooklyn and Queens Village in the 1960s. Your grandfather's letters to the Daily News were crisp photos triggering memories for people, places and things past.

Here are a few postcards from my time at Ten Mile River when I was a Boy Scout and visited the reservation in Narrowsburg, New York.

John Harvey, a Ten Mile River alumni, said he earned his One Mile Swim merit badge while the guy trailing him in the canoe who was suppose to protect him, kept hitting him in the head with an oar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU7Gypl2_Po

If you like, listen to the 10.19.10 radio show with John Harvey at the archive link below.

http://www.centannibroadcasting.com/id56.html

Wrestling the Menesicks

I have many negative photographs that I am just beginning to explore. The quality is limited, but once I learn photo editing this will improve. Three negatives here, and two photos. From the top,

1964 ~Paddy MacNamara, Rory Pryor, Tommy Mac, & Mike Cacciolli on n/e corner of 83rd Street & York Avenue.

1962 ~backyard of 1616 York Avenue, Lennie & Helen Ryan with Patty Pryor. Yes, I had a backyard on York Avenue.

1967 ~ Sanita Hills Scout Camp ~ Joe & Dennis Menesick, Eddie Hauser & Artie Betz.

1961 ~Dennis & Joe Menesick, baseball in Central Park.

1961 ~ Rory pinning me to living room floor 517 E. 83rd St.

Happy Friday, Tommy