Went To See Old N'burg Campus 6/5/04

[Cliff Ageloff]

In the mist and cool yesterday I went to N'burg and wandered around the place with my wife and a freind who settled in Shahola PA, across from Barryville. I felt goddamned OLD asking the caretaker "Hey I went here 35 years ago, mind if I look around?"

In some ways I wished to have left the visual memories to the ravages of time but the place still smelled like camp even though it is a dilapidated remnant of its old glory. Stuff is just kinda stuck everywhere where there used to be fields and paths at the front of the property. The Unit 1 Pavillion, center of the Gaga Major Leagues was walled in. There are swings and other kiddie stuff in right field right where I caught a huge fly ball Rosie crushed in the last of the 23rd with the score 43 - 43, with two men on. Game called on count of darkness!

The cabins in the units in the back (2/3/5) are in great disrepair but the tents are up in Pioneers, so something must be going on there with the new owners. There is a pool somewhere in the woods and metal roofs on the dining hall. Birch Lodge looks like it hasn't been used much at all in many years. My old bunk of Stern and Hill's Gang is gone and a garage is there. Unit 4 leantos were closed off and were joined with bathroom additions and there is plumbing & electric everywhere. All the old graffitti in the bunks is long gone. All the distances are shorter and everything seems smaller than it was, of course.

The day brought back a rush of memories all of them good. Sat on the old steps of Bunk 31. We made a ritualistic offering as I described mudsliding down into the swollen lake the summer it rained for 5 weeks. Mudsliding of course until some PA or UD put a stop to it!

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[Steve Alter]

A great Narrowsburg memory.

Pouring rain-Running as fast as you could toward the lake- diving into the mud, a mad-cap slide toward the lake.

The best part- being covered from head to toe in mud- all you could see was the whites of eachother's eyes.

The boggy march back to the Unit III showers.

[SBRAWERBB]

How is the land of our beloved N-Burg camp being used. Is it still a place for kids to romp around in?

[Cliff Ageloff]

Steve it is now Camp Sternberg/Anna Heller, a camp for up to 70 orthodox jewish girls, age 8 to 14 according to the best info. I could get.

[Steve Alter]

I went back to visit Narrowsburg with Spider one afternoon about 20 years ago, before it was taken over by another camp and after Wel-Met had closed.

We were greeted by a mad dog and a man who looked like he came off the set of Deliverance.

WE were told to leave- and we did.

A real challenge to our sense of propriety, and one of the scariest creatures I ever saw.

Later investigation suggests that he may have been squatting.